For Immediate Release: 17th June 2025

• Climate Emergency UK publish second edition of the Council Climate Action Scorecards today 
• Enables comparison of councils’ climate action against 2023 for the first time – average score is 38%, only 6 percentage points more than 2023 
• UK Government must make climate action a fully-funded legal duty for all UK councils

Today, Climate Emergency UK publish the second edition of the Council Climate Action Scorecards, assessing all UK councils on their progress towards net zero.

Average scores have risen by just 6 percentage points since 2023, to an average of 38%. This indicates that most UK councils are not doing half of the actions assessed in the Action Scorecards, to improve their community and adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change. These actions, created in consultation with over 90 experts, include raising funds for retrofitting homes, improving public transport and green spaces and supporting sustainable food provision. 

Only 62 of the 391 local and combined authorities that Climate Emergency UK assessed scored above 50% overall (21 more than 2023). This slow progress across the UK from under-funded councils shows that they are not on track to meet their own, self-declared 2030 or later net zero target dates and improve lives for residents. 

The Scorecards are created by assessing councils according to a three stage marking process using primarily publicly available data from council websites, available before November 2024, as well as national data and Freedom Of Information responses from councils from Autumn 2024.

This is the second time that Climate Emergency UK has undertaken this holistic assessment of what councils are doing for climate action, providing insight on what they can do to lower carbon emissions, cut residents’ energy bills, protect our green spaces and provide better public transport  — overall, a list of more than 90 indicators. 

Isaac Beevor, Partnerships Director at Climate Emergency UK said “We’re pleased to see councils using the Scorecards to improve, especially as the effects of climate change hit closer to home with wildfires already happening and a predicted drought this summer in the UK. However, the UK Government must make climate action a fully-funded legal duty for all UK councils to remove the national barriers councils face. This would support councils to step up their climate action by more than 6 percentage points over almost 2 years and at the emergency pace needed by providing increased funding, powers and guidance to cash-strapped councils tackle the climate and cost of living crisis.”

The 2025 highest scores are mostly seen in London council where the Greater London Assembly already has a legal duty to act on climate action. Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Winchester City Council and Bristol City Council are also top scorers. 

At the other end of the scale, of the 19 councils that scored under 20% overall, all are English or Northern Irish. The Northern Irish councils scored the lowest on average, at 23%, Wales 36% and Scottish and English councils both on 38%. 

Mr Beevor said “The continuing lower scores in England further show the need for a legal duty for climate action for councils. Scotland and Wales already have this requirement in some form, and we’re pleased to see Northern Irish councils have to start reporting on their climate action later this year too. With devolution set to change council powers, we want to see a legal duty to tackle climate change embedded in the new regional mayoral authorities, as the Greater London Authority already has. Doing this would ensure councils will have the funds and powers to protect residents from flooding, air pollution and rising energy prices that we know that residents care about, and allow councils to work beyond the next election cycle.”

Cllr Richard Clewer, from Wiltshire, who sits on the Advisory Group to create the Action Scorecards, said “The Government may have a target for net zero by 2050, but these Scorecards results show that they are not doing enough to support communities and councils across the UK with sorely needed funding and powers to deliver the change needed, such as cheaper and frequent public transport, well-insulated homes and affordable local food and rent. These Scorecards show where councils need real investment from the National Government, and show the difference this can make, as seen where no Scottish council scores below 27%”.

Councils run by different political parties (Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem and in No Overall Control) all saw their scores increase, showing commitment to cutting costs and improving the lives of residents by tackling the climate emergency. This aligns with residents, the most recent poll in the UK showed that 72% of people, up 8 percentage points since 2022 are concerned about the impacts of climate change.

END

Notes for Editors

• The full results and methodology can be found at: https://councilclimatescorecards.uk/ 
• Contact press@climateemergency.uk or Annie, Co-Director at Climate Emergency UK on 079344 86877 for more information. 
• The Scorecards is a project of Climate Emergency UK, in partnership with mySociety
  • Climate Emergency UK – https://www.climateemergency.uk/ 
  • mySociety – https://www.mysociety.org/ 
• Image below

Background information

Climate Emergency UK is a not-for-profit community interest company which has been working with councils and residents since 2019 to share best practice about what councils can do to tackle the climate and ecological emergency and to encourage effective action.

In 2023, Climate Emergency UK published the first Council Climate Action Scorecards in October 2023. This time, in 2025, is the first time we are able to compare council climate action against previous years. This work was completed between July 2024 and March 2025.

The highest scoring different council types

• Combined Authority: Greater London Authority (LAB) and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (CON), both on 66% (while the Greater London Authority is not a combined authority we have included them within our combined authorities list due to their similarity in powers)
• Single-Tier: Islington, 71% (includes unitary, metropolitan districts, scottish and welsh councils) 
• District Council: Winchester City Council, 68% 
• County Council: Oxfordshire County Council, 65% 
• Northern Ireland: Belfast City Council, 38% 

The highest scoring councils in Scotland and Wales are: Glasgow City Council and City of Edinburgh Council at 65% and Swansea, 48%. 

Average Scores – By Council Type

• Combined Authorities: 51%
• Single Tier (unitaries, metropolitan districts, london boroughs, scottish and welsh) councils: 43%
• District councils: 29%
• County councils: 39%

Average Scores – By Nation

• England: 38%
• Scotland: 38%
• Wales: 36%
• Northern Ireland: 23%

Average score by English region

• South West: 44%
• West Midlands : 32%
• South East: 39%
• North West: 35%
• East of England: 35%
• Yorkshire and The Humber: 37%
• East Midlands: 32%
• London: 57%
• North East: 30%

Climate Emergency UK has also published over 4,000 Freedom of Information request responses from UK councils covering a range of environmental actions of local authorities that they received as part of the Council Climate Action Scorecards marking process. You can read more about them in the Scorecard results or look at the FOI requests and responses here.