Islington tops all other UK councils in ‘climate scorecard’

Islington Council has taken the top spot for progress tackling climate change, leading all other single-tier local authorities nationwide.

Climate Emergency UK this week released its ‘climate scorecard’ rankings based on actions taken by councils towards net-zero – with the north London borough coming first.

In a statement, the borough’s environment chief, Cllr Rowena Champion said the news marked a “recognition of all our efforts”.

“We know that people in Islington care deeply about the environment, so we are working hard to empower local people and businesses to take steps to help lower carbon and make Islington greener and healthier,” she said.

As one of the six London boroughs most susceptible to climate change, there is a large potential impact of the emergency on Islington residents, particularly the most vulnerable, Cllr Champion added.

“That’s why we’re also leading by example and making changes that are having real and tangible impact on our environment.”

A council spokesperson said that, following Islington’s declaration of a climate emergency in 2019, the local authority had set “ambitious targets” to tackle climate change.

So far, it has taken steps such as decarbonising Islington’s waste recycling centre, electrifying and shrinking the size of its vehicle fleet, and “working hard” to retrofit its social housing stock, the spokesperson said.

In 2023, Islington came sixth in the scorecard assessment, with 58 per cent. The most recent assessment was carried out between July 2024 and March 2025.

The UK’s best performing district council was Winchester City, with a total score of 68 per cent.

Of the country’s unitary authorities, which make county-wide decisions, Oxfordshire ranked first.

At 66 per cent, the Greater London Authority (GLA) topped the bill for combined authorities, with 66 per cent.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service yesterday reported that London councils made up nearly half (27 out of 62) of the local authorities scoring 50 per cent or higher.

Reacting to the rankings, Isaac Beevor, partnerships director of Climate Emergency UK, said the organisation was “pleased to see councils using scorecards to improve” but called on the government to make climate action a “fully-funded legal duty”.

A press release from the group stated that overall, UK councils’ net-zero progress had been “slow”.

“The 2025 highest scores are mostly seen in London council where the [GLA] already has a legal duty to act on climate action,” they added.

The climate scorecard top 10

Local authority	Total score
Islington Council	70 per cent
Hammersmith and Fulham Council	69 per cent
Merton Council	67 per cent
Southwark Council	67 per cent
Wandsworth Council	67 per cent
Camden Council	66 per cent
Lambeth Council	66 per cent
Bristol City Council	65 per cent
Lewisham Council	65 per cent
City of Edinburgh Council	64 per cent