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Worcester City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 16, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Pledge to make the city of Worcester carbon neutral by 2030, taking into account both production and consumption emissions (scope 1, 2 and 3).”

Climate documents

Last update: March 20, 2023
Reducing Carbon Emissions

Summary Document · HTML
Environmental Sustainability Action Plan: 2023 - 24

Action Plan · PDF · Approved · Whole Area
Worcester City Council Climate Strategy

PDF · Approved · 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

SectionWorcester City CouncilAverage district council
Total score47%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
10/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
11/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
3/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
6/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
1/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
3/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
1/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

298.4 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.0 tCO2

per person

9.0 ktCO2

per km2

41%

Domestic

30%

Transport

13%

Industry

9%

Public Sector

8%

Commercial

0%

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 Worcester City 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
Gloucester City Council86%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Cardiff Council84%Yes2030March 28, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council82%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Rushmoor Borough Council81%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council81%NoNo targetJuly 6, 2020
Bristol City Council81%No2025Nov. 13, 2018
Redditch Borough Council81%No2050Sept. 23, 2019
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Borough Council81%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Gosport Borough Council80%Yes2050No
Coventry City Council79%NoNo targetJune 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Worcester City 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
Norwich City Council91%Yes2030Jan. 29, 2019
West of England Combined Authority90%Yes2030July 1, 2019
City of Edinburgh Council90%Yes2030Feb. 7, 2019
Rushmoor Borough Council89%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Reading Borough Council89%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council89%Yes2030March 14, 2019
Bristol City Council89%No2025Nov. 13, 2018
Brighton and Hove City Council88%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Ipswich Borough Council88%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Greater London Authority88%YesDec. 1, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Malvern Hills District Council98%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Wychavon District Council97%Yes2050No
Wyre Forest District Council96%YesNo targetMay 22, 2019
Bromsgrove District Council95%YesNo targetJuly 24, 2019
Redditch Borough Council95%No2050Sept. 23, 2019
Tewkesbury Borough Council95%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council94%NoNo targetJuly 6, 2020
Cheltenham Borough Council94%Yes2030Feb. 18, 2019
Gloucester City Council93%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Worcestershire County Council93%No2030July 15, 2021

These councils are the most similar to Worcester City 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
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council94%No2030March 28, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council91%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council90%Yes2050July 25, 2019
Cardiff Council85%Yes2030March 28, 2019
Gosport Borough Council84%Yes2050No
Gloucester City Council84%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council83%No2030July 18, 2019
West of England Combined Authority81%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Erewash Borough Council81%No2050No
Redditch Borough Council81%No2050Sept. 23, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Worcester City 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
Cambridge City Council100%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Hastings Borough Council100%No2030Feb. 13, 2019
Gloucester City Council99%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Exeter City Council99%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Harlow Council98%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Plymouth City Council98%Yes2030March 18, 2019
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council98%NoNo targetJuly 6, 2020
Derby City Council98%Yes2050May 23, 2019
City of Lincoln Council98%Yes2030July 23, 2019
West Midlands Combined Authority98%No2041June 28, 2019

Features

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

Integrated with Local Plan Good on green jobs, skills & training

Powers & Responsibilities

Worcester City 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

    worcester.gov.uk
    Worcester City Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Worcester City 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 Worcester City Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Worcester City Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/worcester-city-council/ [Accessed 6 Jun 2023].

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