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.

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.

Wiltshire Council leader reinforces calls to end short-term, competitive funding for local energy efficiency measures at parliamentary committee hearing.

Energy Security and Net Zero Committee is taking evidence on local authority efforts to support improved household energy efficiency as part of its wider “Heating our homes” enquiry.

Alongside the need for a tailored approach to rural homes, witnesses highlighted the issue of local authority funding.

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.

Today, September 4, 2023, the House of Lords will vote on whether to back Net Zero local plans.

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.

UK100's Interim Chief Executive Jason Torrance reflects on the energy efficiency announcements launched as part of the UK Government's "Green Day" Net Zero Strategy update and policy blitz.

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.

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.

This is an edited version of Polly's foreword from UK100's 2022 Annual Review.