Council Watch - 2025 Climate Action Scorecards

Council Climate Action Scorecards are produced by Climate Emergency UK – the latest scorecards were released in June based on data from 1 January 2020 up to 31 October 2024 (for most questions). There are 73 questions in total across 7 categories.

There’s a careful methodology behind the scorecards, and all councils are given a right of reply to the first round of marking (76% of councils responded).

The scorecards were last published in 2023 and since then WNC’s score has improved in 6 of the 7 categories – the exception being Waste Reduction & Food, which was the best-performing category in 2023. This doesn’t necessarily reflect a drop in performance, as some of the questions have changed this time round, so one or two actions WNC was awarded points for last time no longer count (e.g. reduction of single use plastic in council premises as there is now a regulatory requirement for this).

The biggest improvement in performance was in the Biodiversity category – this reflects the Tree Strategy coming into force and changes to the mowing regime.

The table below shows WNC’s scores for 2025 and 2023, and a couple of other local councils for comparison.

Full details of WNC's 2025 scores here https://councilclimatescorecards.uk/councils/west-northamptonshire-council/