Majority of councils now have net-zero plans

Nearly three quarters of England’s most powerful councils have committed to decarbonise their local area, according to a new report from Parliament’s spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has today (16 July) published a report examining local government’s progress on meeting the UK’s goal to cut emissions to net zero by 2050.

A review conducted by the NAO shows that 73 per cent of single and upper tier authorities, which include county councils and metropolitan boroughs, have made a commitment to work towards carbon-neutral or net-zero emissions in the local authority area.

Of this group, the majority (38 per cent) have committed to decarbonise their local area by 2030 while a further 33 per cent aim to hit the target between 2031 and 2050 with the remainder setting no date.

The review also shows that 91 per cent of all local authorities, which includes lower-tier district councils in shire areas, have adopted at least one commitment to decarbonise their own activities or their local area since 2018.

Many local authorities in England have adopted a statement of climate emergency in the period since 2018, which has seen growing awareness of global warming through the activities of groups like Extinction Rebellion.

The report also calls for the government to consider the case for a statutory duty for local authorities on net zero.

The NAO says the establishment of such a duty would help to clarify the scope of authorities’ roles and responsibilities in tackling climate change.

In addition, the watchdog recommends that the government sets out how its reforms of the planning system, which it has promised to legislate on in the current Parliamentary term, align with the net-zero target.

However, the report says that the sums which government is providing to help councils tackle climate change have exploded 16-fold in the past year.

The creation of five new pots, set up as part of the response to the pandemic, means that local authorities have been provided with £1.2 billion worth of funding in 2020-21, compared to £74 million provided in the previous year.