DATA released this week by Climate Emergency UK shows that Cornwall Council has scored above the national average in their Council Climate Plan Scorecards with 69%.

In the Council Climate Plan Scorecards, councils have been compared to other local authorities across the UK with similar powers.

Cornwall Council scored well above the 50% average for single tier councils.

Climate Emergency UK (CE UK) has used 28 questions to assess all the Climate Action Plans published online by UK councils before September, 20 2021.

The criteria include: whether the climate actions are costed; if the actions are assigned to specific teams; do the actions have a clear goal; are local residents being engaged with climate action; does the Plan include strategies to decarbonise waste, planning and homes and other topics; and does the Plan cover areas such as re-skilling the workforce, climate education, governance and funding for climate action.

CE UK has only assessed Action Plans this time, not the actions councils are actually taking to reduce emissions and improve biodiversity

Isaac Beevor, from CE UK said “Councils may be doing good things which aren’t reflected in their Action Plan. That is why next year we will be assessing all councils on what they are actually doing.

“This year’s Scorecards are just the start of the process. It has been an important exercise to understand what makes a good council Climate Action Plan and we hope that it will help councils learn from each other and up their game.

"A good plan will help a local authority deliver effective actions, as well as enabling local residents to know what their council has committed to and so hold the council to account.

“Local authorities can help to deliver 30% of the cuts in carbon emissions needed to get to net zero, according to the 6th UK Carbon Budget published a year ago, so it is vital that councils do as much as they can.

“While we understand that councils need much more support and funding from National Government, and have been stretched by responding to the pandemic, the fact that some councils have developed well thought out, costed and ambitious plans, shows that it is possible.”

Ben Lewis, from Cornwall, said: "The scorecards are an excellent tool to see how our local authorities are tackling the climate crisis.

"This is an issue close to my heart as I love the nature and countryside we have here in Cornwall and I want to know that our local authorities are committed to protecting it!

"I’m glad to see that Cornwall has scored well."

The Scorecard website - https://councilclimatescorecards.uk - enables you to filter the Scores by various factors to see which council scored best.

Filters include current political control of a council, how urban or rural the council is, whether a council is district, unitary, borough, county etc., and by each question.

This will help councils to learn from each other about specific climate action they could take.

The Scorecards also show 84 councils across the UK don’t have a climate action plan, or one that wasn’t in-date to be marked.