More than a third of the UK’s population is now represented by local authorities that are planning to reach net-zero emissions ahead of the government’s 2050 commitment.
A third of UK population covered by councils pledging net-zero
More than a third of the UK’s population is now represented by local authorities that are planning to reach net-zero emissions ahead of the government’s 2050 commitment.
Five council leaders have become the latest to join UK100’s “net-zero pledge” and reach the target at least five years ahead of Whitehall.
St Albans, Brighton and Hove, and Warwick district councils have signed up alongside the London boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham and Lambeth.
The pledge commits them to neutralising council emissions by 2030 and those of their residents and businesses by 2045.
A total of 58 climate-aligned councils are now part of UK100, a network of local authority leaders committed to tackling climate change. Collectively, they represent 23.5 million people – around 35 per cent of the UK’s population and 28 per cent of England’s land area.
UK100 said more than 100 local authorities have pledged to run on 100 per cent clean energy by 2050, while the most ambitious are aiming to go “further and faster than the government” on net-zero.
The network is lobbying for more powers and resources from central government to enable them to take ambitious climate action and the country to meet its legally bound target.
“It’s a task that will need bold leadership, legislative clarity, shifts in culture and behaviours, willingness to make mistakes and an enthusiastic adoption of new technologies,” said UK100’s incoming network membership director Christopher Hammond, who is a former leader of Southampton City Council. “I know from my time leading a city council that local government is uniquely placed to face and overcome these challenges.”
1 June 2021
Huw Morris, The Planner
