Local authorities call for investment into net-zero goals

Local authorities call for greater investment to help cities achieve their net-zero ambitions. 

A group of elected leaders are calling on the government to invest and ensure that the UK’s recovery from COVID-19 supports cities net-zero ambitions.

Council leaders from across the country have signed up to the UK 100, a network for UK local authorities which focuses on climate and clean energy policy.

The group says that ‘together we can renew our communities by working in partnership with the government.’

The group are calling for – an increase in net-zero investment; a renewal of the electricity grid; a commitment to ensure that the nation’s homes are retrofitted; moves to speed up the transition to low emission travel and expansion of local powers to drive down emissions.

Cllr Nick Forbes, leader of Newcastle City Council who has signed up to UK 100 said: ‘The pandemic has, in exposing the fragility of the existing economy and how it is the poorest communities that suffer most from major financial shocks, shown the need to build more prosperous and resilient communities.

‘We must seize the opportunities we now have to deliver a green recovery that will both reduce carbon emissions and enable us to create jobs and cleaner, healthier, safer places to work and live, reskill residents and restore the natural environment upon which we all rely.

‘As local authorities, our knowledge and understanding of our people and our areas mean we are well placed to design and deliver the right solutions, but to deliver on them will require adequate Government investment, ambitious national frameworks and the necessary powers to enhance our ability to act in partnership to tackle the threat of climate change and set ourselves on a path to a flourishing net-zero economy.’

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