Sustain the Council Climate Action Scorecards to support UK council climate action
We’ve launched the Council Climate Action Scorecards, measuring the actions taken by all UK councils to address the ecological and climate emergency. This kind of analysis has never been conducted before — but the Scorecards will only have an impact if people know about them and use them.
We need your support to work with campaigners, councils and other organisations to use the Scorecards as an effective campaign tool to push for change, and to track this progress over time by publishing future editions of the Action Scorecards. And remember, donations up to £250 are matched funded!
Future editions of the Scorecards are needed because You can’t change what you don’t measure.
Will you help us deliver this catalyst of the Scorecards for climate action?
30% of the progress towards net zero needed across all sectors relies on local authority involvement and influence, according to the UK Climate Change Committees’ 6th Carbon Budget. That means that these Action Scorecards can contribute to making a huge difference cutting the UK’s carbon emissions.
Help us keep going
Creating the Scorecards is a mammoth task. But it's not just a matter of publishing the scorecards once and we're done - this is only the first step on a very long path. We'll need to carry on making regular assessments of climate action to provide continued accountability of councils. We have a long way to go to reach net zero and these Scorecards must track and drive climate action across the next few decades.
They'll need continual updating, in collaboration with councils and residents, if they're not going to become out of date and unusable.
Help us spread the word
Our next biggest task is to support and work with climate campaigners and councils to use the Scorecards to effectively advocate, campaign and win much needed climate action in their areas. We will reach communities and councils where they are, in person or online, demonstrate the Action Scorecards' ability to provide accurate and comparable data, and deliver bespoke training to these groups to support them in their work.
We are already having an impact. When we were marking councils on their Action Scorecards, we saw that many councils had referenced our previous project, the Plan Scorecards, as a valuable resource they used to update their climate action plans for the next year. Your donation will help us remain a reliable and trusted tool for councils and campaigners alike until net zero is achieved.
Why we need your help
Climate Emergency UK is a small organisation and new to the movement. We have limited core funding and don’t have the fundraising capacity of bigger organisations; we are reliant on volunteers to make the Scorecards happen. Therefore we need funds from supporters like you to continue next year.
Our Scorecards are the biggest and most detailed climate action tool for the council climate sector. With council budgets slashed year on year by the national government and volunteers making up the vast majority of those campaigning for change, the Scorecards are an essential campaigning and accountability tool to a resourced-strapped sector. We therefore need support from people like yourselves so we can continue to create the Scorecards and provide training and support to those using the Scorecards.
As an organisation we punch above our weight in the sector, but we can’t do this on motivation alone. We need your support to ensure our work continues to have the impact it is already having, to support the transition to net zero at the scale and pace needed.
Our target
We’re aiming to raise at least £10,000 to support the Action Scorecards for next year.
Your donation - large or small - will help ensure that Climate Emergency UK has the capacity to reach every UK campaign group and council to support them to achieve climate action, equipped with the Action Scorecards data tool.
What your donation will fund
With your support, we can work beyond simply publishing the Scorecards. Without continued funding we won’t be able to work with councils, communities and the sector to use the results of the Scorecards to support climate action that the Scorecards exemplify.
Despite some successful fundraising bids, as a new and small organisation we cannot rely on grant income alone within the current economic climate. Donations like yours provide us with unrestricted funding to remain independent and provide transparent accountability of the local government climate sector.
We will use the funds to maximise the impact and use of the 2023 Action Scorecards, evaluate their impact and then use that understanding to feed into the second edition of the Action Scorecards, to be published after the next General Election.
If we reach our fundraising target, we will be able to:
- Deliver in-person and online workshops to community climate action groups on how to win climate action with the Action Scorecards
- Increase our year-round media coverage to continue to hold councils and the UK government to account on their climate inaction
- Effectively evaluate the first edition of the Council Climate Action Scorecards with input from councils, campaigners and others
- Create the second edition of the Council Climate Action Scorecards
Since our last online fundraiser, we have:
- Created the Council Climate Action Scorecards methodology with input from over 90 organisations and individuals
- Created the first edition of the Action Scorecards, with over 200 volunteers involved in the process
- Secured further funding bids to provide some financial stability to the organisation
- Created the Local Climate Academy, the first ever comprehensive training programme for the sector on how councils can deliver climate action
Why is our work important
People can find the inner workings of councils confusing, and climate action requires extensive structural changes. This is why the Action Scorecards are useful for everyone: councillors, council staff and local campaigners can refer to them, to understand what effective climate action looks like and improve their councils' action.
With little guidance coming from the national government or other organisations, the Action Scorecards are the missing piece of the puzzle in council climate action, providing an accurate to-do list for all councils and opportunities to learn from each other. This is the first ever UK-wide assessment of climate action - and it is needed more than ever to catalyse climate action, not only words.
William, one of our Action Scorecard volunteers said, "I have been so inspired by your Scorecards that I have got in touch to volunteer with another organisation who are campaigning for healthy streets in London. I can’t wait for the Action Scorecard launch as I know just how useful this data will be to so many organisations and individuals".
Ben from Surrey County Council used last years’ Plan Scorecards to learn what other councils were doing on Green Skills training to help him implement this work in Surrey. He said, on using the Scorecards, “The insights from other councils certainly speed up how quickly we will be able to develop solutions, or that we can do something of higher quality.”
Thank you for your support!