Powering local net zero: How we helped councils UK-wide measure, report and plan carbon reduction

Project summary: Carbon emissions accounting and projections

To support councils in reaching net zero, we partnered with the LGA to create a standardised tool that simplifies carbon reporting, enables benchmarking and helps local authorities track progress towards their climate goals.

The Greenhouse Gas Accounting Tool is now freely available to all councils.

The challenge 

In 2019 the UK Parliament approved a motion to declare a state of climate and ecological emergency. In response, many councils and local authorities began to draft climate action plans and committed to achieving net zero by 2030. To meet these commitments, they needed to understand the current carbon emissions associated with the various activities and services within their remit.

DESNZ (formerly BEIS) annually publish comprehensive materials which can be used to calculate carbon emissions. These resources are thorough and detailed, which can make finding the correct data time consuming and resource intensive.

Bespoke and ad-hoc solutions produced by local authorities would be subject to a degree of variation and would therefore be challenging to utilise for sector wide comparison and benchmarking.

Additionally, whilst the reporting of carbon emissions is currently (as of 2025) voluntary, the LGA required a standard format for collecting and reporting this data.

After calculating carbon emissions for service areas and activities such as fleet, estates and street lighting, local authorities wanted to visualise a pathway to net zero in 2030. This would need to integrate an understanding of various interventions and carbon mitigation strategies.

How we have supported the challenge

The Data & Analytics team addressed this requirement by:

• created a standard tool to collect council emissions data
• in partnership with the LGA and several pilot councils, identified the activities and consumption sources within scope
• created input tables that allow for councils to enter consumption values against relevant sources of CO2
• integrated the DESNZ conversion factors flat file
• converts councils’ consumption data into carbon emissions
• provides summary tables and graphs for internal reporting
• collates data on a data collection page for consistent processing and reporting

Impact

As a result of our work:

• 260 councils have used this tool to calculate and report their annual carbon emissions
• it provides a standardised method for measuring and reporting carbon emissions which can facilitate sector wide comparison and benchmarking
• allows councils to calculate a baseline and track the impact of carbon mitigation strategies over time

Can we help?

Do you have a project you would like help with, or could we answer a question about our services? Please message use the form on this page to get in touch, use our contact us page or contact Joran via his profile page.