31 March 2006
Town halls will need more money if they are to help the government achieve their ambitious carbon emission targets, local government leaders warned this week.
Responding to the publication of the 2006 Climate Change Programme, Tomorrow's climate, today's challenge, David Sparks, chair of the Local Government Association's environment board, applauded the recognition that councils were leading the way in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions.
'We want to bring all councils up to the level of those which are the best at tackling climate change,' he said. 'But in order for this to happen we need more money, in the region of £28m, so we can harness the work of all council departments.'
A total of 109 councils have now signed up to the Nottingham Declaration – a voluntary pledge to take on the issue of climate change, signed by the leader and chief executive of a council.
Speaking at the launch of the programme on March 28, communities and local government minister David Miliband said climate change was one of the most important and daunting challenges facing society.
'We need to use all levers of government to achieve change,' he said. 'The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's commitment is to sustainable communities but these also have to be environmentally sustainable.'
Among the measures announced by Miliband were a new planning policy statement to encourage the creation of environmentally friendly housing developments, updated building regulations to raise energy efficiency standards and the introduction of energy performance certificates for all buildings.
In addition, the public sector will have access to a £20m revolving loan fund to invest in energy efficiency, while a new £4m local government best practice support programme will benchmark council performance and target those who need help to improve.
But there was criticism from the Royal Town Planning Institute. President Clive Harridge said the planning policy statement did not go far enough. 'We also need to be reducing our reliance on cars, providing more money for public transport and lowering flood risk,' he said.
The Climate Change Programme is expected to reduce the UK's carbon dioxide emissions to 15%–18% below 1990 levels by 2010 – a revision of the original 20% target, which ministers admitted would be missed because of higher than anticipated levels of economic growth and recent rises in global energy prices.
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