A new LGA report shares local innovation from abroad
Councils are taking innovative steps to tackle climate change, including declaring climate emergencies, developing action plans and rolling out projects. However, they also face significant challenges, such as a lack of dedicated funding and uncertainty over financing options.
Local government is crucial in delivering impactful climate action that helps to create prosperous communities – but effective support from national government is essential.
There needs to be greater clarity over the role of local government in implementing climate action, and improved coordination between the national and local levels, to guarantee success.
Structure and governance can play a vital role in a nation’s response to climate change. We can learn a huge amount from the way other countries use local and national collaboration to improve outcomes.
An LGA report explores the ways five other countries with different levels of devolution are tackling climate change. Interviewees from all countries stated the importance of local government being considered as an implementation partner, and having a clearly defined set of roles and responsibilities in national climate action policies, legislation and programmes.
Looking at how other countries’ nationally led approaches are impacting renewable energy could help deliver on the potential for success in England.
There are examples of local government going beyond the ambition of national government, leading to successful outcomes.
In the Netherlands, municipalities have the authority to set and enforce local building energy efficiency standards that are more ambitious than those set by the national government.
In the United States, cities can implement city-wide sales taxes to fund climate action, as seen with the Climate Protection Fund in Denver.
Policies from the Netherlands highlight the importance of vertical coordination throughout the drafting and planning stages, to ensure unifying visions and goals, as well as buy-in and clarity for every level of stakeholder involved.
All regional goals in the Netherlands, together, must ensure that national obligations for climate, water, nitrogen and nature are met.
Across all the case study countries, there are examples of the innovative and successful methods local government is using to fund climate action. New Zealand’s national subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles, for instance, are raised through taxation of high-emission vehicles, and the revenues from its emissions trading scheme finance its national climate emergency response fund, which local government can then access.
Going beyond the raising of funds for climate action, there is also a key insight around how funding is distributed. The Norwegian Klimasats fund is an example of a well-designed mechanism for deploying national grant funding in a way that works for local authorities, and it ensures ownership through requirements to match funds locally.
Collaboration between neighbouring local authorities is a key opportunity to address climate risks. In Florida, for example, local governments have been planning and implementing adaptation initiatives as a collective, without substantial administrative and financial support from the state government.
This research uncovered multiple examples of local governments piloting innovative climate action. Mechanisms to share this knowledge are essential to successfully accelerate the implementation of these actions on a larger scale. Consequently, I have written to the Secretary of State and the Shadow Secretary of State to make them aware of this report and to request meetings to discuss it.
’Climate action: international learnings on the governance of national and local government collaboration’ is available to read in full at the LGA website.