We’ve recently completed an £8.3million transformation of our Morrison Busty Depot, including the creation of a large solar farm and battery storage system which meets the depot’s energy needs and serves our growing electric vehicle fleet. “We’re rolling out a street light energy reduction scheme and making improvements across council sites, including use of air source heat pumps, LED lighting and solar panels. We reduced our carbon emissions by five per cent last year, which represents a 59 per cent reduction since our baseline year of 2008/09. “We’ve set an ambitious target to be a net zero council by 2030 and are making considerable progress towards it. Leadership: Conservative and Liberal Democrat-led CoalitionĬouncillor Mark Wilkes, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for neighbourhoods and climate change, said: “It’s encouraging to see recognition for the high priority we place on meeting our climate targets, but we know there is so much more to do.Home of Durham County Council, County Hall at Aykley Heads, Durham Five responded, but Sunderland and Gateshead Councils did not do so. The Local Democracy Reporting Service has contacted each of the LA7 for a response to their score. The final stage of the three-step process saw a small team of auditors award the final score for each authority. The marking process involved over 200 volunteers, with councils then given an opportunity to respond. The questions were broken up into seven sections: buildings and heatings, transport, governance and finance, planning, biodiversity, collaboration and engagement and waste reduction and food. The questions cover "actions that councils have control or influence over, which have a big impact on carbon emissions and biodiversity loss". It has also been pointed out that the majority of authorities achieving higher scores were London boroughs, leading to accusations of a bias towards southern, urban councils.Ĭouncils are assessed according to a 3 stage marking process using primarily publicly available data from council websites, as well as national data and FOI responses from councils. Government needs to empower local climate action that can hit targets, mobilise support, and deliver on the evidence showing local approaches can save hundreds of billions.” “Councils are already leading the way in transitioning to net zero and are ambitious to do more. We don’t support league tables as they often paint a two dimensional picture of the context that councils are working within, and unfairly compare councils with different challenges. “Net zero is a complex transition, bringing very unique and interconnected challenges and opportunities to every place. Coun Darren Rodwell, Environment spokesperson for the Local Government Association said: “As leaders of their communities, local government has a fundamental role to play in tackling climate change. However, the Local Government Association has criticised the system used. “Local factors, such as political will and community support, are at play in determining the action councils are taking to combat climate change.” Yet national barriers alone cannot explain every low score. A lack of funding and government policy U-turns are some of the barriers to effective local climate action. The average score across all authorities in the UK was just 32%.Īnnie Pickering, Co-Director at Climate Emergency UK said: ‘The low scores across the board shows that there are national barriers for local authorities that make it harder for most councils to deliver the necessary climate action. Keep up to date with all the latest breaking news and top stories from the North East with our free newsletterĬlimate Emergency UK has called on councils to do more to tackle the crisis, after just 41 councils scored 50% or more.Read more: Metros suspended, trains cancelled and events off - Storm Babet batters North East with rain and winds.South Tyneside and Northumberland meanwhile came joint last, with a score of 26%. The ranking has put Durham County Council as the highest-rated council in the LA7 - the seven councils that cover the area which makes up the new North East Combined Authority - with a score of 47%. The group say the criteria was created "through extensive research and consultation with council staff, councillors, campaigners and other organisations". The ranking, put together by Climate Emergency UK, scores councils based on their response to 91 questions relating to carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. A ranking with "scorecards" for local authorities based on their response to the climate crisis has been published by a campaign group - with Durham County Council coming out on top for the North East.
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