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Alia Dharssi

What We Can Learn About Climate Action from UK Cities

1st November 2021/in Carbon Budget, City Planning, Frontpage Article, Public Engagement, Thought Leadership /by Alia Dharssi

As negotiations commence at COP 26 in Glasgow, countries worldwide have failed to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Treaty targets to limit global warming to 1.5°C. But cities are a bright spot. Many have developed climate action plans in line with—and often more ambitious than—the Paris targets, and are pushing higher levels of government to take bolder action.

UK cities have some of the world’s most ambitious targets, with many adopting goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2030. Their aspirations are backed by widespread public support, including from industry.

How did they get here? And what can other cities learn from their approach?

These are the questions we explored in the 1000 Cities Climate Action Best Practices in UK Cities report, which spotlights best practices from the work of 12 UK local governments, including Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, and Somerset.

Our teams—at SSG and the 1000 CITIES Initiative, which aims to mobilize 1,000 cities in response to the climate crisis—created the report with the aim of sharing learnings with urban decision-makers looking to develop and implement bold climate action plans.

This blog discusses three key best practices that have enabled bold climate action in the UK:

  1. Deep community engagement,
  2. Climate lenses and carbon budgets for municipal decision-making, and
  3. Climate action networks.

These topics and others will also be explored tomorrow at an SSG-hosted summit in Glasgow during COP26: Cities Taking Rapid Climate Action Now. The summit aims to hone city-scale climate action implementation. Outputs from the summit will be distributed.

Enabling the Community to Pave the Way

Deep community engagement has played a key role in enabling UK cities to set ambitious targets, according to the report. All the cities featured created a community coalition that brought together members of the public, charities, businesses, climate experts, and other stakeholders to advise the city on its climate strategy and, in some cases, to write it, monitor it, or help implement it. The groups the cities created include citizens’ assemblies, citizens’ juries, and public-private task forces.

These efforts helped improve citizen engagement, increase public support for bold action, and highlight challenges and opportunities for climate action. Thanks to these groups, cities could also hit the ground running with climate actions that were pre-approved by local industry and community groups.

For example, in 2019, Oxford became the first city to create a citizens assembly on climate change. The assembly, which was livestreamed on social media, brought together a group representative of the City, including members from all major political parties, climate and social scientists, business sector representatives, and community organisations. These citizens identified a widespread desire for Oxford to be a leader in tackling the climate crisis, prompting the City to commit an additional £1,040,000 to its climate action efforts and laying the foundation for it to undertake the most ambitious smart grid trials in the UK.

Identifying Causes to Build Support

Many of the most successful actions and plans undertaken by the cities studied are those that jointly address the climate emergency alongside other needs or issues, such as energy poverty, air quality, and health. For example, building retrofit programmes that improve energy efficiency in low-income households can help reduce energy bills and alleviate energy poverty. Similarly, measures to get cars off the road by improving transit, as well as walking and cycling infrastructure, can also improve air quality and health.

For example, Glasgow’s Affordable Warmth Programme provides energy retrofits and low-carbon heat to social housing for no or low cost, helping residents save £40-60 on monthly utility bills. In doing so, it responds to the need to reduce poverty alongside the need to reduce emissions from the city’s aging buildings. Similarly, Birmingham is creating a Clean Air Zone to reduce air pollution while cutting down on emissions by requiring cars to meet stringent GHG emissions standards in the city centre.

Accountability Tools to Stay on Track

UK cities have also adopted mechanisms that hold them accountable to their climate pledge. These include climate lenses, carbon budgets, and annual emissions reporting mechanisms. More than half of the cities featured in the report had implemented a “climate lens” to keep City Council decisions aligned with their climate goals. The City of Leeds, for example, requires all reports to Council to provide details on the climate implications of proposed decisions. In addition, a report is presented at each Council meeting outlining progress towards emissions reduction targets.

Leading cities are also taking their accountability to the next level by annually reporting on their emissions and creating carbon budgets, which set a cap on how much greenhouse gas they can emit—ever. Much like a financial budget, carbon budgets force cities to stay on track. If cities emit less or more in one year, that amount can be added to or deducted the budget from future years. In this way, carbon budgets force cities to consider emissions alongside investment decisions.

Networking to Accelerate Action

All the cities featured in the report participated in climate action networks. These helped them accelerate local climate action, filling in gaps where support from higher levels of government or expertise may be lacking. Participating cities benefit by testing new and innovative GHG emissions reduction approaches, sharing tips for implementation efforts, boosting their local and international profiles, encouraging one another to increase their levels of ambition, and more.

For example, the City of Manchester is establishing a programme to share learnings from its Climate Emergency Framework and bottom-up governance structure for climate action with cities across the EU. Similarly, Liverpool is one of three European cities participating in the URBAN GreenUP project, an initiative exploring how nature-based solutions—like enhanced soils, green roofs, and planting trees that maximise cooling—can mitigate climate change, while improving air quality and water management.

