Leeds City Council has signed up to a scheme called the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) which gathers climate change data from thousands of firms and organisations across the globe. It has now created a worldwide greenhouse gas emissions database.
The information is shared with organisations, including government policy makers and their advisers. Data is used to try to understand the impact of businesses on the environment and what firms are doing to tackle it.

In Leeds, for organisations which work with the council, that means they will now be asked to disclose their own carbon data and explain what, if any, reduction targets they have set and what climate change policies have been agreed.

Adding information to the main CDP database will save them answering many requests for the same statistics and will enable them to compare themselves with other companies. The council will share its carbon emissions data alongside several Government departments which are also signed up to the project.

Coun Richard Brett, leader and executive board member for corporate services, said: "I'm delighted we've signed up to the Carbon Disclosure Project and that we're one of the first local authorities to do so.

"I know there's lots of things we can do to make Leeds City Council more 'green' – but it's also vital we know exactly what impact we have on the environment and that's what this data will show.

"And it's not just us – I want to be assured that the firms we work with are taking the issue of climate change seriously and are working to tackle it."