When we consider the impacts of a project like the Council Climate Action Scorecards, the obvious benefits are those we see in UK councils as they step up their efforts to decarbonise. On this blog, we’ve also frequently noted tangential effects too, such as better understanding and communication between local authorities and residents.

There’s a third, less obvious benefit, though, as organisations across the world become aware of the project, and are inspired to do something similar. We saw it happen in Canada, and now The Climate Reality Project Europe has taken the idea and adapted it for their own community.

In this post, Gosia Rychlik, a branch manager at the organisation, explains what effects the Scorecards, a joint project between Climate Emergency UK and mySociety, have sparked in Europe.

At The Climate Reality Project Europe, we work with a network of over 5,500 Climate Reality Leaders across the continent, supporting them to turn knowledge into local climate action. While covering the topic of climate emergency declarations and designing tools to help our community engage in the topic more effectively, we came across Climate Emergency UK’s work.

One of the projects was The Council Climate Action Scorecards: they immediately stood out as a transparent, methodic and very practical way to make local climate governance visible and accessible to citizens. The clarity of the methodology and the commitment to accountability deeply resonated with our mission. The project shows how citizens can help assess and encourage local climate action as informed citizens. 

A guidebook adapted for Europe

Inspired by Climate Emergency UK’s work, we created the City Climate Action Assessment Guidebook, launched in autumn 2025 as part of our Citizens for Clean Energy programme. The guidebook takes the idea behind the Scorecards and adapts it for cities across Europe. Despite the differences between datasets and local government systems, the need for transparency and accountability is the same everywhere.

The guidebook provides a clear and simple framework to help citizens see what their cities are doing and where more action is needed. We cover eight key areas: climate commitments, energy, transport, nature, community engagement, governance, and finance. It invites residents to observe, look for information, and start conversations with local councils. Our intention is to encourage citizens to take the first simple step toward better understanding and meaningful local action.

We launched the guidebook with a series of public webinars featuring Climate Emergency UK, Beyond Fossil Fuels and Climate-KIC, reaching Climate Reality Leaders and community organisers from across Europe. 

What we’ve learned and what’s next

From the Scorecards, we learned that transparency and accessibility are key to accelerating local climate progress. We want to encourage citizens to start noticing climate policies (or lack thereof) in the real world and hope this will make them more likely to get involved, when they understand how to interpret their city’s plans and see where gaps exist.

We also learned that local engagement doesn’t always require large-scale campaigns — sometimes it begins with a few citizens paying attention, asking the right questions, and connecting dots between policies and lived experience.

Looking ahead, we hope that more members of our network take the first steps of local climate action with our Guidebook. Ultimately, our goal is the same as the one that inspired us: to empower citizens to hold councils accountable, celebrate progress, and accelerate the transition to climate-neutral, resilient communities.

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Thanks very much to Gosia for sharing these insights: we hope the guidebook has long-lasting and tangible effects.

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Image: Nuno Marques