Ealing Council has been placed joint tenth of UK local authorities on how they are tackling climate emergency according to Climate Emergency UK‘s 2023 action scorecards. In London, Ealing is ranked as joint sixth.
The scorecards look across a number of areas on how the councils are performing and across seven categories: buildings & heating, transport, planning & land use, governance and finance, biodiversity, collaboration & engagement and waste reduction & food.
Ealing scored more than the national average across six of the seven categories but was below the average of 27% for biodiversity by scoring 23%.
The full scorecard for Ealing and how it compares to other local authorities, can be viewed here.
Councillor Deirdre Costigan, cabinet member for climate action commented on the findings: “It’s right that we are being recognised for our work on combatting the climate emergency, which we’ve done in partnership with residents through our community climate action group Act for Ealing. However, we know we all need to do more.”
Councillor Costigan added: “The key to reaching our net zero goal is making sure every area of council activity is focused on climate action and that’s why we’re making big bold decisions such as creating a new regional park for Ealing. The regional park will be a real game changer, a green lung for London that will offer clean air, new habitats for wildlife, flood management and urban woodlands.”
The council has highlighted a number of achievements it says is making a difference. These include:
• doubled the number of bike hangars in just 6 months and made our bike hangar permits the cheapest in London
• more than tripled the number of electric vehicle charging points in the last year in the borough to 670
• rolled out 24 school streets and ramped up fines for unnecessary idling to the maximum level
• started work on replacing fossil fuel heating systems in some of our schools and sheltered housing and on improving energy efficiency in our three main leisure centres in Northolt, Acton and Dormers Wells
• our in-house waste collection service is consistently in the top three in London for recycling
• announced a new circular economy site at Acton which will help avoid waste in the first place
• planted thousands of trees and opened three new community growing spaces, including the new Popesfield allotment
