Oxfordshire has emerged the best-performing county council in the UK for tackling climate change for the second year running, according to an independent survey by an environmental organisation.
Oxfordshire County Council was rated top in Climate Emergency UK’s (CEUK) 2025 climate action scorecard, which was published on Tuesday, 17 June.
Councillor Judy Roberts, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Place, Environment and Climate Action, said:
“This is fantastic news and I would like to thank all our residents, officers and partners for their hard work in maintaining our place at the top of this important table and putting climate action at the heart of everything we do.
“Our score reflects our whole organisation’s response to the climate agenda – including work we’re doing on training and engagement, transport, waste, the built environment and nature recovery.”
For the scorecard, CEUK assessed all UK councils on the actions they’ve taken towards achieving net zero. The assessment consisted of up to 93 questions, depending on council type, across seven sections.
Each council was marked against these criteria before the scores underwent a final audit earlier this year.
Compared to the previous table published in 2023, Oxfordshire County Council increased its score significantly in four areas and received a gold star for the buildings and heat category.
The council is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030, significantly ahead of the national 2050 target. As well as this, it aims to enable Oxfordshire to become carbon neutral as early as possible in the 2040s.
It is also working in partnership with people and organisations right across the county to make Oxfordshire resilient to a changing climate.
The environment has a significant impact on human health. Recent flooding events in the county, as well as record temperatures in 2022, brought this into the spotlight. These events promise to be more common going forward as climate change intensifies.
Examples of carbon reduction carried out by the council include the installation of energy-efficient LED street lighting across Oxfordshire.
The project has cost £40 million over four years but will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being produced by 70 per cent and save around £75 million in energy costs over the next 20 years.
CEUK is a not-for-profit cooperative which has been working with councils and residents since 2019 to share best practice about what councils can do to tackle the climate and ecological emergency and to encourage effective action.
