Cheshire West and Chester Council rated for action on climate change

Not-for-profit organisation Climate Emergency UK scored 409 local authorities in the UK on the quality of their climate action plans - strategic frameworks for measuring, planning, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and related climatic impacts.

CWAC’s score was 53 per cent, placing it above the Scottish and English average of 46 per cent. 

Of the 409 councils, 84 did not have a climate action plan at all, while the 325 which did were scored according to 28 questions based on what the organisation called ‘an expert-approved checklist’.

The questions included whether the climate actions are costed, do the actions have a clear goal, are local residents being engaged, and does the plan include strategies to decarbonise waste.

Annie Pickering, campaigns and policy officer at Climate Emergency UK, said: “A good action plan has the basics covered. This means that the actions are specific and measurable and assigned to teams or departments. It should also be clear how the plan will be monitored as it is implemented.”

Councillor Matt Bryan, Cheshire West and Chester’s cabinet member for housing, planning and the climate emergency welcomed the review.

He said: “We are focused on delivering climate action and have recently published our annual report that sets out our progress this year.

“This includes using fully renewable electricity in council operations, attracting more than £7.5m in government grants, supporting the development of a world-leading low carbon hydrogen industrial cluster and being the accountable body for the national Trees for Climate programme.”

The council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and aims to be completely carbon neutral by 2030, with the whole borough following suit by 2045.

Cllr Bryan added: “We are pleased our score is higher than the national average and we will use this as a guide to improve and develop our plans, in collaboration with our residents and key stakeholders, over the next year.”