Local authorities accelerating progress to net zero through engagement

The challenge

Three quarters of UK local authorities have declared climate emergencies, but they face challenges in translating ambitions into real-world projects that will make a difference. There are many barriers, often not to do with technology – from capability and resources to finance and regulation.

A common problem is low engagement with climate and carbon issues, inside and outside the organisation. Another is that local authorities often have complex systems, originally designed to achieve outcomes unrelated to net zero.

Forest of Dean Council in the south-west and Warrington Borough Council in the north-west are two of many local authorities tackling these barriers with projects funded by Innovate UK.

The scope of the projects

In both these local authorities, funding from Innovate UK’s Net Zero Living programme has enabled them to appoint a net zero innovation and delivery officer for two years, ramp up engagement with staff and citizens, and set up new practical decarbonisation projects. While driving their own progress and achieving impact, they are also creating learning that will help others around the UK.

Moving from awareness to action on net zero

In the Forest of Dean, the Council has used the funding to launch a wide-ranging engagement programme on decarbonisation. It had already grown climate awareness among senior staff using Carbon Literacy training (CLT). Building on this, and the ‘pledges’ people made during the training, the project team is driving deeper and wider discussions focused on people’s specific roles. Staff work together on objectives, share resources and knowledge between departments, and plan practical steps. A simple example is a staff pool of electric vehicles, to cut down on petrol and diesel miles.

The team has ramped up net zero conversations with the Council’s officers more widely, using frequent informal updates, and also extended engagement beyond its own staff to elected councillors, building momentum with quickfire ‘climate basics’ discussions to look at their role and what they can do.

Community Climathons

Community engagement is also a vital element for net zero progress, so Forest of Dean Council has run a series of community ‘Climathons’, taking a cue from the hackathon concept.

In Climathons, people from the community meet to discuss topics such as transport, food, farming or energy, the net zero vision for each, and what might be done to get there. Using a process facilitated by the Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) at the University of Gloucestershire, Climathons generate a bank of valuable ideas, and participants who feel empowered to make a difference.

Simon Richards, Forest of Dean Council’s Net Zero Delivery Officer, said “overall, our Innovate UK funded project is already having an impact, as a step towards our goal of embedding net zero understanding and action across all the Council’s teams and functions.”

System change to deliver net zero

Warrington Borough Council’s Innovate UK funded project is also pushing beyond initial climate awareness to create communities of net zero practice and action plans.

As with most local authorities its operations are based on complex systems, so a clear need is to first build the capacity for change. Working with the Association for Public Service Excellence, the Borough Council created a five-step development course, the Carbon Culture Programme, which brings officers together to diagnose systemic barriers to net zero and look at solutions.

The participants, drawn from varied roles to bring diversity of perspective, work in themed groups covering buildings and infrastructure, transport, and procurement. With a remit to be creative and think about ‘the art of the possible,’ they focus on potential changes and actions.

Achieving impact

Through both these projects, local authorities are discovering what works in the drive to decarbonise, and generating a bank of learning that will help others. While every place is different, valuable common insights are emerging:

• Climate engagement works best when frequent and informal.
• Training in basic carbon literacy is a valuable foundation, but further focused work is needed to build upon it.
• Rapid progress often requires looking afresh at whole systems.

Our project is already delivering impact, as people take the initiative to make changes. For example, colleagues in children’s care – an area with many competing challenges – have already developed a climate action plan for their directorate. The whole project is helping us to translate our ambition into action.

Robyn Lees, Net Zero Delivery Officer at Warrington Borough Council

About the funding

The projects at Warrington and the Forest of Dean are two of 25 ‘Fast Follower’ projects funded through Innovate UK’s Net Zero Living programme. Over the three years from 2023 to 2025, the programme is investing around £60m in projects to help regional authorities and businesses accelerate the transition to net zero, across the UK and internationally.

For information and updates on the Innovate UK Net Zero Living programme, see the Net Zero Living programme pages and follow on LinkedIn.