© Friends of the Earth

Councils and climate: good things come to those who huff and puff

Getting the Government to up their game on councils and climate change has taken thousands of emails, scores of letters and badgering from committed councils, the tireless efforts of local campaigners across the country, and the determination of a hardy bunch of MPs. At times it's been a bit like pushing a metric ton of CO2 up a hill.

But last week it finally paid off.

On Wednesday the Climate Change Minister, Greg Barker, announced (Hansard: about a third of the way down) that the independent Committee on Climate Change (CCC) - which advises the Government on how to meet its legally binding targets under the Climate Change Act - will now have a new focus on councils.

So, next year, the CCC will publish advice on council action on climate change. It'll form part of Government guidance that will go to every council in the country in April.

OK, on the face of it, I know it may not seem like the sexiest pronouncement ever made. But it's enough to get me hot under the collar, for lots of reasons. Primarily, it links council action to the ambition of the Climate Change Act for the first time.

There wasn't much detail in Barker's announcement. Friends of the Earth will carry on working to get the details right as discussions on the content of the advice continue. We want the advice to clearly link local ambition to what needs to be done nationally - a job the CCC is perfectly placed to do.

Done right, the advice could raise the bar in three important areas.

1. clarity for local people as to what to expect of their council. Local people want to know that their council's efforts on climate change are up to scratch. At the national level, the CCC's advice is vital to hold the Government to account; now there should be something of similar value at the local level.
2. for local authorities themselves. Councils that want to put together a decent carbon reduction strategy don't necessarily know where to start, and done right the advice could be a really good, impartial starting point (for example, by providing a range of policies that different types of councils could look to bring in to be showing the right level of ambition).
3. perhaps most significantly of all, linking the national effort to the local. A step change in action is needed across the board, and 80 per cent of emissions are affected in some way by what happens locally. Local action is vital, but progress has been too slow and a hugely under-tapped resource.

It's true to say that the Government did not particularly want to do it - not least for the fear that it might be perceived as a top-down imposition on councils. It's not, of course - it's not a top-down anything; it's 'only' advice - but it was resisted nonetheless.

After 10,000 Friends of the Earth supporters signed a petition to Energy & Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne asking for the advice, the Government hoisted a dissatisfying response on its website: "[Friends of the Earth] supporters will appreciate," it suggested, "that in this tight financial climate the CCC will need to prioritise their work effectively and may need to concentrate on core statutory tasks under the Climate Change Act 2008". Advice on councils, in other words, would be (1) too expensive, (2) a diversion for the CCC, and (3) a luxury.

The problem was that the CCC itself didn't agree. It didn't think advice would cost that much; it considered itself ideal for the job and agreed with us that council action is not in some way 'extra' to meeting national carbon budgets: it's integral.

Councils didn't agree either. More than 25 council leaders from all political parties wrote directly to Mr Huhne over the summer saying that independent advice on what can be done and clarity about what is expected of them would actually be exceedingly helpful.

In the end, it seems, the Government ran out of reasons to resist.

It's worth noting that the announcement came out in the same week as dire warnings from experts that much more needs to be done if the UK's carbon budgets aren't to be missed entirely. We need all hands to the pump, so it's great that for the first time the Government's statutory climate change advisors will have a dedicated look at local authorities.

Councils matter. And as one of the people that have been banging on about that for ages, it's jolly pleasing that the Government agrees.