Since 2019, it’s been clear that many UK councils are committed to tackling the climate crisis, but with councils facing bankruptcy, knowing what can be done to reduce emissions in the most resource-effective way is essential. At Climate Emergency UK (CE UK), we recently published our first analysis report on the council climate action scorecards, “Scorecards Successes: What factors enable climate action within UK local authorities?”, which looks at which factors within councils have the biggest impact on local authority climate action.

The report explores in depth the different actions councils can take on how they work and who they work with for climate action. This article explores some of the most impactful actions councils can take, including political leadership for climate action, good governance, and access to external funding.

Report Summary

Six months on from launching the council climate action scorecards, we commissioned Anthesis, a global sustainability consultancy, to analyse the action scorecard data. Anthesis assessed councils against definable features and characteristics, such as funding, staffing, and specific council policies and strategies, which might impact a council’s ability to deliver climate action. Anthesis sought to understand how these features impacted the overall scorecard of a council.

The report found that having a dedicated portfolio holder for climate resulted in the biggest increase in a council’s overall action scorecard result, improving a council’s score by 11 per cent. Access to external funding for climate action improved a council’s score by 9 per cent, the second biggest characteristic that impacted a council’s score, and having a published climate action plan that includes SMART targets was the third biggest factor in increasing a council’s scorecard result. Crucially, political leadership and implementing good climate governance are not financially expensive actions to implement. This makes it all the more essential that councils can and should be taking these actions.

Leadership for Climate Action

Our work found that one in six councils in the UK (16 per cent) do not have a dedicated portfolio councillor for climate, leading, on average, to a lower scorecard result by 11 per cent. Our report states that continued political support for climate action through a climate portfolio holder represents one of the most effective actions a council can take.

Without a dedicated climate leader, it becomes harder to implement and monitor specific projects for Net Zero, risking either duplicating or siloing work. Councils with a climate lead scored well on other scorecard questions that asked about partnerships a council is building for climate action with private businesses, cultural institutions, the health sector, young people, and others. This shows that having a climate leader brings additional benefits across other elements of Net Zero work. Providing this leadership in an elected role can be seen as the first step towards better climate governance, which enables council climate action across all council areas.

Good Climate Governance

To achieve Net Zero, climate considerations must be embedded into a council’s decision-making, forward planning, and internal structures. This is demonstrated by the fact that 18 of the 20 highest-scoring councils in the Governance & Finance section scored 44 per cent or higher in their overall scorecard result, above the UK average total score of 32 per cent.

As well as the importance of having a climate action plan with SMART targets (stated above), the three other key governance factors are: if a council is publicly reporting on its own carbon emissions; if their risk register includes climate risks and mitigation steps; and if their area-wide Net Zero target date is embedded into key policies, like their corporate, financial and local plan. Anthesis found that most councils (81 per cent) have included a Net Zero target within at least one of these plans, and doing so led to a 9 per cent increase in overall scores for councils that have done this, ranking fourth most impactful in terms of increasing a council’s scores.

Good climate governance makes sense because all services councils provide have a climate impact. Integrating climate into decision-making processes across all council departments prevents projects from being siloed or conflicting, allowing councils to focus on essential services they provide, such as social care, housing, and infrastructure building.

Financing This Work

Access to funding helps council climate action, yet lack of funds is endemic to UK local authorities. However, there are ways that councils can raise funds for climate action outside of the limited national government grants. Accessing private finance can improve a council’s scorecard result by an average of 9 per cent. Private financial avenues that councils can use include income from property development, community municipal investments (supported by the Green Finance Institute), joint ventures, investment funds, and SALIX borrowing, of which, most UK councils are not yet utilising as extensively as they could.

What Next?

There is a wide variance between councils in their climate action. Given this range, the national picture that this report provides shows that national policies, funding, and power must also change to better enable council climate action. This is why a key recommendation of this report calls for action on Net Zero to be a fully funded statutory duty for councils. Many factors that enable climate action from local governments would be more effectively implemented if climate action was a statutory (legal) duty.

A statutory duty for Net Zero (also supported by UK100 and Chris Skidmore’s Mission Zero Coalition) should come with national guidance on best practice, a standardised monitoring and reporting framework, and the corresponding funding to deliver this work. There’s already evidence that this would have an impact: of the 52 councils that score 20 per cent or below in the scorecards, 49 are English and Northern Irish councils, where there is no statutory duty for councils on climate action.

Final Thought

This report and the action scorecards provide invaluable insights into the key factors influencing council climate action. We encourage all to continue to use our analysis report and the action scorecards tool to work with and deliver the ambitious climate action plans of councils. Local government climate action is constantly improving, which is why we look forward to creating and publishing the second edition of the council climate action scorecards in 2025. And by 2025, we hope that the national Government will have removed some of the barriers faced by local government for climate action by enshrining climate action as a fully funded statutory duty to support councils in tackling the climate crisis.

To find out more about Climate Emergency UK, the action scorecards, and our report, visit: https://www.climateemergency.uk/

This is just one of the articles that features in the new edition of Chamber’s Journal. To access the full journal, please click here for the online version, or click to buy a copy of the print version.