Nearly 60 councils pledge to beef up net zero plans
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Local leaders representing over a third of the population sign up to UK100 initiative that aims to deliver net zero emission communities by 2045
The UK100 group of local authorities and councils has this week announced that nearly 60 cross-party local leaders, representing 35 per cent of the UK population, have now committed to delivering net zero emissions at least five years earlier than the UK-wide goal of 2050.
The group said that 57 councils had now signed up its Net Zero Pledge, which explicitly commits them to neutralising council emissions by 2030 and those of their residents and businesses by 2045.
Getting beyond the climate wishlists: the struggle to turn carbon pledges into action
Councils face an uphill struggle to turn their carbon reduction pledges into meaningful action.
The post-Covid recovery needs to be green if local and national commitments to tackle climate change are to be met.
The scale of the challenge is significant; it took the UK 26 years to cut emissions by 40% from 1990 levels. A further 40% must now be cut in a decade, but much of the cheaper and less disruptive low-hanging fruit has already been picked.
So far councils have lacked the direction and tools they need from the centre to take the necessary measures to honour the climate emergency pledges they have made, particularly regarding retrofitting buildings and decarbonising energy systems on an area-wide scale. Work to improve energy efficiency has been hampered by the demise of a flagship government programme. The £1.5bn green homes grant voucher scheme was scrapped six months after its launch
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Councils efforts to tackle climate change hindered by broken system, warns report
Local authorities are leading to way in tackling climate change but are being held back by a ‘broken’ national system, a new report has found.
The Powershift Report, published by UK100, found councils have been a ‘shining light’ in reducing emissions in areas such as housing and transport.
However, it warned that local authorities need more powers and resources, and more clarity over their role to take the next step.
It also said national policy mechanisms were ‘actively working against’ against local authorities trying to cut emissions.
The report states: National policy mechanisms can actively work against local authorities making effective use of their potential to cut emissions, including overriding national policy priorities that lock-in carbon emissions, funding models that hinder low carbon choices, power gaps in place-based systems and entrenched or siloed decision-making th
A STUDY has claimed that over 33,000 jobs could be created in Lancashire if the government commits to a green economy. The analysis has been published by UK100, a group of over 100 mayors and local authority leaders, and was collected by the University of Leeds and the LSE Grantham Institute. It claims that in total 1,211,158 jobs, 33,536 of them in Lancashire, could be created across the UK in the construction and manufacturing sectors, which would come as a relief to industries that have been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic. UK100 director Polly Billington said: “Across the UK, the move to a greener economy will create thousands of new jobs in every local community.