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The Highland Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on May 9, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2025

“We are committed to a carbon neutral Inverness and a low carbon Highlands by 2025. ”

Climate documents

We couldn’t find any climate action plans for this council.

Climate Plan Scorecard

This council’s climate plans as of 20th September 2021 were assessed and scored by trained Climate Emergency UK volunteers, as part of the Council Climate Plan Scorecards project.

Show the full Scorecard Read more about the scoring process

The Highland Council scored zero points in this assessment. This is because the council either didn’t have any published plans at the time of the assessment, or the plans didn’t qualify.

SectionThe Highland CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score0%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
0/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
0/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
0/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
0/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
2.1/4

Emissions reduction projects

Local authorities in Scotland are required to publish yearly data on their compliance with their climate change duties – including the emissions reduction projects they are undertaking.

See all of The Highland Council’s projects

50

Projects

13.9 ktCO2 per year

Total annual emissions savings

£9,143,198

Total capital cost

Emissions data

1268.4 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

5.4 tCO2

per person

0.0 ktCO2

per km2

36%

Transport

32%

Domestic

16%

Industry

8%

Agriculture

4%

Commercial

3%

Public Sector

Data from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy “subset dataset”, representing carbon dioxide emissions within the scope of influence of local authorities.

These councils are the most similar to The Highland Council in terms of emissions profile, deprivation, rural/urban population density, and geographical nearness. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Argyll and Bute Council82%Yes2045Sept. 30, 2021
Perth and Kinross Council78%No2045No
Angus Council77%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Aberdeenshire Council76%No2045No
Scottish Borders Council73%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020
Stirling Council73%NoNo targetOct. 3, 2019
East Lothian Council72%No2045Aug. 27, 2019
South Ayrshire Council70%No2045No
East Ayrshire Council69%No2030No
Northumberland Council69%Yes2030June 11, 2019

These councils are the most similar to The Highland Council in terms of their emissions profile, based on the latest data from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Aberdeenshire Council89%No2045No
Angus Council82%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Chichester District Council82%Yes2025July 9, 2019
West Lindsey District Council82%No2050No
Gwynedd County Council80%No2030March 7, 2019
Northumberland Council80%Yes2030June 11, 2019
Malvern Hills District Council79%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Argyll and Bute Council79%Yes2045Sept. 30, 2021
North Yorkshire Council78%NoNo
Perth and Kinross Council77%No2045No
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
The Moray Council85%Yes2030June 27, 2019
Perth and Kinross Council85%No2045No
Stirling Council83%NoNo targetOct. 3, 2019
West Dunbartonshire Council80%Yes2045May 29, 2019
Argyll and Bute Council80%Yes2045Sept. 30, 2021
Clackmannanshire Council80%NoNo targetAug. 19, 2021
East Dunbartonshire Council80%Yes2045No
Inverclyde Council80%NoNo targetNo
Renfrewshire Council79%No2030June 27, 2019
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar79%YesNo targetNo

These councils are the most similar to The Highland Council in terms of the proportion of their population living in high deprivation, medium deprivation, and low deprivation neighbourhoods. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Argyll and Bute Council98%Yes2045Sept. 30, 2021
Suffolk County Council97%Yes2030March 21, 2019
North Warwickshire Borough Council96%No2030Oct. 22, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council95%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Colchester Borough Council93%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Amber Valley Borough Council93%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Ashford Borough Council92%Yes2030No
Devon County Council92%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Essex County Council92%Yes2030No
Dorset Council92%No2040May 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to The Highland Council in terms of the proportion of their population living in urban, rural, and highly rural neighbourhoods. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Aberdeenshire Council99%No2045No
Perth and Kinross Council98%No2045No
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council96%No2030May 2, 2020
Mid Suffolk District Council94%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Dumfries and Galloway Council93%Yes2025June 27, 2019
Scottish Borders Council91%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020
The Moray Council90%Yes2030June 27, 2019
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council90%NoNo targetOct. 7, 2019
Forest of Dean District Council90%Yes2030Dec. 6, 2018
West Devon Borough Council89%Yes2030May 21, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

The Highland Council is a Unitary Authority, with powers over:

Council buildings and staff

Climate actions might include:

  • making council offices more energy efficient
  • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ or public transport use among employees
  • providing carbon literacy training for employees
    Environmental health

    Climate actions might include:

    • reducing industrial emissions through air quality enforcement
    • bringing up insulation and energy efficiency standards through enforcement of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and Decent Homes Standard 2000, for cold and damp conditions in private rental and social housing

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Passenger transport

    Climate actions might include:

    • encouraging bus and private hire operators to use low-emission vehicles, through licensing requirements or Clean Air Zones
    • incentivising bus use by improving routes, timetables, and ticket prices through ‘Enhanced Partnerships’ with operators
    • proposing to central government the development of light rail / tram networks that integrate, rather than compete, with other modes of transport in the area

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Planning and building control

    Climate actions might include:

    • imposing reasonable requirements that new developments comply with energy efficiency standards and get a proportion of their energy from local, renewable sources (Planning and Energy Act, 2008)
    • incorporating additional energy performance standards into their Local Plan, for new works that require planning permission
    • using Area Action Plans to guide development proposals towards lower carbon emissions or more cycling and walking routes, for example
    • enforcing legislation that requires private rental properties to be of Energy Efficiency Rating E or above (Energy Efficiency Regulations, 2015)
    • funding energy efficiency improvements on existing homes, through initiatives such as Green Homes Grants

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Schools and libraries

    Climate actions might include:

    • reducing the carbon footprint of civic buildings through better insulation and renewable energy use
    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ or public transport use among employees
    • providing carbon literacy training for employees
    • encouraging eco-clubs at schools
    • using school land to plant trees and hedgerows, or to grow food

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Housing

    Climate actions might include:

    • setting energy standards above building regulations (Planning and Energy Act, 2008)
    • enabling housing associations to improve the energy efficiency of their housing stock through loans
    • where councils operate their own social housing, prioritising energy efficiency – for example, by requiring Passivhaus standard for newly built schemes

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Spending, procuring, and investing

    Climate actions might include:

    • embedding carbon impact assessment as part of the council’s budgeting and financial accountability process
    • utilising Public Works Loan Board loans or the Business Rates Retention Scheme to invest in emissions-reducing capital projects that otherwise wouldn’t get funded
    • specifying low carbon equipment and practices when procuring for relevant services from suppliers
    • prioritising positive environmental impacts during procurement, through the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012
    Transport planning

    Climate actions might include:

    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ like walking and cycling by creating or widening footways and cycleways
    • incentivising Electric Vehicle use by assigning street space to EV charging
    • disincentivising the use of fossil fuel cars through congestion charging,low-traffic neighbourhoods, or the reduction of parking space

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Waste collection and disposal

    Climate actions might include:

    • establishing ‘Joint Waste Solutions’ with neighbouring councils, to get more value out of waste, recycling, and street cleaning contracts
    • running marketing campaigns to encourage residential recycling, reuse, and waste minimisation

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Read more about local authority powers across the UK, at The Institute for Government.

    More about this council

    highland.gov.uk
    The Highland Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check The Highland Council’s ‘carbon budget’ – their share towards meeting the UK’s Paris agreement targets.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: The Highland Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/the-highland-council/ [Accessed 28 May 2023].

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