The progress of English and Welsh local authorities in addressing climate change

Abstract

This paper describes the progress that local authorities in England and Wales are making in adapting to the threat of climate change and taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The responses from surveys of local authorities in England

Cities and Climate Change

“…However, despite a handful of examples that demonstrate that it is possible to create localised models of GHG emissions, problems remain significant for most local authorities, and particularly those in the global south (Allman et al 2004;Lebel et al 2007;Sugiyama and Takeuchi 2008: 432). One critical issue is the availability of data.…”

“…However, this research has tended to focus on mitigation and on individual case-studies, predominantly in cities in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia (e.g. Allman et al 2004;Betsill 2001;Bulkeley 2000;Bulkeley and Betsill 2003;Bulkeley and Kern 2006;Davies 2005;Lindseth 2004;Kousky and Schneider 2003;Yarnal et al 2003), although there has been important work conducted in Asia, South Africa and Mexico (Bai 2007;Dhakhal 2004Dhakhal , 2006Holgate 2007;Romero Lankao 2007) and the initiation of work on urban climate adaptation in the global south (e.g. Alam and Rabbani 2007;Huq et al 2007;Satterthwaite et al 2008).…”

“…Even where data is collected, much of it is not available in the public realm as it is held by private utility companies who regard it as commercially sensitive. This has been a critical issue for local authorities in the UK, who have long campaigned for access to locally relevant data on energy supply and consumption (Allman et al 2004). …”

Multi-level climate policies in Ireland

“…In countries around the world, most local actions are mitigation with a lesser focus on adaptation (Bulkeley and Betsill 2003;Allman et al 2004;Wilson 2006;Tribbia and Moser 2008). For example, the Australian government is using local renewable energy schemes in Newcastle as demonstration projects (Betsill and Bulkeley 2006).…”

“…This implementation deficit exists despite supranational agreements and increased available information: transformation from aspirations to implementation is not widespread. In summary, most local authorities are not prepared to deal with current climate vulnerability or increasing vulnerability with anticipated climate change (Allman et al 2004;Lankao 2007).…”