CAPE, the Climate Action Plan Explorer

Open data on local councils in the UK and their plans/progress toward carbon zero.

Posted by Myfanwy Nixon July, 28, 2022 8 likes

Last Updated: July 2022

Overview

CAPE gathers together open data around UK local councils' Climate Action Plans and their progress to carbon zero. It offers a wealth of data such as where authorities' baseline emissions come from and which other councils they are most like according to a range of different measures; details of when they plan to reach net zero; and the actual content of the action plans themselves. These can be searched for any keyword or term, or downloaded as a useful dataset.

Why use it?

CAPE can help you understand what your own council is doing at a local level, or what the picture looks like right across the UK.

It's for councils wanting to learn from their peers; residents wanting to get involved with their councils' plans'; campaigners wanting to inform themselves before engaging with their elected representatives; researchers and journalists wanting to understand how plans are progressing.

If your particular interest is around doughnut economics, why not search for 'doughnut' and see what you find?

How long does it take?

It takes just a couple of minutes to search for your own council and see what information is available. If you would like to read the climate action plan or check how your council is doing compared to others, that will take a little longer. And if you wish to use the data to inform a piece of journalism or a research paper, of course, that will take as long as it takes.