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Welcome to the Local Government Association and Local Partnerships Climate Change bulletin 6 May 2021. Please feel free to circulate to your colleagues. If any councils have any of their good practice to feature in future bulletins, please do email us at climate@local.gov.uk
Spotlight on South Hams District and West Devon Borough Councils
Following the declaration of a Climate Change and Biodiversity Emergency a cross party Working Group was set up to develop a strategy and action plan. With members having set the strategic direction there was a desire for a much more collaborative arrangement between the councils and their communities. They decided to establish a forum comprising officers and a representative cross section of the community to help further develop and deliver against the council's commitments. The first meeting was a great success full of active engagement, energy and a collective desire to make a difference. Read the full case study.
We have recently launched our newest councillor workbook on climate change: A councillor’s workbook on the local path to net zero. This workbook has been designed as a distance learning aid for local councillors. It is intended to provide councillors with insight and assistance with the key skills which will help you to be most effective in your role.
You can now read the second blog on the LGA 'leading and learning together' sessions focused on creating green jobs. In this document, the facilitators of the action learning sets explored how the participants reflected on their challenges based on the observations of their fellow group members. They also started to create an achievable action plan.
In partnership with Design Council, we organised the "Creating meaningful engagement with communities on climate change" webinar which scaled design approaches across the public sector and stimulated new thinking on collective climate change matters. The transferrable nature of design approaches makes them powerful tools that councils can apply to their most diverse challenges.
The third episode of the Net Zero Innovation Programme podcast is now live. In this episode we explored how Barnsley Council and Leeds Beckett University benefitted from our group action learning sessions. This podcast is developed in collaboration with UCL and brings together local authorities and universities to address climate challenges.
COP26 - climate best practice examples
In the lead up to COP26 we are looking to showcase councils best practice around the five COP26 themes. These themes are adaptation and resilience, nature, energy transition, clean road transport, and finance.
If you would like to contribute or wish to find out more, please email Katharine.Goodger@local.gov.uk.
13 May 2021, 10.00am - 11.30am
Local Partnerships and the LGA are co-hosting a webinar for councils reporting on Scope 3 emissions from social care provision. Scope 3 emissions are defined as indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain. The webinar will provide an overview of the forthcoming guidance for local authorities reporting on outsourced care provision, and interpretations of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for this sector. It will also include an overview of updates to the Greenhouse Gas Accounting toolkit.
May 18, 14.00 - 15.00
The latest seminar in the series run by UCL and the LGA looks at how we can scale up action towards net zero from the local to the national and international. With COP26 approaching later this year, there is much to be learnt from action being taken at the local scale.
25 and 27 May
The Planning Advisory Service has been commissioned by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to support councils in their efforts to get ready for mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain. To kick this new project off, they are running two workshops on 25 and 27 May to get input from local planners and help us decide how to focus this support and what the priorities should be.
28 May 2021, 10.30am - 12.00pm
In the year when the UK hosts COP26, and nature-based solutions is one of five core themes, this webinar will explore several different aspects in this challenge. It will also show councils how they can utilise place-based leadership to enhance their natural spaces and make way for biodiversity.
Waste consultations
11 May 2021
We will be running a webinar for local authority officers to discuss the Extended Producer Responsibility and Deposit Return Scheme consultation documents ahead of drafting final submissions. To register your interest in attending the webinar please email Andrew.richmond@local.gov.uk to be added to the invitee list.
15 June 2021, 10.00-11.30
This is the second webinar in a series of four, run by the LGA in partnership with the Design Council as part of the Design in the Public Sector programme 2020-21. The webinars intend to disseminate design skills among public sector professionals and provide councils with a platform to share their insights and experiences of tackling climate challenges focusing on various topics.
New climate change commitments are to become law in the UK, with a target to cut carbon emissions by 78 per cent by 2035. Homes will need to be much better insulated and people will be encouraged to drive less. It will also incorporate the UK's share of international aviation and shipping. This is in line with the recommendations from the Government's independent Climate Change Committee for this Sixth Carbon Budget.
To mark Earth Day, we highlighted impressive new statistics that shine a light on the work councils are doing. They show that in 2019/20, councils collected over 15.5 million tonnes of waste and recycling - the equivalent of almost 1.2 million double decker buses. President Biden also hosted the Leader's Climate Summit on this day which convened the world's 17 largest economies together to tackle the climate crisis.
This fund, aiming to increase tree numbers in urban areas through small-scale planting projects, reopened on 26 April. This new, third round of funding is open to councils and anyone who wants to plant trees in urban or peri-urban areas. Councils are also encouraged to promote the fund in their local area. Applications must be submitted electronically to utcf@forestrycommission.gov.uk by 11.59pm on 25 July.
As the UK prepares to host COP26, we are working to translate the national ambition for a green industrial revolution into transformative local action by councils and their local partners. We are showcasing local climate action in the lead up to COP26, and have invited stakeholders to share their perspectives on the importance of the local path to net zero. The first of these contributions are on our website.
Is domestic retrofit a high priority for your council?
72 per cent* (64 responses) of local authorities that completed our survey indicated domestic retrofit was a high, or highest priority for them (5 per cent). The work continues on our retrofit practitioner handbook and toolkit for local authorities with the aim to include as many examples of best practice as possible.
Local Partnerships will host a series of short "teach-in" webinars this month to explain the Re:fit framework and why it is the framework of choice for local authorities. The series will focus on each stage of the Re:fit process in turn with examples from public sector organisations sharing their own journey. Further details on this webinar series are on our newsletter.
Visit the Climate Change hub or email climate@local.gov.uk for more information.
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