Declaring a Climate emergency: UK Local Authorities

Abstract

En mayo de 2020, 33 autoridades locales del Reino Unido declararon la emergencia climática y desarrollaron planes de acción con objetivos y acciones climáticas. El objetivo de la investigación fue evaluar la calidad y estructura de estos planes frente a criterios y capacidades administrativas. Primero, la evaluación de los planes de acción se evalúa sobre la base de tres criterios: contenido, características y proceso de creación. Luego, se analiza si los planes responden a las capacidades administrativas: reguladoras, de coordinación, de ejecución y analíticas de las autoridades locales. Los resultados de la evaluación cuantitativa se complementan con un análisis cualitativo que implicó entrevistas semiestructuradas con representantes locales a cargo del diseño e implementación de los planes de acción. Después de analizar los resultados cuantitativos y cualitativos, el equipo identificó las áreas más desafiantes para la planificación de acciones de emergencia climática en las autoridades locales: inclusividad; costo de los planes de acción; creación de alianzas; financiamiento; monitoreo; co-beneficios; y, evaluación y mitigación de riesgos para las acciones climáticas. La investigación proporciona recomendaciones para cada área e incluye un manual para autoridades locales.

In 2019, the United Kingdom (UK) became one of the first countries to declare a climate emergency. In this regard, local governments in the country have taken the lead and as of May 2020, 33 local authorities have declared a climate emergency. Following their climate declarations, each local authority has developed an action plan which sets specific climate targets and actions. The aim of this project is to assess the quality and structure of these action plans against criteria (a list developed by the project) and administrative capacities. Assessing action plans according to the criteria follows a structured methodology. Attributes are first assessed as part of a 3 checkpoints analysis, which entails: 1) assessing the contents of action plans, 2) assessing climate action plan characteristics, 3) assessing the climate action plan processes. Following this assessment, attributes are grouped within administrative capacities. Further analysis is performed on regulatory, coordination, delivery and analytical capacities of local authorities. The results from the quantitative assessment were further examined through a qualitative analysis which entailed semi-structured interviews with local representatives in charge of the design and implementation of the action plans analysed. The interview stage brought new insights on the challenges local authorities are facing as well as shed light upon best practices. After carefully analysing the quantitative and qualitative results, the team identified the most challenging areas for climate emergency action planning in local governments. These areas are the following: i) inclusiveness; ii) costing of action plans; iii) creation of partnerships; iv) item ownership; v) securing finance; vi) monitoring; vii) realisation of cobenefits and viii) risk assessment and risk mitigation for climate actions. For each of these areas the present report provides detailed recommendations from best practices and academic literature. The project’s tailored recommendations are also included in a manual for local authorities.