In November 2019, the European Parliament approved a resolution declaring a climate and environmental emergency. Closer to home in the North West, many local authorities across the region, responding to demands from residents, campaigners, businesses and other groups, also declared a climate emergency.
Councils can and must act quickly to reduce their own carbon emissions. They also have the mandate to provide leadership for place-based action across all sectors within their areas.
This report aims to bring together information to help all those working in local authorities to translate declarations, recognising the state of the climate crisis and the level and speed of change required, into meaningful action.
In short, it provides:
- an overview of the current position of local authorities in the North West regarding their commitments to the Climate Emergency (section 2);
- explores a case study of one council as an illustrative example of action underway (section 3);
- outlines a comprehensive framework for action in the recently published Ashden’s 31 climate actions (section 4);
- recommends conditions for a successful journey drawing heavily from the case study (section 5).
At the end of this report is a summary of further useful support and resources available. You can download the full report: Local Authorities Response to the Climate Emergency: From Declaration to Action, via this link.