Climate change and energy: policy

Local authorities play an important role in cutting an area's carbon emissions. This page looks at policy drivers.

• The UN Convention on Climate Change
• The Climate Change Act 2008
• Local performance framework
• CRC Energy Efficiency scheme
• Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006
• Display Energy Certificates
• Housing energy efficiency
• Planning and building control
• Powers to act
• New local powers to tackle climate change in future? 

The UN Convention on Climate Change

The UK government has signed the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement within the United Nations’ (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change. This commits the UK to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 12.5 per cent between 1990 and 2012. The Kyoto agreement ends in 2012 and a new international agreement is being negotiated.

At the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in December 2007, participants agreed that "deep cuts in global emissions will be required" in future.

The UN Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen in December 2009 failed to reach agreement on the level of cuts needed by each country. But the Copenhagan Accord, signed by countries that are responsible for over 80 per cent of global GHG emissions, committed these countries to report in January 2010 on their plans to cut emissions.

In response, the EU reiterated its commitment to reduce emissions by 30 per cent by 2020, over 1990 levels, "provided that other developed countries commit themselves to comparable emission reductions and that developing countries contribute adequately according to their responsibilities and respective capabilities."

Negotiations will continue in 2010 in preparation for a further conference in Mexico in December 2010.

The Copenhagen Accord – on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change website

European Union’s commitments following the Copenhagen Accord – on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change website

The Climate Change Act 2008

The UK government has already accepted that far more significant cuts in GHG emissions will be required. The Climate Change Act sets legally binding targets for reducing GHG emissions in the UK by 80 per cent between 1990 and 2050.

The act established the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which is an independent body to:

• advise the government on setting carbon budgets
• report to Parliament on the progress made in reducing GHG emissions.

The CCC’s inaugural report, 'Building a Low-carbon Economy: The UK's contribution to tackling climate change' was published in December 2008. This advised on the levels of the UK’s first three legally-binding carbon budgets for 2008-2022. The government accepted the CCC’s advice and approved carbon budgets which commit the UK to reducing GHG emissions by at least 34 per cent in 2020, relative to 1990 levels. These targets may be increased if strong international agreements are achieved under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Climate Change Act 2008 – on the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) website

Building a Low-carbon Economy: The UK's contribution to tackling climate change – on the CCC website

Local performance framework

A key driver for local authorities originated in the Local Government White Paper 2006. This introduced a new local performance framework, which includes:

• the national indicators (NIs)
• local area agreements (LAAs).

Climate change comes into both of these.

National indicators

All local areas must report annually on their performance against a wide range of national indicators (NIs)

These include two indicators of CO2 emissions:

• NI 185: CO2 reduction from local authority operations
• NI 186: Per capita reduction in CO2 emissions in the local authority area.

A related indicator is NI 187: Tackling fuel poverty – percentage of people receiving income-based benefits living in homes with a low energy efficiency rating.

NI 185 and NI 186 – on the DECC website

Local area agreements (LAAs) are three-year agreements between local strategic partnerships (LSPs) and central government about their priorities for performance improvement.

All county and single-tier LSPs have negotiated three-year LAAs with their regional Government Offices (GOs). These came into force in June 2008.

Although there are no district level LAAs, district councils have been involved in negotiating county LAAs. 135 – 90 per cent – of LAAs include one or more climate change indicators among their nationally agreed targets. Two-thirds of LAAs include improvement targets for NI 186. This is the fifth most popular LAA target. Almost a quarter of LAAs include a target for NI 185.

CRC Energy Efficiency scheme

The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency scheme was introduced in 2010. From 2013 it will apply mandatory emissions trading to emissions from large commercial and public sector organisations, including local authorities and schools with annual electricity use above 6,000MWh/year.

The CRC covers all energy use such as electricity, gas, fuel and oil except for transport fuels. It will give all local authorities that are part of the scheme a strong financial incentive to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels.

There are several CRC guides available from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), including the CRC User Guide. The scheme is administered by the Environment Agency. Their CRC web pages cover how to register, how the scheme is administered and the CRC help desk.

More about the CRC Energy Efficiency scheme – on the DECC website

CRC guides – on the DECC website

Environment Agency’s CRC web pages

The Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) has operated Carbon Trading Councils, simulated carbon trading for local authorities, since 2008. This gives councils an opportunity to learn about trading in a safe environment before the introduction of CRC. 

