Central government should provide guidance, reporting mechanisms and additional capacity and capability support to enable local authorities to better monitor and report their net zero progress. Central and local government should work together to convene an annual Local Climate Summit that helps to share best practice, attract green investment, and provide an opportunity for areas to update on their Locally Determined Contributions. |
806. The Review also heard that monitoring, reporting, and sharing of data could be improved at the local level.
807. With a clear framework, statutory duty, missions and devolution, there will be greater value in a standard approach to monitoring and reporting of progress, and a wider range of approaches from which best practice can be taken.
808. If central government is to increase local responsibility for net zero delivery, there will also need to be clear local accountability. Government should look to learn lessons from what has already worked with regards to local monitoring and reporting of other services such as recycling, where transparency and targets have driven greater accountability.
809. Government should also take care to ensure that reporting processes are not burdensome for local authorities and have value, including in how they drive better information sharing, increase public awareness and scrutiny, and are used to help solve delivery problems. Reporting mechanisms must have a clear focus on reducing emissions and economic outcomes.
810. BEIS, the Office for Net Zero Delivery, and the Office for Local Government should work with local authorities to improve monitoring, reporting and accountability for local net zero delivery. Measuring and accounting for emissions directly within the control of local authorities - such as those from their own estate - could help provide a basis from which local capability can develop. Government recognised this in the Net Zero Strategy and should expedite delivery of this work.
811. One approach that the Review heard to delivering net zero locally is through a Locally Determined Contribution, currently being trialled in Cambridgeshire.563 As part of the Paris Agreement, the UK is required to establish and regularly update a Nationally Determined Contribution which sets out how we plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts. Locally Determined Contributions would follow the same approach at a smaller scale. Setting a Locally Determined Contribution could help to quantify the opportunities and actions for a local area while giving a clearer sense of how local actions support the UK's broader net zero target.
CASE STUDY: US Embassy Air Pollution Data564 A recent study has found that US embassies helped to measurably improve air quality in developing countries by tweeting real-time local pollution data. In 2008, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing began tweeting air quality readings from a new pollution monitor. By 2020, US embassies had installed over 50 monitors in 38 low- and middle-income countries and were live-tweeting air quality readings on pollution levels in cities across the world, improving the information available to local residents. Researchers examined 50 of these embassy sites located across 36 countries, gathering satellite data on pollution from before and after US embassies began sharing air quality readings. They then compared the results with data from similar cities without embassy monitors. The study found that monitoring and sharing information led to a measurable reduction in airborne particulate matter. Researchers estimated that, in the median city, improvements in air quality saved 303 lives in 2019, with a related monetary benefit of $127 million. |
812. The Review also heard that central government should be doing more to promote best practice, and that there are sometimes difficulties sharing information between different tiers of local authority.
813. While each local area is different, each will also share many challenges and opportunities - such as on buildings retrofit. For example, instead of every local authority mapping property archetypes around which they should build their local retrofit strategy, central government could reduce this inefficiency by identifying and sharing best practice.
814. Central and local government should work together to convene an annual Local Climate Summit to share best practice, inviting community groups, social enterprises, businesses, and international leaders to highlight their own successes and share learning. This summit should have a strong focus on private finance, acting as a local green investment forum. It could also serve as a forum to update on the progress of Locally Determined Contributions.