Progress
Actions to date
Since declaring a climate emergency in 2019, we have strived to take immediate action to reduce our emissions and increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of Kirklees.
This is a non-exhaustive list and includes some actions from our partners and the wider community within Kirklees. It focuses primarily on our ongoing and completed actions.
Monitoring and Evaluating our Progress
A key part of any climate emergency response is monitoring and evaluating progress against our targets.
Culminating in a 3-year reporting cycle, as per CPD best practice, our reporting will be informed by a four-fold process of evaluation of actions:
- Through stakeholder engagement. By the most appropriate mechanisms determined at the time of evaluation, a cross-section of Kirklees stakeholders will be engaged to feedback their evaluation of the ongoing impact and outcomes of the actions implemented as part of the integrated climate change action plan.
- By evaluating the emission reduction achieved by the actions implemented, against the existing district-wide emissions inventory for Kirklees and the districts steppingstone and absolute science-based targets.
- By evaluating against pre-determined adaptive capacity. The CCRVA has established Kirklees' current 'adaptative capacity' for the hazards and associated risks assessed. Using this pre-determined assessment, elements of adaptative capacity will be evaluated against the relevant indicators within the indicator database, alongside being cross analysed against the findings of the stakeholder engagement.
- By evaluating the social and economic impact of events. Utilising the indicator database as a baseline.
For more information on our monitoring and evaluation process, please refer to pg. 72 of our Climate Change Action Plan.
Reporting progress
CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) reporting
We have reported to CDP on an annual basis since 2020.
The CDP Open Data Portal can be found here: Open Data Portal
CDP is a global environmental non-profit working to secure a thriving economy that works for people and planet in the long term. Making environmental reporting mainstream, CDP provides insights to drive action for a climate safe, water secure and deforestation free world.
CDP's scoring methodology provides a robust review of Kirklees' response to their annual questionnaire, identifying the districts progress on a journey to becoming a climate leader, taking bold action in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
| A: Leadership | B: Management |
|---|---|
| Cities setting and meeting ambitious climate action goals. | Cities acting to mitigate against climate change and increase their resilience. |
| C: Awareness | D: Disclosure |
| Cities understanding, measuring, and reporting climate impacts. | Cities at the beginning of their journey to identify climate impacts and/or recognising information gaps. |
As of November 2023, Kirklees is one of a new class of 119 cities to receive top score on climate action from the environmental impact non-profit, CDP.
As an A List city, Kirklees is demonstrating climate leadership through concerted and effective action, just as National Governments will be asked to do at COP28.
Kirklees is 1 of 119 cities globally to receive an A score - which is only 13% of all cities who report.
Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM)
The Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) is the largest global alliance of city climate leadership, built upon the commitment of over 11,500 cities and local governments.
Who we are - Global Covenant of Mayors
We have been a signatory of the GCoM since 2009.
The GCoM results for 2022 will be released in early 2023.
Council's own emissions
The council collects and analyses its own operational carbon emissions on an annual basis, having done so since 2008.
An initial target was set to achieve a 40% reduction by 2020 against 2005/06 baseline levels.
As of the 2019/2020 emissions inventory, a reduction of 53.5% was achieved against the 2005/06 baseline, overachieving against the initial 2020 target by 13.5%.
Actions which helped achieve this reduction, are outlined within Appendix A of the Climate Change Action Plan.