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ADEPT’s Policy Officer, David Dale, gives an overview of ADEPT’s work in 2022 and looks at the priorities for 2023.

It’s an understatement to say that last year was a busy and important one, bookended (roughly) by the major international conferences of COP26 in Glasgow and COP27 in Egypt. Closer to home, ADEPT and our partners have also been busy setting out our policies, engaging with government, and supporting our members with various tools and resources to help them take forward their climate actions locally.

Scope 1 & 2 Guidance for Local Highways Authorities

In March, Proving Services and ADEPT released the first edition of the Scope 1 & 2 Guidance for Local Highways Authorities. This document is now freely available to all Future Highways Research Group (FHRG) and ADEPT members. Scope 1 & 2 Guidance for Local Highways Authorities provides step-by-step guidance for the measurement of combusted fuels (including natural gas, heating oil, petrol, and diesel), fugitive emissions from cooling systems (air conditioners and refrigerators) and purchased electricity. The guidance reflects the relevant industry standards and also includes processes and dataset specifications for creating inventories of premises and vehicles, plant and equipment. These inventories are really useful practical tools for LHAs in developing future carbon reduction strategies by highlighting the main sources of emissions. The next stage of the programme is looking at Scope 3 emissions where the complexity of carbon measurement and accounting increases dramatically to include emissions from purchased goods and services, capital items, transportation, business travel and staff commuting.

40 inspirational local authority climate projects

In April, Friends of the Earth and Ashden – two of our Blueprint Coalition partners – published 40 inspirational local authority climate projects, which can be found here. They show that even while we continue to push government to properly support local action there is much that councils can do, and are doing, with existing powers and resources. The case studies demonstrate how councils are not only providing leadership to tackle the climate crisis, but also in nature restoration – boosting biodiversity, addressing habitat loss and providing accessible urban green spaces. Transitioning to a greener cleaner future has to take place at the local level, recognising that many of the actions now needed will require changes for individuals and communities that need local delivery. The energy crisis, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, has already contributed to the cost-of-living crisis and highlighted the need to increase secure, clean and renewable energy.

Climate Change and Green Growth Policy Position

At the Spring Conference in May we launched ADEPT’s new Climate Change and Green Growth Policy Position. When we looked at refreshing existing policy positions on climate change and clean growth, we realised that the two are inseparable and it made sense to bring both together. The key messages of the document are:

• Local action is critical to deliver on net zero and climate change action, but this can only be achieved with co-ordinated leadership, a clear delivery framework for support and resource from government councils, coherent national policy, proper powers and long-term funding.
• Behaviour change is key – more than half of the emission reductions we need to reach net zero rely on households and businesses adopting low-carbon solutions – and councils are uniquely well-placed to provide the local infrastructure required to support change.
• Ensuring climate resilience in our places is vital; net zero cannot be achieved without preparing to adapt to already ‘baked in’ changes to the climate. We must do more to build resilience into local and national infrastructure, and to design and deliver our place-based services with this in mind.
• Tackling climate change must work in parallel with growth and levelling up. We must address the human and environmental outcomes as well as the economic. To do this at place level will require local authority leadership to ensure that clean growth and green skills are intrinsic to local economic plans.

The policy position calls upon government to ensure that all its policies and funding streams across planning reform, levelling up, place-based infrastructure and health disparities are properly integrated and fully aligned with the Net Zero Strategy and the National Adaptation Programme. Climate change and green growth must be the key drivers across all policy areas. The ADEPT Climate Change and Green Growth Policy Position can be found here.

Local Net Zero Forum

As the ‘voice of place’, ADEPT continues to work with government, corporate partners, academia and environmental organisations to gain support and resource for local authorities as the key drivers of climate change action in our local areas. We were pleased to be invited to sit on the Local Net Zero Forum, chaired by a director general of BEIS. The Forum finally met in June and brings together senior civil servants from a wide range of government departments with Place Directors and other representatives from the local government sector. As the Forum embarks on its work programme for 2023, we will look for the best ways to provide support for our representatives and to disseminate the outcomes. We also continue to chair the Local Adaptation Advisory Panel.