We’re looking forward to discussing these, as well as other innovations, for scaling up climate action at our Summit: Cities Taking Rapid Climate Action Now, a participatory event on the sidelines of COP26 on November 3 in Glasgow. Tickets for the free event are available on Eventbrite.

To learn more about the best practices above, as well as the other findings of the project, download the complete 1000 CITIES Climate Action Best Practices in UK Cities report. The project was funded by the Rothschild Foundation, a UK-based charitable trust focused on the arts and humanities, the environment, and social welfare.

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Alia Dharssi

UK Cities Lead on Global Climate Action Goals

17th December 2020/in City Planning, Frontpage Article, Pathway2Paris, Public Engagement, Sustainability Planning, Thought Leadership /by Alia Dharssi

LONDON, MONTREAL, NEW YORK, and VANCOUVER, Dec. 17, 2020 [Press Release] — Five years into the Paris Agreement—and in the lead-up to the 2021 UN climate negotiations in Glasgow—UK cities are taking bold climate action. Cities worldwide have much to learn from their UK peers’ successes and challenges, according to a new report released Thursday by the 1000 CITIES Initiative, which aims to mobilise 1,000 cities to respond to the climate crisis. Read more

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Naomi Devine

You’re invited: Pathway to Paris Earth Day 50: A Virtual Festival for our Planet // April 26th

24th April 2020/in Campaigns, News, Pathway2Paris, Public Engagement /by Naomi Devine

SSG is thrilled and excited to invite you to join us for Pathway to Paris Earth Day 50: A Virtual Festival for our Planet. Read more

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Naomi Devine

Join SSG at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco

13th August 2018/in Campaigns, Energy & Emissions Modelling and Planning, News, Public Engagement /by Naomi Devine

This year’s Global Climate Action Summit is taking stock and charting the next steps for global climate action by bringing together governments, students, citizens, entrepreneurs and change makers together in San Francisco. The summit will be held from September 12-14, 2018. The event – which includes a main plenary and hundreds of affiliated side performances, workshops, tours and talks – is intended to highlight ongoing action in mitigation and adapting to climate change, and to connect global actors on the next course of action. A series of ‘challenges’ are being proposed to encourage healthy energy systems, healthy cities, inclusive growth, land and ocean stewardship and financial investments in climate action. These challenges will help declare ongoing commitment and a new wave of ambition in creating a prosperous and sustainable future. Read more

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Naomi Devine

Day 2: Insights from the IPCC Cities and Climate Change Science Conference

7th March 2018/in Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation Modelling and Planning, Community Planning & Health Planning, Energy & Emissions Modelling and Planning, News, Public Engagement /by Naomi Devine

The City of Oslo has embedded emissions reductions deeply into the mechanics of municipal operations. The Vice-Mayor of Oslo discussed her City’s carbon budget, which parallels the City’s financial budget. Departments are assigned responsibilities and are required to implement those responsibilities in order to achieve their targets of cutting emissions in half over 1990 levels by 2020 and becoming completely carbon neutral by 2030. This mechanism relies on the strongest tool the city has – the city budget process – and brings a new transparency to greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions planning, with an annual reporting process. Read more

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Jeremy Murphy

Post COP21 Next Steps

17th March 2016/in Public Engagement, Team, Webinar /by Jeremy Murphy

Following the commitment of world leaders to an aspirational limit in global temperature of 1.5 degree increase at the December 2015 COP 21 negotiations (UNFCCC, 2015), it is clear that we need to dramatically change our current development paths if we are to achieve this objective.

What are the next steps for Canadian governments if they are serious about achieving a limit of 1.5 degrees increase and in a time frame that will make a difference for humanity? Are the scholars from Sustainable Canada Dialogues right that we can achieve a carbon neutral economy by 2050 through renewable energy? What kinds of policies and incentives have to be in place to accelerate the pace of change if we are to meet our commitments under COP21? How far does the Vancouver Declaration get us towards 1.5?

What are the Next Steps?
Join us on March 23rd, 10:00am-11:00pm PST or 1:00pm-2:00pm EST, for a wide-ranging conversation on the next steps Canada should take if they are serious about their commitments as a signatory to COP 21.

Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada and Member of Parliament
Professor Ann Dale, Principle Investigator MC3 research project, Meeting the Climate Change Challenge.
Professor Catherine Potvin, the fearless leader behind the seminal action plan, Acting on Climate Change: Solutions from Canadian scholars.
Yuill Herbert, Director of Sustainability Solutions Group and one of this country’s foremost community climate activists
Professor Leslie King, Co-Researcher MC3 research project, Meeting the Climate Change Challenge.

Click here to join the conversation

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Jeremy Murphy

What is SSG?

