Councils & carbon: COP26 an opportunity to confront climate change at a local level

Photo by Karsten Würth (➡️ @karsten.wuerth) on Unsplash

As COP26 looms how have councils acted to tackle climate change and what do they need from the latest climate change summit?

Mark Davies

In the Netherlands by 1860 the drainage network consisted of the equivalent of 33 Suez canals. All dug by hand. Every shovel full made the difference. An existential threat produced a practical solution.

The moral for councils is don’t be put off tackling something because it seems so huge.

I work for Lancaster City Council. On 30 Jan 2019 we declared a climate emergency with a target as an organisation to become net zero carbon by 2030; as well as using our leadership role to influence that across the whole District. My job was to deliver this; and quickly.

The starting point was to asses our direct emissions. In 2018-19 the County of Lancashire produced 8.35 million tonnes of CO2. Lancaster District, with a population of  150,000, produced 750,000 tonnes. Lancaster City Council’s direct activities produced 3018 tonnes.

Even within our district the council were only directly 0.4% of the problem—but remember every shovelful counts.

Deliver

Just like dealing with any emergency: Assess the problem, develop a plan, resource it and deliver it.

• We identified data sources from which we could establish our direct and indirect CO2 emissions.
• We fed the data into Power BI to help analyse the information and prioritise our efforts- (the answer to the question in our case is decarbonise heating in buildings and work out a plan to more effectively manage our fleet, especially bin wagons) and convert to electric.
• We developed a costed plan to help us deliver our response to the emergency.
• We work with partners like our DNO to understand what  the infrastructure issues are and help inform their plans.

We have moved forward quickly. Fleet electrification is underway, we have an electric car sharing club, having a plan helped us bid for  PSDS funds to get our highest CO2 emitting asset (Salt Ayre Leisure Centre) off gas.

People’s jury

The greater challenge is influencing change across the whole District. The climate change emergency is entirely a symptom of our actions as humans. The Covid pandemic has shown that even to get to a point we keep an emergency under some degree of control requires every one of us to play a part and act in different ways than previously. Addressing climate change requires the efforts of every single of us.

Facilitating a People’s Jury has given us recommendations developed by our residents, following expert testimony. It puts forward a range of solutions that are practical and understood by our communities.

There is much, much more to do. If we wait for technical solutions to the climate emergency it will be too late.

Like the Dutch did we need to grab all our shovels now.

Mark Davies is director for communities and environment, Lancaster City Council.

Room151’s Audit Committee Masterclass
3 & 10 December, 2021
with Richard Harbord
Explore best practice and supporting the work of officers
REGISTER HERE.

Joseph Holmes & Jenny Graham

COP26 presents a fantastic opportunity to highlight the role and ambition of local councils within collaborative climate action.

With a swathe of local authorities declaring a climate emergency, and with many such as us at West Berkshire Council aiming to be net zero by 2030, there is a groundswell of activity and support to deliver decarbonisation.  And it is at the local level that we have such a great platform to mobilise change with communities that are engaged and residents who are looking to us for leadership.

Nationally, ADEPT* have highlighted five priorities for accelerating a green recovery in their Blueprint (pg.6). These priorities provide a framework for further support that we would like to see from COP.

Under-utilised

Currently local government could be considered under-utilised when it comes to delivering localised changes. So, a focus shift to place-based approaches would be welcomed, as well as a commitment to support funding for local authorities to achieve net zero, assisting in long-term action and collaboration.

In West Berkshire we have been pressing ahead and seeking to lead the way on alternative financing options through our award winning Community Municipal Investment to deliver green infrastructure schemes.  These Local Climate Bonds (as they are referred to) have been featured in the Government’s Net Zero Strategy as a way to “make the green choice affordable”.

Local action such as improving active travel infrastructure, promoting retrofitting and sustainable development and nature-based mitigation require council-led delivery with greater assistance from central government.

There are significant demands and cost pressures on local government from a range of key areas that are unlikely to be funded solely through “efficiency savings” and council tax; we need to see direct access to revenue and capital funds to meet aspirations.

Critical

The ambition to achieve net zero is undoubtedly present in West Berkshire and across much of the country. Our significant investment in delivering our environment strategy involves difficult choices and, in the absence of suitable long-term funding clarification for the future, it will remain unclear if this level can be sustained alongside other key pressures.

The outcomes of this much anticipated COP26 will be critical in how we make sense of the national and global ambition and turn that into local action.

Joseph Holmes is executive director and s151 officer, and Jenny Graham is environment delivery manager, at West Berkshire Council.

* ADEPT is the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport.