Net Zero Strategy

In September, the new government announced that Chris Skidmore MP would lead a review of the Net Zero Strategy to ensure that it aligns with national economic growth strategy. There was some trepidation that this might mean a watering down of the commitment to net zero but we were reassured by Skidmore’s declaration that the 2050 net zero target is vitally important in its own right but also because it is essential for economic growth and – we added – the natural environment, and tackling social inequalities. We made some supportive comments (here) and suggested how best to engage with local government. The outcome of the review was published in mid-January (here) and made helpful recommendations about simplifying net zero funding, establishing local net zero missions, ensuring that all devolution deals have a strong net zero element, and reforming the planning system to have a clearer vision on net zero.

Green Finance Strategy

We submitted evidence to the Treasury’s review of the Green Finance Strategy (here), setting out some of our existing work on green finance, and an example of some of the local innovation being driven by our members as they address climate actions and environmental improvements on the ground locally. We continued to build our relationship with CIPFA, in order to facilitate more effective working between Place Directors and Chief Finance Officers in local authorities. Following the four joint webinars in 2021, there is now an ADEPT representative on the CIFPA Sustainability Forum, and we delivered a joint green finance training session in November (as described in the December newsletter) with a follow-up session in late January and further events planned in the spring.

Live Labs 2

In April, we were delighted to receive confirmation from the Department for Transport (DfT) that our Live Labs 2 programme (here) would go ahead. DfT has committed £30m to a three year, UK-wide programme that focuses on how to decarbonise highways infrastructure, from design through to maintenance and decommission. Driving innovation and sharing best practice is what local authorities do.

A blueprint for accelerating climate action and a green recovery at the local level

ADEPT and its partners in the Blueprint Coalition wanted to assess progress against the key recommendations set out in our 2020 report, A blueprint for accelerating climate action and a green recovery at the local level. Published in November, the Blueprint Tracker provides an analysis of government action against each of the seven recommendations put forward in the original document. Our findings show that there is not one green score against any of our recommendations. Using a traffic light scoring system, the findings are troubling:

• Growing the zero and low carbon economy – there is a disappointing lack of emphasis on net zero in devolution deals and other key funding streams, and a missed opportunity in terms of green skills and jobs.
• Retrofitting homes and buildings – policy and funding for home insulation is still insufficient.
• Decarbonising transport - support in this area has been mixed and often too short-term. While funding for active travel is welcome, delays to key guidance on decarbonising Local Transport Plans and the Rural Transport Strategy are unhelpful.
• Planning – there is continued uncertainty over planning reform and proposed changes set out in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill do little to improve alignment with climate targets.
• Reducing waste and encouraging sustainable consumption – slow progress has meant too few incentives for producers to minimise waste at source, and high costs of delay for local councils.
• Restoring nature for all – again, slow progress with guidance and funding for Local Nature Recovery Strategies and related issues.
• Funding and governance – continued reliance on short-term competitive funding, and lack of clarity in key policy areas.

ADEPT Autumn Conference

The ADEPT Autumn Conference in November had climate change as a central thread, with plenary sessions on subjects including net zero as a catalyst for delivering sustainable growth and developing financial systems to support the sustainable growth agenda. Hannah Bartram has previously reflected on the powerful presentation by keynote speaker Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales (here) about how public institutions must consider all their policies and activities according to their long-term impact (rather like doughnut economics). The other really powerful presentation was by Lord Deben, Chairman of the Climate Change Committee, who said that governments aren’t responding quickly enough to the fundamental challenges we face. Local planning authorities need far tougher powers he said, citing the Cumbria coal mine application as an example where planning powers are too weak to enable councils to put climate action at the forefront of their decision.

Within ADEPT we have been talking to members about how best to take forward our work on climate change and to support our representatives on the main central / local government bodies – the Local Adaptation Advisory Panel (LAAP) and the Local Net Zero Forum (LNZF). The proposal is to have a new Climate Change strategic group that will link in with our existing subject and regional Boards. We have been talking to the LGA to ensure that our group will add value for our members and not duplicate the great work that the LGA is already doing to support local authorities and help them deliver local climate action plans. The aim is to agree terms of reference for the group in February and have it up and running in advance of the scheduled meetings of the LAAP and LNZF in late March – watch the newsletter for further news.

In 2023, let’s continue to lead the way in showing what local action can deliver and continue to press for the clarity and resources we need.

Further information

• For more information on ADEPT's climate change work, please take a look at the climate change hub.

Author

David Dale is ADEPT's policy officer.