UK100 is claiming a "win" in response to news that Peers in the House of Lords backed Amendment 191 to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill by 182 votes to 172 on Monday night.
UK100 welcomes the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) new report, “Progress in reducing emissions 2023 Report to Parliament”. The report underscores the pivotal role local authorities play in the transition to Net Zero, mirroring UK100’s recent “Powers in Place: The handbook of local authority Net Zero powers” report.
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.
Looking back at the Green Day announcements, have Ministers made the best of this test? Have they taken the right path at this critical fork in the road?
On ’Green Day’ we hoped to see a plan for Net Zero delivery that understands, as the Government’s Independent Mission Zero report did, that local authorities are the key to achieving Net Zero in the UK. Our hopes, however, have been dashed on the ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams.’ Today’s announcements fall far short of unlocking the ambition and ability within local government to go further and faster in delivering Net Zero.
Responding to the Spring Budget, UK100 welcomes the short-term energy bill relief but reiterates its call for a long-term solution, targeted at the most vulnerable.
UK100 writes to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities with recommendations for the National Planning Policy Framework to address the climate and ecological emergency, seize the economic opportunities that the transition to Net Zero presents and build communities and infrastructure resilient to the worst impacts of climate change.
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.