ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Beyond carbon reduction
Abigail Burridge, senior advisor at the LGA, describes how councils are working together to deliver benefi ts in carbon reduction.
A
newly launched programme helps councils share information and best practice on
tackling carbon, and shows how work in this area can cover so many other areas of policy.
PSE spoke to the Local Government Association’s senior advisor Abigail Burridge about the Climate Local scheme, and how it was supporting councils to push forward their own work on climate change and energy effi ciency.
Climate Local launched on June 28 to supersede the Nottingham Declaration – a pledge that has been signed by over 98% of councils since its launch in 2000. Burridge said: “We wanted to create something that fi ts the purpose of where we are now.”
She explained: “Climate Local is about getting councils themselves to set the agenda on climate change and share information about what works and good practice. It is for us as a sector to lead the agenda: councils saying ‘we think it’s an important issue’, rather than waiting for central government.”
Savings and growth
Looking to explore what councils can do to boost income generation, opportunities for jobs, address fuel poverty and improve the quality of life for residents, the scheme is about much more than reducing carbon emissions, she said.
“It’s about how acting on climate change and CO2 and climate resilience – fl ooding and similar issues – can help save money and create growth.”
Councils work towards making their own estate and fl eet more effi cient, to save money, and also support their community to save money on their energy bills and become more fl ood resilient.
She said: “We set out a document about how we thought government policy could be better designed to enable councils to take action on climate change, because we very much support having an enabling environment to make it work for councils. The feed-in tariffs, for example, made fi nancial sense to councils.
“We’re looking for a council-led way to help councils on climate change, because ultimately the most important people are the councils out there doing it and for them to help each other is the most effective way for action to take place. They understand the pressures and the decision making processes that councils have to go through, and that it’s not just about carbon: its also about saving money, promoting growth, ticking a lot of other boxes.”
Not reinventing the wheel
The scheme also encourages joint working between councils, with some signing up on a county-wide basis, Burridge said. This means different parts of the country can learn from each other, instead of “reinventing the wheel”.
She explained that one of the big drivers is reducing costs, with some councils seeing action on climate change as an opportunity to generate income. Saving energy on councils’ own estate could also free up money to be
invested in delivering other key services.
Additionally, improving energy effi ciency for residents has a knock-on health implication. Burridge said: “Cold is a big determinant of health; people living in cold homes have respiratory diseases, it affects cardiovascular health. So improving energy effi ciency is also a health intervention, and obviously councils are taking on more public health responsibilities.”
Green Deal
Responding to the recently launched Green Deal, Burridge said she thought it was “a new tool in the box”, to help them improve the energy effi ciency of housing in their local area, reduce energy bills, have more money to invest in the local economy, improve people’s wellbeing in their homes.
She added that since there is no statutory duty for councils to do anything on the Green Deal if they don’t want to, it will be a case of every individual council deciding whether it is appropriate for them to get involved.
Burridge concluded: “I think we’ll see a wide range of responses, a mixed reaction.”
Climate Local has only been set up for a few months, but conclusions on how climate change interventions can help councils will be published by the end of the fi nancial year, around March 2013.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit
www.lga.org.uk
public sector executive Sep/Oct 12 | 31
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