2025 was a landmark year for Climate Emergency UK. We launched the 2025 Action Scorecards in June, enabling the first-ever comparison of council climate action across the UK. While we celebrated this milestone, we also intensified our local and national advocacy work.

The launch of the 2025 Action Scorecards revealed that average council scores rose by just 6 percentage points since 2023, to 38%. This slow progress reinforced what we already knew: councils need more than good intentions—they need funding, powers, and a legal duty to act. 

This understanding fuelled our work throughout 2025, as we campaigned alongside councillors, community groups, and sector organisations to turn that vision into reality.

Local impact

The Scorecards continue to make a tangible difference at the local level. In 2025, we delivered engagement events that reached over 400 residents across local and national sessions.

Our partnerships spanned across the UK nations and English regions: we worked with Climate Cymru and SCCAN, Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission and national organisations including Climate Emergency Centres, UK Divest, and Mothers CAN. We also delivered local engagements with nine community partners across areas from Surrey and Derbyshire to Manchester, Portsmouth, and Havering.

We’ve found 14 published examples of residents and campaigners using the Scorecards this year, demonstrating the creative ways people are putting this data to work. Two standout case studies from 2025 show the depth of engagement: Lucy who integrated the Scorecards into Carbon Literacy training and delivered a session for the Women’s Institute, and Mat who not only marked and audited the Scorecards but organised a public launch event in Ballymena, bringing together council climate teams, councillors, and residents from three County Antrim councils.

The Local Climate Academy went from strength to strength in 2025, with 93 participants completing the course, representing 64 councils – 50 residents and 43 council officers and councillors. As Andrew Durling, a campaigner who completed the Academy, told us: “The course generated a lot of sharing of great ideas, practical suggestions, and inspirational stories. Greatly increased my motivation for climate action.” Registrations for the next LCA courses starting 27 January, are open!

National progress

In 2025, we have been pushing hard for the introduction of a climate statutory duty. There has been a lot of learning about Parliamentary campaigning, the tight timelines and mostly getting to grips with talking to MPs and approaching Ministers.

Our main success this year is to see the Local Government Association adopt a headline position on supporting a climate statutory duty. This has had positive benefits with MPs and Lords quoting the LGA’s position in Parliament, the LGA briefing in support of a climate duty and continued work from the LGA on what a climate statutory duty should look like.

We have been in the sector press talking about the campaign (in Labour List and LGCPlus) and have been delighted to see others, including ADEPT and UK100 come out strongly in favour of the campaign.

Our cross-party open letter, coordinated by Climate Emergency UK and UK100, calling for climate and nature duties in the English Devolution Bill has been a big success. Over 500 councillors have now signed the letter, including more than 20 council leaders and councillors from Labour, Green, Liberal Democrat, and Conservative parties. This wouldn’t have been possible without councillors ready to back the idea and crucially, sharing it amongst their networks. We were also thrilled to deliver the letter to Number 10, alongside UK100, Sian Berry MP, Cllr Katharine Dunne (Hounslow – Labour), Cllr Jon Tankard (Three Rivers – Lib Dem), Cllr Rachel Smith-Lyte (East Suffolk – Green) and Cllr Richard Clewer (Wiltshire – Conservative).

This year brought significant media attention to our work. We secured over 90 media hits since the 2025 Scorecards launch, including a Guardian exclusive on 14 July where we responded to councils rescinding climate emergencies: “Rescinding a climate emergency or scrapping net zero targets during a heatwave and the driest spring in 100 years, with farmers struggling to grow crops and vulnerable people forced into A&E as councils issue heat wave alerts, is extreme.”

Our work also gained traction in the sector, with 8 sector press hits featured in The Local Climate Report and over 19 sector organisations using the Scorecards. This demonstrates that the Scorecards have become an essential resource for understanding and improving council climate action across the UK.

Internal development

Organisationally, 2025 brought welcome additions to our team. Matt Finch joined our Board in September 2025, bringing 14 years of experience in environmental policy and public affairs. Ruth Magennis worked with us between July and November 2025 as Communications and Engagement Coordinator, bringing experience in active travel and community engagement at council level.

To make all of this work possible, we’d like to thank our new funders in 2025: Calouste Gulbenkian, Southall Trust, and Minor Foundation. We’re especially grateful to our main funders Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation for their continued support, with special thanks to Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation for extending their support into the next financial year.

We also want to thank our Scorecard Sustainers who donate monthly to Climate Emergency UK, and everyone who donated to our Big Give Fundraiser, which helped us raise £11,500 in just a week in early December. And of course, a huge thank you to the 250 volunteers who made the 2025 Action Scorecards possible, and to mySociety, our long-standing partner who designed our Scorecards website and data collection tools.

Looking Ahead to 2026

As we move into 2026, we’re already planning for the next Scorecards cycle. We’ll be reviewing the 2027 Action Scorecards methodology and recruiting volunteers in the spring.

We also want to hear about the impact the 2025 Action Scorecards have made. If you’ve used the Scorecards in your campaigning, council work, or community organising, please fill out our impact survey—your stories help us demonstrate the value of this work and secure the funding to continue it. There is also a chance to win a £25 voucher. 

2025 was a year of significant achievement for Climate Emergency UK. From launching the 2025 Scorecards to delivering the cross-party open letter to Number 10, from supporting 400 residents in local engagement events to seeing the LGA adopt our position on a climate statutory duty—we’ve made real progress. As we head into 2026, we remain committed to our mission: ensuring councils have the tools, funding, and legal framework they need to tackle the climate emergency at the pace and scale required.