Max Wilkinson

‘Blah blah blah’. It’s what all of us need to avoid when tackling the climate emergency, according to Greta Thunberg. For the next few weeks, the whole country will be on high alert for that sort of language in the build up to the climax of COP26.

Hundreds of councils have already started the process by declaring climate emergencies with many usinh their declaration to call on the government to devolve power and funding to local areas. In response, some have accused local government of being a bit ‘blah blah blah’ in passing motions without detailed plans attached. But we all know that the first step to changing direction is acknowledging the problem and setting a goal.

Next, comes making a plan and dedicating resources to it. It was important for local government to show a willingness to do this, because councils are in a strong position to help. But now councils need certainty about the resources we will have at our disposal, so we can put appropriate plans in place, and we need national policy improvements in a range of areas like planning, licensing and transport, to match the stated ambitions. Cheltenham’s initial scoping report has been published and our detailed plan is due out in the new year. This work was only made possible by getting a new team in place as a result of our climate emergency motion.

To give the government some credit, while it has put a further squeeze on council budgets, there has been a small response. But most of this has come in the form of competitive processes that are resource intensive and have no guarantee of success.

More to do

The initial key task for councils is to get their own house in order. The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme has given us in Cheltenham a chance to start this work by making energy savings of up to 25 per cent in council buildings thanks to smart monitoring.

But there is so much more to do. We are the custodian of a few beautiful, but big and draughty old heritage assets like the Municipal Offices, the Pittville Pump Room and the Town Hall. These are a valuable cultural asset – more support to reduce their carbon footprint is a must. And then there’s the challenge of sport and leisure venues too, where large halls, swimming pools and gyms place a huge strain on energy consumption.

In Cheltenham we have also benefitted from the Demonstrator round of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund for two properties. We hope to be successful in the full first round, now the bidding deadline has passed. But even if our bid is successful, that will only raise the energy efficiency of 59 council houses at a cost of around £1.4m. To put that cost in context, we have around 4, 500 council houses that will require work to some level (though this initial bid is for the worst performing homes).

Meanwhile, our first carbon neutral council homes are in the planning system and our work towards the green, low-carbon Golden Valley development continues apace. But as good as all that public sector initiative is, we then must consider the private development sector.

Councils’ desires to demand higher standards from big housebuilders are severely limited by national legislation. Our strategic development plans with Gloucester and Tewkesbury allocated land for tens of thousands of homes, very few of which will match the carbon efficiency of our new-build council houses.

29th November, 2021
London Stock Exchange
6th Annual FDs’ Summit
Lead sponsor PFM/UKMBA
Public sector finance directors can register here

Divergence

And there are problems elsewhere too: existing private housing is primarily served by gas boilers and moves to change that are welcome. But many people will rightly ask why grants are being given to private householders to replace gas boilers with heat pumps, while builders of new homes will continue to install gas boilers for many years to come. At the moment, there’s precious little councils can do about that divergence.

In waste and recycling, councils need support to revamp their facilities to support a shift to low emission vehicles and operations: hydrogen, electric or other emerging technologies. These facilities will provide fertile ground for renewable energy generation to power operations and boost the grid, but in many cases, that will mean investing huge sums in infrastructure. An opportunity for the government to explore is there, but will it be taken?

Then we look at matters relating to transport. A big game is being talked about sustainability, including buses and walking and cycling. So far, big words at the national level have translated into very little for areas like Cheltenham. Competitive bidding processes with no guarantee of success, where bids are reliant on costly feasibility studies, are a challenge for cash-strapped councils like our local transport authority Gloucestershire County Council. That’s before we investigate more costly and complex-to-deliver improvements like EV charging point networks, low emission buses and rail.

Powers

Finally, councils recognise that while they have limited direct powers, there’s a duty to lead others. We have worked with a local charity to launch the Cheltenham Zero Partnership, to bring together businesses, the public sector and community groups. This will help encourage the sharing of best practice, build consensus and enable sector-specific groups to emerge. The government should look at encouraging this type of model elsewhere.

The main message to government, however, is that to be successful it must devolve more power and resources to local areas – in line with the requests in local climate emergency declarations. Local government is well-placed to help the Net Zero aim. We know where opportunities lie, we know where the challenges are and we are increasingly innovative. But we can’t do it on a shoestring without the necessary resources and in a constant state of financial turmoil.

Max Wilkinson is a councillor at Cheltenham Borough Council.

Photo by Karsten Würth (➡️ @karsten.wuerth) on Unsplash

—————

FREE monthly newsletters
Subscribe to Room151 Newsletters

Room151 Linkedin Community
Join here

Monthly Online Treasury Briefing
Sign up here with a .gov.uk email address

Room151 Webinars
Visit the Room151 channel