|
New research from an influential think tank highlights the risk that localism reforms will work against national climate change goals finding that two thirds of local authorities are scaling down or abolishing climate change targets. Is localism delivering for climate change? Green Alliance has recently made the first assessment of low carbon activity by local authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and front runner neighbourhood plans under the government’s new localism agenda.
|
|
The Coalition government sees local action as vital in meeting national climate change targets, such as a 50 per cent reduction in emissions by 2025, and supplying 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Yet the report found that:
*65% of local councils surveyed are scaling down or dropping low carbon action: 37 % are deprioritising climate change or state that it was never a priority, and 28 % are narrowing their ambitions to focus on reducing emissions from their estate and ceasing work on wider climate change issues.
*35% remain firm in their commitment to climate change and believe that action could even increase in the context of localism
*78% of the 37 Local Enterprise Partnerships have identified low carbon as a deliverable, but resource and expertise constraints create significant barriers to them meeting their ambitions. Unlike the RDA’s they replace, LEP’s do not have a duty to promote sustainable development.
*All of the measures in place to encourage local authority action on climate change are voluntary and will fail to address those local authorities opting out of taking action on climate change
The report makes a number of recommendations about how localism could contribute to national climate change goals including:
*Local authorities must be free to decide how to interpret and deliver against their responsibilities on climate change but they cannot be allowed to opt out of action;
*LEPs must be given responsibility for climate change and account for its impacts as they develop their growth plans;
*Neighbourhood plans should be allowed to set out greater ambitions than the local plan to tackle climate change, reduce emissions and secure low carbon development.
Report author Faye Scott said: “We are seeing the sustainability function of many local authorities scrapped due to budget cuts but localism could result in stronger, more ambitious and creative local action on energy and climate change. Our survey found that more local authorities are scaling down their efforts on climate change than are increasing it. The government risks undermining its low carbon goals unless it lays out the shared responsibility to tackle climate change.”
The research took place in spring 2011 and consisted of 51 interviews with councillors, local authority officers and chief executives, civil society organisations, statutory bodies, central government departments, representatives of LEPs, representatives of LNPs and neighbourhood plan front-runners; a survey of local authorities on climate change, a survey for civil society groups on localism and climate change and four civil focus groups.
Green Alliance is an environmental think tank working to ensure UK political leaders deliver ambitious solutions to global environmental issues: www.green-alliance.org.uk
|
