Tuesday June 17th 2025
Edinburgh Council headquarters
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
The City of Edinburgh is the highest scoring council for climate action in Edinburgh & Lothians, and tied for the title of top scoring council in Scotland with Glasgow City Council, according to Climate Emergency UK who published their second edition of the Council Climate Action Scorecards today, the only holistic analysis of all UK council’s climate action.
With an overall score of 64%, the City of Edinburgh is one of only 62 councils across the UK (4 in Scotland) scoring 50% or more on climate action. This council has increased its score by 6 percentage points since Climate Emergency UK published the first Action Scorecards in 2023. Within the region, however, the council that has increased its score the most since 2023 is Midlothian Council, which saw an improvement by 8 percentage points, bringing the overall score up to 35%.
The scores vary across the region, with West Lothian Council scoring the lowest at 34% and Midlothian Council scoring 35%. The average score across Edinburgh & Lothians was 43%, whilst the average across Scotland was 38%.
This is the second time that Climate Emergency UK has undertaken this holistic assessment of what councils can do for climate action, what they can do to lower carbon emissions, cut residents’ energy bills, protect and create more space for nature and provide better public transport, among other things. 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.
Whilst average scores remain low (38%), 80% of all UK councils saw an increase in their Scorecard results since 2023. East Lothian was the only council in the region that did not improve its score, and has the same total score of 39% as it did in 2023.
Don von Rohland, Outreach Director at Climate Emergency UK, and resident of Glasgow said: “The majority of councils in Edinburgh and in the surrounding area have improved their Scorecard results since 2023, showing that councils, along with residents, want to prioritise climate action to improve their lives and communities.
“Yet the average overall score increase since 2023 was just 6 percentage points, and in Edinburgh & Lothian it was even lower, at 3.5 percentage points. This shows that councils across the UK are struggling to step up their climate action at the emergency pace needed because there are nationwide barriers making it harder for councils to deliver effective, high point scoring, work that would cut residents’ bills, make their homes warmer and raise funds for cash strapped local governments. These Scorecards provide proof of where councils need real investment from the national government so that every council can improve their score by 20 percentage points or more each time to make real progress towards cleaner, safer and more prosperous zero emission communities we need to thrive.”
Despite the small overall improvement, there are 58 councils across the UK that scored over 80% in one or more sections, such as Planning & Land Use, Buildings & Heating and Transport. Locally, the City of Edinburgh Council was the only local authority to score above 80% in any section, reaching an impressive 93% in Collaboration and Engagement. East Lothian achieved 72% in the same section.
This means that these councils are taking significant action, engaging and consulting with residents, providing funding to community groups, giving advice and support to schools, health services providers, cultural institutions, and businesses to reduce emissions.
Mr von Rohland continued, “The SNP Government may have a target for net zero by 2045, 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. Scottish councils are legally required to report on their climate action, which has led to higher on average scores in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK, but average scores are still only 39%. We want to see further funding and powers provided to all councils in the UK to ensure councils are able to protect residents from flooding and rising energy prices and allow councils to work beyond the next election cycle.”
Across the country, councils run by different political parties (Labour, Scottish National Party, Independent, 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’ desires: 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.
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