Back to all councils

Torfaen County Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on June 25, 2019.

Climate pledges

We couldn’t find any climate pledges from this council. If you’ve found one, let us know!

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022

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

Torfaen County Borough 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.

SectionTorfaen County Borough 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 data

388.1 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.1 tCO2

per person

3.1 ktCO2

per km2

33%

Domestic

32%

Transport

22%

Industry

9%

Commercial

4%

Public Sector

1%

Agriculture

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 Torfaen County Borough 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
Newport City Council84%Yes2030Nov. 23, 2021
Wyre Forest District Council84%YesNo targetMay 22, 2019
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council82%Yes2030No
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council81%Yes2050No
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council81%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council81%No2030Oct. 30, 2019
Telford & Wrekin Council81%Yes2030July 25, 2019
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority80%No2040Nov. 7, 2019
Newcastle-Under-Lyme District Council80%No2030April 3, 2019
Chesterfield Borough Council80%Yes2030July 17, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Torfaen County Borough 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
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council89%No2030Oct. 30, 2019
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council89%Yes2030May 23, 2019
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority88%No2040Nov. 7, 2019
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council87%No2040Sept. 19, 2019
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council87%YesNo targetNo
Nottinghamshire County Council86%No2030May 27, 2021
Newcastle-Under-Lyme District Council85%No2030April 3, 2019
East Staffordshire Borough Council84%Yes2040Aug. 17, 2020
Rugby Borough Council84%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Suffolk County Council84%Yes2030March 21, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council97%Yes2030Sept. 28, 2020
Newport City Council97%Yes2030Nov. 23, 2021
Caerphilly County Borough Council97%Yes2030June 4, 2019
Monmouthshire County Council97%Yes2030May 16, 2019
Cardiff Council96%Yes2030March 28, 2019
Devon County Council95%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council95%Yes2030No
Bristol City Council93%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council93%Yes2050No
North Somerset Council93%Yes2030Feb. 19, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Torfaen County Borough 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
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council96%Yes2050No
Swale Borough Council95%Yes2025June 26, 2019
Durham County Council93%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Scarborough Borough Council93%No2030Jan. 7, 2019
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council91%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council91%NoNo targetSept. 28, 2022
Ashfield District Council90%NoNo targetNo
Dover District Council89%Yes2030Nov. 4, 2019
Medway Council89%Yes2050April 25, 2019
Caerphilly County Borough Council89%Yes2030June 4, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Torfaen County Borough 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
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council98%No2030Oct. 30, 2019
North East Lincolnshire Council98%Yes2050Sept. 19, 2019
Hyndburn Borough Council97%No2030Sept. 19, 2019
Newport City Council97%Yes2030Nov. 23, 2021
Kirklees Council96%Yes2038Jan. 16, 2019
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council96%Yes2030Sept. 28, 2020
Warrington Borough Council96%Yes2030June 7, 2019
St Albans City and District Council96%No2030July 9, 2019
Tees Valley Combined Authority96%NoNo targetNo
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2030Oct. 8, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

Torfaen County Borough 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

    torfaen.gov.uk
    Torfaen County Borough Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Torfaen County Borough Council’s ‘carbon budget’ – their share towards meeting the UK’s Paris agreement targets.
    Friends of the Earth ‘Near You’ tool
    Discover climate groups in this area, data about Torfaen County Borough Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

    What do you want from Climate Action Plans?

    Help us improve this page by answering our short survey about who uses this service, and what makes action plans useful to you.

    Open survey


    Don’t have time right now? Let us know your email address, and we’ll send you a link to the survey in a few days.

    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Torfaen County Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/torfaen-county-borough-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

    Alpha

    This is a new service – your feedback will help us improve it.