On 21 May 2019, North Herts District Council passed a climate emergency motion.

This declaration asserted the council's commitment toward climate action beyond current government targets and international agreements.

This is currently pursued through the council's Climate Change Strategy 2022-2027.

So how is the council doing in living up to its climate ambitions?

"Average" is the answer according to Climate Emergency UK.

They assessed all UK councils on the actions they've taken towards net zero.

The 2025 Action Scorecard assessment consists of 93 questions or less, depending on council type, across 7 different sections, created in consultation with over 90 different organisations and individuals.

 Each council was marked against these criteria and given a right to reply before the scores underwent a final audit. This work was completed between July 2024 and March 2025.

The average for District councils was 35% and North Herts comes in at 37% way off Winchester City Council who ranked top with 68%

In response to the news Cllr Amy Allen, North Herts Council's Executive Member for Environment, said: "We're fully committed to taking real, meaningful action on climate change, which is why we declared a climate emergency and have continued to invest in reducing emissions both in our own operations and across the district.

"We've recently secured over £7.7 million in government funding to decarbonise our leisure centres – our biggest source of emissions – and this major project is now moving into the delivery phase. We've also made strong progress in switching to an electric fleet, supporting walking and cycling in the district, installing EV chargers and helping residents access schemes like Solar Together and government energy efficiency grants.

"While we welcome external scrutiny, scorecards like this don't always reflect the full picture – especially where actions are in progress but not yet completed. We'll continue to work hard, both on our own estate and in partnership across Hertfordshire, to tackle the climate emergency in a practical and sustainable way."

However, the North Hertfordshire District Council Liberal Democrats decried the "disappointing" lack of new environmental initiatives from the Labour-run council.

Councillor Ruth Brown, their Group Leader, explained to Hitchin Nub News that "following the declaration of a Climate Emergency in May 2019, North Herts Council introduced a range of climate change actions, which were established largely by the Lib Dems during the joint administration".

"We introduced more ambitious sustainability targets for new developments in terms of energy efficiency, water savings and active travel routes and environmental initiatives such as tree planting, bee corridors, EV charging points, solar panel schemes and switched to Ultra Low Emission Vehicles for Council operations".

"The climate scorecard does not include the current programme to decarbonise the leisure centres, which will lead to the Council's largest carbon savings. This was a Lib Dem led initiative made possible by the award of a government grant and it is disappointing that there have been few new environmental initiatives under the current Labour administration."