A fifth of local councils in the UK have no published plans to tackle climate change, according to research by campaign group Climate Emergency UK (CE UK).
The organisation has assessed all UK councils’ written Climate Action Plans – creating the Council Climate Plan Scorecards – and discovered that 84 of the 409 local authorities have no published plan, while others have plans of “very varying quality and ambition”.
The average score for Scottish and English councils was 46% dropping to 31% for Wales and 25% for Northern Ireland.
Some of the issues looked into by the team analysing the plans:
- whether the climate actions are costed
- do the actions have a clear goal
- are local residents being engaged with climate action
- does the plan include strategies to decarbonise waste, planning, homes and other services that the council is responsible for
- does it go beyond cutting the council’s own emissions and plan to work with others to cut the whole area’s emissions
- does the plan cover areas such as re-skilling the workforce, climate education, governance and funding for climate action.
Annie Pickering, Campaigns and Policy Officer at CE UK, said: “A good Action Plan has the basics covered. This means that the actions are specific and measurable and assigned to teams or departments. It should also be clear how the plan will be monitored as it is implemented.”
High scoring councils included Somerset West and Taunton Council, Manchester City Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council.
Manchester City Council (MCC) received a score of 87%, for its plan which aims for significant reduction in damaging carbon emissions, with the ultimate target of Manchester becoming zero carbon by 2038 – 12 years ahead of the national target of 2050.
Actions being undertaken include decarbonising public buildings through the use of solar energy and ground and air-source heat pumps, mass tree planting and the creation of new green spaces such as Mayfield Park, increasing use of electric vehicles including electric bin lorries, improved walking and cycling infrastructure, developing new approaches to community engagement and the creation of new low carbon social homes.
Councillor Tracey Rawlins, MCC’s Executive Member for Environment, said:“Having a strong plan to tackle climate change is a vital foundation. It’s very heartening that detailed analysis has found ours to be one of the best and reflects the Council’s determination to play its full part in an urgent global mission.
“The challenge now is to keep delivering against it. As a council our goal is to halve our direct carbon emissions by 2025. We are currently on track to achieve this and we need other organisations, and the city as a whole to join us on this journey. Together can we achieve the goal of Manchester becoming zero carbon by 2038.”
CE UK has only assessed action plans this time, not the actions councils are actually taking to reduce emissions and improve biodiversity.
The research found that 86 councils have an area-wide net zero target of 2030 or earlier, and 33% of councils had not set a net zero target of 2050 or earlier, according to the Council Climate Plan Scorecards.
Pickering added: “This year’s scorecards are just the start of the process. It has been an important exercise to understand what makes a good council Climate Action Plan and we hope that it will help councils learn from each other and up their game. A good plan will help a local authority deliver effective actions, while having it easily available on the council website will enable local residents to know what their council has committed to and so hold the council to account.
“While we understand that councils need much more support and funding from the national Government, and have been stretched by responding to the pandemic, the fact that some councils have developed well thought out, costed and ambitious plans, shows that it is possible.
“Last year the National Audit Office criticised the Government for only providing councils with piecemeal funding and powers to deal with the climate emergency. Imagine what council climate action could happen if councils were given adequate funding and powers.”
Find out more at: councilclimatescorecards.uk
