Few councils have carbon policies in place
Only a quarter of town halls in England have put in place an effective plan for slashing carbon emissions this decade, raising concerns that climate change is falling off councils’ agendas.
A survey of every English local authority by campaign group Friends of the Earth found that 89 - or 25% - have a medium-term target to cut emissions across their area by 2020.
Of those that do have a 2020 target, only 22 councils have a target equivalent to a 40% cut in emissions by 2020 - the minimum recommended by the Committee on Climate Change. The survey found the average target through to 2020 was a 30% reduction.
In all, 100 councils - 28% - in England have some form of medium-term target in place to cut carbon emissions between 2015 and 2035, the survey found.
David Powell, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said that with councils facing severe budget reductions, there was a real risk that climate change could disapper from the local authority agenda altogether.
He said the government’s move to scrap local area agreements had contributed to the decline of the issue, as about 100 of the 150 councils with LAAs had adopted climate change targets.
“LAA targets helped raise awareness and get climate change onto the agenda in town halls. The targets adopted weren’t great and there was a long way to go, but they were a start.
“Now there is nothing and there is a real risk that, with the chips down, climate change will be the first thing out the window,” he said.
Mr Powell claimed the research showed the voluntary approach to tackling climate change locally was not working. He called for the government’s Energy Bill, currently being debated in Parliament, to include addressing climate change as a core responsibility for every council.
“Making our communities cleaner and greener shouldn’t be an after-thought - councils are telling us a legal requirement would help them create jobs and cut costs, through green schemes like insulating homes and improving public transport,” he added.
A Department for Energy & Climate Change (DECC) spokesman said the government recognised that councils were “well placed to implement measures to cut carbon in their local area and harness the enthusiasm for tackling climate change in local communities”.
He said that was why DECC signed a memorandum of understanding with the local government association this month, “designed to recognise the pivotal role that local councils have in tackling climate change.”
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Readers' comments (1)
Roger | 7-Apr-2011 12:55 pm
Another nail in the coffin of localism or more of the Pickles directed version required here?
The truth of the matter is, that once councils have stopped seeing their costs reducing through climate change measures, which normally involves almost exclusively reducing energy use, they loose the political will to continue because that costs money.
I've yet to meet anybody on the doorstep who has said yes when asked if I can increase their council tax in order to help reduce the UKs CO2 emissions. Especially given that countries such as the USA, China and India are working hard to make sure any reduction here is more than cancelled out there!
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