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West Devon Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on May 21, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“That the Council aim to reduce its organisational carbon emissions to net-zero by 2030.”

Whole area pledge for 2050

“Facilitate the reduction of carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050 at the latest, to include substantial nature improvement to absorb carbon.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
West Devon Borough Council Climate Change And Biodiversity Strategy

Action Plan · PDF · Approved · Whole Area
Agenda Item - Climate Change Action Plan

Pre-Plan · HTML · Draft · Whole Area

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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

SectionWest Devon Borough CouncilAverage district council
Total score72%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
16/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
11/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
8/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
2/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

318.5 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

5.7 tCO2

per person

0.3 ktCO2

per km2

45%

Transport

25%

Domestic

14%

Industry

12%

Agriculture

3%

Commercial

1%

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 West Devon 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
Torridge District Council80%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Carmarthenshire County Council75%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Mid Devon District Council73%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Powys County Council73%No2030July 30, 2020
Ceredigion County Council73%Yes2030March 5, 2020
North Devon Council70%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Pembrokeshire County Council69%Yes2030May 9, 2019
Herefordshire Council69%Yes2030March 8, 2019
Dumfries and Galloway Council68%Yes2025June 27, 2019
Isle of Anglesey County Council67%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020

These councils are the most similar to West Devon 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
Torridge District Council77%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Dumfries and Galloway Council73%Yes2025June 27, 2019
Powys County Council71%No2030July 30, 2020
Scottish Borders Council71%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020
Carmarthenshire County Council70%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Mid Devon District Council68%Yes2030June 26, 2019
North Devon Council66%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Ceredigion County Council63%Yes2030March 5, 2020
Herefordshire Council63%Yes2030March 8, 2019
Allerdale Borough Council61%Yes2030Sept. 25, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Plymouth City Council96%Yes2030March 18, 2019
Torridge District Council96%Yes2030July 1, 2019
South Hams District Council95%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Teignbridge District Council94%Yes2025April 18, 2019
North Devon Council94%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Mid Devon District Council92%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Exeter City Council92%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Torbay Council92%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Somerset West and Taunton Council88%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Cornwall Council (Unitary)88%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019

These councils are the most similar to West Devon 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
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar98%YesNo targetNo
Ceredigion County Council92%Yes2030March 5, 2020
Torridge District Council91%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Carmarthenshire County Council91%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Boston Borough Council87%NoNo targetJan. 20, 2020
North Norfolk District Council86%Yes2030April 24, 2019
Ryedale District Council86%No2050Oct. 10, 2019
South Holland District Council85%NoNo targetNo
Cornwall Council (Unitary)84%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019
King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council83%Yes2050Feb. 4, 2020

These councils are the most similar to West Devon 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
Scottish Borders Council98%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020
Mid Suffolk District Council96%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Ryedale District Council95%No2050Oct. 10, 2019
Dumfries and Galloway Council92%Yes2025June 27, 2019
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council91%NoNo targetOct. 7, 2019
Powys County Council91%No2030July 30, 2020
Argyll and Bute Council91%Yes2045No
Derbyshire Dales District Council91%Yes2030May 30, 2019
Aberdeenshire Council90%No2045No
The Highland Council90%No2025May 9, 2019

Features

This council’s climate plan has been tagged with the following features:

Comprehensive plan for mitigation Integrated with Local Plan Strong on engagement Strong on public health Good on green jobs, skills & training

Powers & Responsibilities

West Devon Borough Council is a Non-Metropolitan District, 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.

    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.

    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
    Waste collection

    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 English local authority powers in the UK100 Power Shift report.

    More about this council

    westdevon.gov.uk
    West Devon Borough Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check West Devon 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 West Devon Borough Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: West Devon Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/west-devon-borough-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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