As recently elected councillors continue to settle into their roles following the recent highs and lows of exhausting and exhilarating local and general election campaigns, they'll be looking to make their mark.
I have some advice for national, regional and local politicians alike: don’t sideline climate action in the process of tackling the cost-of-living crisis.
With the general election only three weeks away, the main parties have now published their manifesto plans. While climate change has not been a central focus of the campaign, it presents a significant economic opportunity that the UK cannot afford to ignore.
Party conference season is a whirlwind of receptions, fringe events and impassioned speeches as the political tribes gather to rally supporters and promote their policy agendas. For UK100, autumn conferences provide an unparalleled opportunity to bring together national decision-makers and local leaders and advocate for empowering local authority climate action.
Local authorities face “Kafkaesque” barriers to achieving Net Zero goals, reveals a comprehensive new UK100 report. Powers in Place calls for a new Net Zero Local Powers Bill and Net Zero Delivery Framework. The report is released as UK100 joins Chris Skidmore MP’s Local Mission Zero Network and announces plans to work together to drive forward policy solutions to overcome the barriers to local Net Zero.
This week Sheffield became the latest city to implement a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) to tackle an estimated 500 deaths a year related to air pollution in the city.
Collaboration in Gloucestershire is a shining example of local government leadership. An example we hope the Transport Secretary and the national government will follow in supporting regions across the country to collaborate for local Net Zero.
Since 2019 the majority of UK local authorities have declared a Climate Emergency, and 327 have produced a climate action plan of how they plan to reach Net Zero by their own target date (if they have one) of 2030, 2040 or 2050. These plans vary in length, design, topics covered and ambition. So how can you tell which council has a good climate action plan, a plan that the council is actually able to implement, and that the subsequent actions will mean that the council reaches Net Zero before 2050? Annie Pickering, Co-Director of Climate Emergency UK, writes for UK100's blog on climate action plans.
