Climate / Question marks over methodology behind local authority climate action scorecard
Shetland Islands Council was given a rating of 24 per cent by Climate Emergency UK
LOCAL authorities being benchmarked on climate action is useful – but the methodology behind one ‘scorecard’ initiative disadvantages areas like Shetland.
That is the view of Shetland Islands Council’s (SIC) climate change strategy team leader Claire Ferguson, who was speaking after the isles received a rating of just 24 per cent for its action on the climate.
It came in an annual scorecard benchmarking system led by Climate Emergency UK, which gets a percentage rating to each local authority in the country.
Shetland’s rating was below the Scottish average of 39 per cent, as was Orkney and the Western Isles.
The SIC’s overall score for 2025 was up by six per cent on the previous evaluation two years ago, although some categories – including governance/finance and waste reduction and food – were down.
But Ferguson said she felt Climate Emergency UK’s scorecard system disadvantages rural areas in the way the ratings are created.
All Scottish local authorities, for instance, are scored under a ‘city’ criteria, she said.
“In my opinion, benchmarking is really important and we should be monitoring our progress and making our data clear and understanding what our data means for how we’re progressing,” Ferguson added.
“But the Climate Emergency UK methodology is very heavily set up for cities.”
Ferguson said the organisation’s view is that it had to make a methodology that works for the majority in what is a UK-wide scheme which is now in its second year.
She said Shetland for example will never score highly on certain topics – giving examples such as low emission zones, and closing roads outside schools during pick-up and drop-off times.
Ferguson also suggested there was confusion at how some things were scored, including why the SIC was given a point last year for having a “cabinet” member with environment in their title – but did not this year, despite there being no change.
The council has provided feedback, including in a “right to reply” phase.
More information on the types of questions the scorecard explores can be found here.
The scorecard project sourced information partly from freedom of information requests to collate information, but Ferguson suggested it could work better if the organisation came directly to local authorities.
She also highlighted that the SIC reports annually to the Scottish Government on its climate actions, as required by law, while it also creates an annual climate change report, which is not mandatory.
A report for 2023/24, which was presented to councillors in November, shows that the SIC failed to meet a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target that year.
The next report is being worked on and should be aired in front of council committees in September.
Ferguson said she feels the SIC has done “really, really well” in the planning and partnership side of climate action.
“We put an extensive amount of effort into stakeholder engagement to really understand what is appropriate for us in Shetland, what are the main barriers to us carbonising, and how do we overcome that,” she said.
Some of the key challenges include the cost of electricity, the price of energy efficiency works and resources.
“I think we’ve got now to the stage where the foundations have been set and we understand what needs to be done, but now’s the hard part of getting it done,” Ferguson added.
She said this “needs funding, it needs resource and it needs prioritisation”.
Shetland’s highest ranking in the scorecard, meanwhile, was in collaboration and engagement.
Ferguson highlighted the partnership working which is regularly praised in Shetland, and said there has not been much challenge with engaging with the general public.
Engagement has usually centred on a project or action, she said, highlighting the recent consultation event on a possible Brae district heating system, which she said was “really positive”.
Ferguson said the team is keen to show that a “lot of the climate action can have economic and social benefits to the community”.
Outreach Director at Climate Emergency UK Don von Rohland meanwhile said the vast majority of local authorities in Scotland 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 six percentage points, and in the Highlands and Islands it was lower at four per cent,” he added.
“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.”
He claimed that the scorecards “provide proof of where councils need real investment from the national government”.
Von Rohland also said Climate Emergency UK wants to see further funding and powers provided to all councils in the UK to ensure they are able to “protect residents from flooding and rising energy prices and allow councils to work beyond the next election cycle”.
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