Nick Appleyard suggests that co-operation on climate change initiatives will provide a severe test of the Government’s commitment to localism

Councils have narrowly avoided having carbon budgets enforced on them from Whitehall, but serious questions still remain over how a consistent approach to climate change mitigation at local level can be achieved.

Energy and climate change secretary, Chris Huhne, and his Liberal Democrat colleague, Richard Kemp, vice-president of the Local Government Association (LGA), have now signed a deal that will see joint working between central and local government to reduce carbon emissions.

Councils will be encouraged to sign up to a new Nottingham Declaration – a voluntary agreement first established in October 2000, which set out a commitment to the Kyoto Agreement and plans for a carbon-reduction target of 20% on 1990 levels for the decade up to 2010.

But, despite the case for localism and reducing top-down burdens for the sector, the argument in favour of a carbon budget policy once had strong cross-party support among councils and at ministerial level within the Government. So what changed?

A campaign for local carbon budgets – led by Friends of the Earth (FoE) – proposed a 40% emissions cut by 2020, and was backed by 37 local authorities, including Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester city councils.

It was presented to Mr Huhne in September 2010, with the backing of the Federation of Small Businesses and Unison, not to mention the support of Cabinet Office minister, Oliver Letwin, and climate change minister, Greg Barker.

Mr Huhne was even quoted by an FoE briefing in December 2010 as saying: ‘I pledge to support a local carbon budget for every local authority which caps CO2 in the local area in line with scientific demands for emissions cuts and local circumstances.’

But, speaking in the House of Commons on the eve of last week’s announcement, Mr Barker confirmed a change of direction. Responding to a question from Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, on the merits of carbon budgets, he said: ‘We have given full consideration to these issues and we have determined that the best way forward is co-operation, not by imposing top-down carbon budgets on local authorities.’

Lord Marland had already let this decision slip as the Energy Bill passed through the House of Lords the previous week, when he revealed a Nottingham Declaration approach had been deemed the best way to go forward.

But Labour’s shadow energy and climate change secretary, Meg Hillier, begged to differ. She said: ‘This is not a real policy. We know economic times are hard and yet ministers unveil this little voluntary “if you feel like it, you can do it” scheme.

She claimed: ‘They have failed to grasp the real problem – the real issue here is climate change will happen, and temperatures will continue to rise unless we properly mitigate emissions.

‘The Government talks about localism, but if it’s all about localism, then surely local government should fall in pole position here.’

However Cllr Kemp remained upbeat and said: ‘This is how relationships should be between central and local government. Establishing an agreed set of objectives and then working out who does what in delivering them.

‘I only wish all government departments were as good as the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in doing this,’ he added.

The memorandum of understanding explains how the DECC and the Local Government Group’s partnership approach will aim to meet national policy objectives, such as an 80% cut in emissions, relative to 1990 levels, by 2050 as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008.

Tackling fuel poverty and achieving the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive target of 15% of UK energy consumption from renewables by 2020, both also feature prominently.

The memorandum will be reviewed at the end of each five-year carbon budget period, starting in 2013. Between now and July, the DECC and the LGA will agree how to support councils to meet the agreed objectives, and a Nottingham Declaration Board (NDB) will be established to draw up a new action plan.

The new declaration will be drafted in July, ahead of a launch in the autumn.

Work will also be carried out to build on the Local Carbon Framework Programme – originally promoted by the Labour Government and spared from cuts by communities secretary, Eric Pickles – which is designed to optimise council involvement in the Green Deal to encourage greater energy efficiency in homes.

Whether an opt-in scheme can ensure local authorities prioritise the pressing issue of emission reduction during a time of austerity remains to be seen. But, should such an approach be successful, it could well go down as the localism agenda’s greatest achievement.

Should it fail, however, the UK is likely to find its short-term 2020 target of reducing 1990 emissions levels by 34% is next to impossible.