COP26 in Glasgow has been preceded by dire warnings of the urgency to reduce carbon emissions, with the UN secretary-general calling it a “code red for humanity” and the IPCC concluding that changes to the Earth’s climate are now “widespread, rapid, and intensifying.” However, the necessary action to reduce emissions has been delayed for decades by political expediency together with short-term business and financial interests.

A recent Scientists Warning Europe paper signed by many of the world’s top climate scientists states that “for us to have any chance of staying under the 1.5°C threshold identified in the Paris Agreement, (the target) should ideally be 2030 or as near as possible.”

The Labour Party briefly endorsed this science-based target, but retreated from it when Keir Starmer took over, leaving only the Greens with such necessary ambitions.

Local authorities have stepped into the breach left by British government inertia, with more than 300 of them declaring “climate emergencies” under pressure from Extinction Rebellion and youth activists packing council chambers, lobbying councillors and signing petitions. Many have set targets of 2030 or even earlier for both their own operations and their whole area to become “net zero.”

However, councils are poorly equipped to meet their targets,  lacking the necessary finances, legislation, expertise and skills to  make the deep reductions in carbon emissions from buildings, transport, energy and agriculture that are urgently needed. They are also failing to address the need for adaptation due to increased rainfall and extreme temperatures.

Local authorities in England have had their funding cut by more than half since 2009/10, forcing them to make up the shortfall by other means. Cuts have been spread unevenly across the UK, with cities the worst hit, their day to day spending falling by 18 per cent between 2009/10 and 2017/18.

Apart from funding constraints, local authorities also receive very little support from central government since the Tory-Lib Dem coalition abolished their statutory duty to reduce carbon emissions in 2011. Many of the national policy mechanisms, such as the national planning framework, actively work against them reducing emissions.

It’s no surprise then, especially with the Covid-19 pandemic diverting focus, staff and resources, that it has taken years for most councils to deliver climate action plans and strategies.

Many councils have focused on reducing the emissions from their own operations (which make up a small percentage of the total) by purchasing electric vehicles, installing solar panels and heat pumps and making their buildings more energy efficient.

However, plans for whole area emission reductions are inevitably piecemeal, unambitious and certainly not addressing the system change that is required.

There is massive embodied resistance and inertia in the system, with councils stuck with decisions made decades ago on public transport, placemaking, roads and buildings. 

There is increasing energy and demand for change from communities, especially young people, but councillors are not representative of their communities, being significantly older, male and white.

Councils have a reputation for being distant and detached from their communities, holding hard to access consultations and ignoring their outcomes. Some have held climate citizen’s assemblies but much more is needed to actively engage citizens in co-creating and implementing the radical solutions that are needed.

Faced with competing priorities, councillors tend to embrace “business as usual” and deprioritise the climate and ecological dimensions when making decisions.

The BBC reported recently that more than a third of councils had voted to build new roads and expand airports, relying on offsetting which, according to Professor Kevin Anderson, “is worse than doing nothing. It is without scientific legitimacy, is dangerously misleading and almost certainly contributes to a net increase in the absolute rate of global emissions growth.”

Only national governments have the power and resources to stop subsidising fossil fuel extraction, reduce waste, insulate all our energy inefficient buildings, shift our energy systems from coal, oil and gas and transform our transport systems to being active and public rather than car-based and individual.

However, local authorities will be the necessary partners to deliver these solutions.

The rapid transition to zero carbon has to be a just one, leaving no one behind, but also needs to recognise that 10 per cent of the population emit 50 per cent of the carbon. For solutions to be effective they must involve a massive transfer of wealth from richer to poorer individuals and countries.

Mechanisms, such as a “carbon fee and dividend” advocated by the Citizen’s Climate Lobby, would go a long way to addressing inequalities as we make the transition from fossil fuels, as well as a retraining programme in green job skills.

Individuals can play their part, not just by recycling or eating less meat, but by engaging with their political representatives to get them to pass Climate and Ecological motions and Action Plans at both a local and national level, and commit to providing the means to turn ambitions into practice.

Kevin Frea is deputy leader and cabinet member for Halton-with-Aughton Ward, Lancaster. He is a member of Eco-Socialist Independents.