8th March 2016/in Agricultural Planning, Campaigns, Campus Sustainability, Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation Modelling and Planning, Community Planning & Health Planning, Energy & Emissions Modelling and Planning, Green Building & LEED, Natural Infrastructure & Engineering, Neighbourhood Planning and Design, Public Engagement, Team /by Jeremy Murphy

In conversations with new recruits, with potential clients, partners, press, we are often met with confused faces puzzled by our inability to limit SSG and our potential to one area of work, one sector, one job. In a description for UBC from a couple of years ago, Director Yuill Herbert charts our trajectory, why and how we do the work we do, why we compete on the threshold of constant change and innovation. All the while keeping our feet firmly on the ground in being held to account not only by our cooperative members but by the grassroots; the communities we work closely with and for. Meaningful change is nothing without their participation and education around the decisions that ultimately matter to them.

“Our task is to look at the world and see it whole”,  EF Schumacher

“SSG was founded in 2001 on the basis that meaningful solutions to critical societal issues needed to overcome the silos and stovepipes that characterise scientific study, design professions and design practice- and we have applied the idea of whole systems to the areas in which we work- building, planning, strategy, research and policy. Our portfolio spans energy planning, water planning, green building, urban design, waste analysis, climate change mitigation and beyond to health planning, adaptation and transportation modelling. Our dedication to this approach is such that we have embedded collaboration in our organisational structure, incorporating as a workers co-operative. Read more

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Jeremy Murphy

How can environmental practitioners deepen engagement practices to create long-lasting change?

11th February 2016/in Frontpage Article, Public Engagement, Team, Webinar /by Jeremy Murphy

Our next Associate webinar is an exciting and fascinating offering, a voice and perception often absent in the climate change discourse. Please tune in to hear Olive share her brilliant work, and if you can’t make it, you can listen to it online from our webinars page. (Please note this session was rescheduled after last week’s audio problems).

Watch Olive’s presentation here and she invites you to continue the discussion if you wish to contact her.

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How can environmental practitioners deepen engagement practices to create long-lasting change within communities and organisations?

Emerging psycho-social research points to the powerful influence of emotional and often unconscious responses to today’s ecological realities. 

Associate member Olive Dempsey shares findings from her research that outline: 

1. A Framework on the Psychology of Environmental Leadership that identifies a set ofDefensive Practices, Emotional Complications and Core Needs at play among those we seek to engage in pro-environmental change.

2. A set of recommendations for holistic and emotionally Intelligent engagement programs that can be applied across multiple sectors to enhance programs and practices. 

 

 

 

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Jeremy Murphy

CityInSight Energy, Emissions & Finance model: Yuill Herbert & Marcus Williams review the SSG model launched at COP21, Paris

4th January 2016/in Energy & Emissions Modelling and Planning, Frontpage Article, Public Engagement, Team, Webinar /by Jeremy Murphy

A very happy New Year to all of you.

To kickstart 2016, we held a webinar with Yuill from SSG and Marcus from WhatIf Technologies who update us with the launch of CityInSight at COP21 Paris. For those who haven’t been following the development of the model we’ll share the design and application of its use too. 

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SSG has partnered with whatIf? Technologies, an international leader in simulation modelling, to increase the sophistication, scope and capabilities of GHGProof in a new model – CityInSight. CityInSight also incorporates the Global GHG Protocol for Cities, a GHG accounting framework launched as the new global standard by the World Resources Institute, ICLEI, C40, UN Habitat and others at the UN Conference of the Parties in Lima in 2014.

You can read more about CityInSight here cityinsight.ssg.coop and listen again to our previous webinars.

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Jeremy Murphy

Pathway to Paris highlights

9th December 2015/in Frontpage Article, Public Engagement, Team /by Jeremy Murphy

Pathway to Paris is a collection of artists, activists, academics, musicians, politicians, innovators who came together to make our voices heard at COP21 in Paris 2015. 

To read more about the concert and our work in Paris over the COP, follow this link.


Opening speech by Rebecca Foon, co-Founder of Pathway to Paris and Director at SSG

“The climate crisis calls for courage, compassion & community. It is about peace. It calls for local, national and international solidarity. It asks that we change our lives for the better of the planet and for the collective future of our humanity. Climate change will change everything. This crisis demands that we make peace and sustainability our guiding principles.

We must come together and truly acknowledge how interconnected we all are. We must all add our voices to this urgent call for a just and livable world. The nature of that change is up to all of us – as citizens, consumers, activists, artists, scientists, students, journalists, business people, politicians.  This is why we are all here tonight. The time is now.

The UN talks currently taking place need to establish an ambitious and legally binding agreement for our climate and environment. We must move in the direction of 100% clean energy – while evolving more equitable and just societies in the process, rooted in compassion and love for our world. 

It is an enormous pleasure to be here with all of you.”

 

Friday 4th December

Saturday 5th December

(Headline quote attributed to Sandra Steinberger from EcoWatch article)

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