‘Place’ is the key to effective climate action

(Credit: Adobe Stock)

How ready are UK cities for net-zero? A report from the Place-based Climate Action Network (PCAN) found powerful examples of climate action across all parts of the country but noted that the momentum seen in 2019, following the spate of climate emergency declarations, has diminished.

One positive is that the focus is broadening beyond net-zero targets to include wider climate strategies. This is crucial: the challenge goes way beyond carbon and clean energy. Yet adaptation planning is still in its infancy. As time progresses, more people’s lives and livelihoods will become vulnerable to climate-related stresses, as the recent rainfall and flooding in Spain has tragically shown. What places need now are climate action plans that tackle net-zero and adaptation to climate impacts together.

Local councils do much of the heavy lifting, but they can’t do it all. To achieve the necessary momentum, businesses, organisations, anchor institutions and communities must also be engaged. New place-based governance models, based on partnerships that work co-operatively with local councils, have emerged following the example set by the Leeds Climate Commission in 2017, but as the report concludes, they are not a substitute for political leadership.

“Local action without national support will be challenging; national policy without local buy-in will fail”

With proper resources and support, these local partnerships can leverage their convening power to achieve better outcomes in delivering net-zero. PCAN, which was funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through its Economic and Social Research Council, ended in April 2024 with an unequivocal message: “Local action without national support will be challenging; national policy without local buy-in will fail.”

In Yorkshire and the Humber, there is strong, cross-party ambition to accelerate climate action, which enables our work at the Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission (YHCC), including our newly updated Climate Action Plan. All the region’s local authority chief executives and mayors are committed to it. But are we climate-ready? Not even close. That’s why our plan gives equal priority to adaptation and resilience alongside rapid emissions reduction, as well as protecting and restoring nature and ensuring the transition to net-zero is fair and just.

We also have a route to get us there. A recent YHCC publication, Our Carbon Story, reveals that we can technically meet our ambitious regional zero-carbon target of 2038, and it would be good for the economy to do so, with significant returns on investment. It would also bring benefits to people’s lives, alleviating fuel poverty through housing retrofit and achieving massive health improvements through switching short car journeys to active travel.

But to make this happen, we need a fourfold increase in the rate of emissions reduction, and £7.3bn per year investment to 2038 − and that requires extending the government’s mission-driven approach to facilitate deeper and faster changes, and to include climate readiness. At a recent event, a senior local authority representative described the need to move from “incremental pragmatism” to “making every decision count”. Those priorities must be relevant to communities and the challenges they face if they are to support and participate in them − and if they are ultimately to be successful.

For further information, please visit https://yorksandhumberclimate.org.uk/. The PCAN report can be found at https://pcancities.org.uk/.

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