Council Trading Councils: Taking stock for a review of their experience so far – on the LGIU website

Carbon Trading Public Sector 2010/11: Invitation to join the LGIU's new virtual project – on the LGIU website

Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006

This act places a duty on all local authorities to have regard to the most recently published energy measures report when exercising their functions.

The Energy Measures report – on the DECC website

Display Energy Certificates

Since October 2008, Display Energy Certificates (DEC) must be displayed in all public buildings larger than 1,000 square metres and those provided for social housing. See more about DEC on the Department for Communities and Local Government website.

More about Display Energy Certificates – on the Communities and Local Government website

Housing energy efficiency

More than a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK come from energy used in the home. So improving housing standards can have a significant role in cutting emissions. Local authorities have long been involved in improving the energy efficiency of their own housing stock and promoting energy efficiency measures for all local homes.

Local authorities’ role was first established in the Home Energy Efficiency Act 1995. This has been followed by further measures to improve energy efficiency of both new and existing homes:

• Zero Carbon Homes
• Household Energy Management strategy.

Zero Carbon Homes

The government has set a target that by 2016 all new homes will be zero carbon, with a major progressive tightening of the energy efficiency building regulations – by 25 per cent in 2010 and by 44 per cent in 2013 – up to the zero carbon target in 2016.

Household Energy Management strategy

The strategy published in March 2010 sets out the government plans for meeting its target for a reduction of 29 per cent in carbon emissions from the household sector by 2020. It introduces a new strategic role for local authorities to drive and coordinate delivery. It also announced the development of a new Warm Homes Standard for social housing, including local authority housing stock.

Zero carbon homes – on the Communities and Local Government website

The Household Energy Management strategy – on the DECC website

Planning and building control

Planning policies can have an enormous influence on limiting carbon emissions from new developments.

Planning Policy Statements (PPS) offer guidance on planning policy and how the planning system works. Several of the PPS focus on important aspects of climate change.

PPS1: Delivering Sustainable Development

This outlines how local authorities’ planning policies should ensure sustainable development. For example, it states that planning should facilitate and promote sustainable and inclusive patterns of urban and rural development. One way to do this is to ensure that resources are used efficiently.

PPS1: Supplement on Climate Change

This sets out how planning should help shape places with lower carbon emissions and greater resilience to climate change impacts.

PPS22: Renewable Energy

This states that regional and local planning documents should contain policies designed to encourage the development of renewable energy resources. It also allows renewable energy targets to be set at regional and subregional levels.

Planning Policy Statements (PPS) – on the Communities and Local Government website

The Planning and Energy Act 2008 allows local councils to set targets in their areas, including for:

• onsite renewable energy
• onsite low carbon electricity
• energy efficiency standards.

The Planning and Energy Act 2008 – on the website of the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI)

Powers to act

The Local Government Association (LGA) recently undertook a review of the powers available to local authorities to tackle climate change. It identified the key powers as:

• the power to promote wellbeing
• powers to change own estate and operations
• community leadership powers
• powers to involve local people
• joint working powers
• planning powers
• transport powers
• housing powers
• financial powers
• emergency planning powers
• environmental protection powers
• powers under the Sustainable Communities Act
• subsidiary powers.

Perhaps the most important of these is power of wellbeing introduced in the Local Government Act 2000. Local authorities can use this legal power to deliver sustainable energy objectives. For example, several local authorities have used the power to help them implement energy services schemes for local residents. These generally offer consumers a combination of fuel supply at a good tariff, investment in energy saving measures and energy advice.

Cutting Through the Green Tape: The powers councils have to tackle climate change – on the LGA website

New local powers to tackle climate change in future?

The Low Carbon Transition Plan noted that:

"The government wants to encourage and empower local authorities to take additional action in tackling climate change, where they wish to do so. It believes that people should increasingly be able to look to their local authority not only to provide established services, but also to coordinate, tailor and drive the development of a low-carbon economy in their area, in a way that suits their preferences. The government will shortly consult stakeholders on the role that local authorities can play in meeting national carbon budgets...with possible new powers and flexibilities in this area."

The government has since announced nine areas that will pilot Local Carbon Frameworks. The pilots will start with working on emissions from the council’s own estates (NI 185) and then move on to area emissions (NI 186).

Page updated June 2010.