New research by a scientist at the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) claims that local authorities need more support for the planning, and not just the delivery of net zero changes.
Dr Jake Barnes, a Researcher on the Energy programme at the ECI, has been working with colleagues from Bristol and Sheffield universities. They argue local governance is a neglected yet crucial step in developing effective and fair net zero policy. Dr Barnes said:
Urgent action is required to meet the UK’s 2050 net zero target. To date, national-scale efforts to decarbonise electricity generation have driven emissions reductions. Going beyond this will involve accelerating change across all other sectors of the economy including housing, transport, agriculture and manufacturing, including material changes to the everyday lives of communities across the UK.
More than this, decarbonising will require delivery at the local level. This will require new governance arrangements capable of addressing the ‘grand societal challenge’ of achieving net zero.”
As awareness and agreement of net zero actions has grown, the local delivery of these actions has received less policy attention by government. However, since the UK committed in 2019 to reach net zero there has been focus on a place-based approach. This is where local knowledge and an understanding of the issues, interconnections and relationships in a place are aligned with action and investment to improve the quality of life for that community.
But the researchers say those delivery plans shouldn’t be siloed, and more efforts need to be made in a coordinated approach to supporting the local delivery of net zero changes.
The importance of ‘organising to deliver’
Esme McMillan, lead author of the article and University of Oxford Geography graduate (2023) said: “In analysing what local, place-based governance for net zero could look like, our research argues that equal attention must be directed to local organising to deliver net zero rather than an exclusive focus on the local delivery of net zero.
“Whilst the urgency of the climate emergency demands accelerating action, exclusive focus on delivery neglects much of the foundational work required to unlock and guide local action.
“Moreover, it neglects the development of local visions for net zero that respond to local needs and aspirations. These aspects - of organising to deliver - are those that will become increasingly critical for achieving net zero as the UK seeks to decarbonise beyond national electricity supply infrastructure.”
Seven challenges of organising to deliver local net zero
The researchers have identified seven challenges of organising to deliver local net zero.
- Coordinating between and within levels of government which are both siloed and overlapping and exhibit misaligned powers and responsibilities.
- Creating locally appropriate pathways to account for place-specific strengths and weaknesses in recognition that no one size fits all for net zero policy.
- Creating shared knowledge bases out of current dispersed and sporadic data collection, retention and usage, to inform decisions and sharing best practice.
- Fostering buy-in from multiple stakeholders to secure legitimacy for net zero actions and harness the required expertise and resources of multiple local actors.
- Acting under uncertainty to make local decisions to accelerate net zero action, despite many local decisions being affected by decisions made elsewhere.
- Delivering cross-cutting activities, such as stakeholder engagement or revising procurement policies, to unlock local action, despite the limited local powers and dedicated resources for such activities.
- Resourcing local co-ordination and delivery in a landscape of constrained public finances, competitive, uneven grant allocation, and skills shortages.
Dr Barnes added:
There are both opportunities and obstacles to navigating these challenges for more effective net zero governance arrangements. Furthermore, the challenges identified raise more questions about the nature of each challenge, how they interact and how they might be addressed.
Many actors will need to be involved to effectively address these challenges at a local scale. However, the research affirmed the importance of local authorities in future governance arrangements for organising to deliver net zero.”
The research, funded by the British Academy as part of its Net Zero Policy Programme, recommends a national framework is drawn up to guide local action, addressing each of the seven challenges identifies.
Read the full article in the Journal of the British Academy: Local, place-based governance for net zero: a review and research agenda