Saving the planet and creating millions of jobs

When the UK parliament became the first in the world to declare a climate emergency in 2019 it sent a strong message that it was willing to take immediate action on global warming and hoped that others would follow its lead.

Since then many other countries have followed suit. In a further push last year, in an address to the Climate Ambition Summit, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres encouraged governments around the world to adopt similar resolutions.

War footing

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself told that summit: “Let’s do it together… let’s make it our collective commitment to get to net zero by 2050.” He said that such action would save the planet and create millions of high skilled jobs in the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Calling the climate crisis an emergency is putting it on the same footing as a war which focuses governments on a single objective, but can it also usher in inertia? According to Tom Burke, co-founder of European climate change think tank, E3G: “The downside is it also allows people to declare an emergency and then not do anything.”

Code red

And that has seemingly been the problem with talking about climate. Cop1 was in 1972 and progress since has been tortuously slow. Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been publishing reports for years and each has been more devastating than the last. This year’s was described by Antonio Guterres as a “code red for humanity”.

The latest analysis shows that every one of the world’s leading economies is failing to meet commitments made in the Paris agreement.  According to Niklas Höhne, a researcher at New Climate Institute, a partner organisation in the Climate Action Tracker analysis: “Anyone would think they have all the time in the world, when in fact the opposite is the case.”

Yet, of all the countries assessed by the Climate Action Tracker the UK’s climate pledges are deemed “almost sufficient” – far better than almost every other country.

This adds heft to the lead that the UK took in 2019; even if other countries are dragging their feet, the UK can still plough on, but to do so successfully it needs help. In an emergency, as in war, you need your allies, your motivated friends.

Decarbonisation needs to happen in every place

The Local Government Association has been saying for some time that they should be allowed to contribute in a much more substantive way. A recent LGA blog by their cross-party Climate Change Task Group co-chairs, Nick Forbes and Izzi Seccombe has reinforced this: “…net zero can only be achieved if decarbonisation happens in every place, community and household across the country, and this will require local leadership. Councils are well placed to do this and can deliver transformative action on the ground.”

In June 2021 the LGA published ‘A local path to net zero’ which sets out councils’ many functions and responsibilities which can support national and international targets.

Place shapers

Local Authorities, it says, are: place shapers with councils being the master planners; purchasers, with procurement powers; problem solvers having been doing so for centuries; asset owners with significant land and building control; and convenors, bringing together key local partners.

The LGA has also been showcasing numerous examples of local best practice that councils can scale up or replicate, from Cumbria County Council replacing bitumen with recycled waste plastic in their roads, to Denbighshire County Council changing its constitution to ensure all decisions have regard for tackling climate and ecological change; from Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council working on a town centre low-carbon energy network, to the London Borough of Waltham Forest retrofitting sheltered housing schemes with a solar-powered system..

Recognising and empowering

At Cop26 the LGA is calling specifically for “formal representation of regional and local government through a dedicated chapter in the official agreement reached at COP26”; as well as “a commitment recognising and empowering local government in the UK’s updated National Determined Contributions to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.”

Local Authorities, Mayors and LEPs have been raising their voices for some time for greater opportunities from central government in the drive towards Net Zero.

Generate transformational change

Universities, with their concentration of expertise, have also been doing the same. For example, the Northern university collaborative body, the N8 Research Partnership believes its Net Zero North initiative has the potential to generate transformational change, accelerating low-carbon energy solutions, promoting green innovation and decarbonising industry. Yet, while the project has been praised in Parliament, no funding has yet been forthcoming.

Such collaboration with the regions will bring the skills, innovation and commercialisation needed at scale to level-up through the green economy and support the health and wellbeing of the whole of the UK for many generations to come.

By championing inclusion and collaboration the UK can set a global example. Without it, the LGA argues failure beckons.