21 October 2011: Excellent new study from environmental think-tank Green Alliance based on a survey of local authorities, looking at work currently underway on climate change.
The report states “The survey revealed a three-way split between local authorities:.
- 37 per cent are deprioritising climate change or state that it was never a priority. Starkly worded submissions such as, “the sustainability function within my local authority has been deleted and the climate change function has been discontinued” illustrate the scale of the loss in certain places.
- 35 per cent remain firm in their commitment to climate change and believe that action could even increase in the context of localism.
- 28 per cent are narrowing their ambitions to focus on reducing emissions from their estate and ceasing work on wider environmental issues.
Overall, the results suggest that climate changework has narrowed, is very weak or absent in 65 per cent of local authorities.”