The Government’s new climate change adaptation plan contains nothing new but councils have been urged to make the best use of options already available to reduce emissions.

This lack of direction suggests the Government has exhausted all its ideas, lost its momentum and has its mind set elsewhere.
Local government has long been leading the way in tackling climate change. At Copenhagen, the world’s leading cities trumped the efforts made by heads of state. Local authorities showcased how they had brought about impressive emissions cuts, while the world leaders’ talks ground to a halt across town.
At the Local Government Association’s climate change conference, in January, communities secretary John Denham MP told delegates local authorities had impressed him in the way they were tackling the issue.
The Government’s climate change plan identifies domestic transport as contributing a fifth of total UK emissions – a proportion that continues to rise.
Last week, Whitehall departments published individual plans detailing how they will address the challenge of climate change in the UK.
Transport minister Sadiq Khan said it was in the nation’s best interests to ensure its transport infrastructure could cope with the worst the weather throws at it.
‘Events in recent months, including the floods in Cumbria and the heavy snowfall across much of the country in December and January, have given a dramatic illustration of the consequences that extreme weather events can have on people’s lives and on the UK’s economy.’ He added evidence suggesting extreme weather events would become more frequent and this could have a number of implications for how roads are designed, built, maintained and operated.
The aim of the Department for Transport climate change adaptation plan is to ‘embed the consideration of climate change risk into the department’s decision making process’.
But climate secretary Ed Miliband MP admitted there was nothing new in the DfT’s plan. ‘[The plan documents] the approach the Government has been taking,’ he said. He believes local authority transport teams already have the right tools at their disposal to address climate change and move towards a low carbon future.
Mr Miliband called on local authorities to use the powers available to them to boost public transport. He pointed towards the Local Transport Act 2008 as a way that councils can improve sustainable transport. ‘This can help improve public transport to get people out of their cars and into buses.’
The Government published a low-carbon transport strategy last July. This set out a number of measures to reduce emission from transport, including increased investment in public transport infrastructure and electric vehicles.
An analysis of urban transport by the Cabinet Office strategy unit followed in November 2009. It urged local authorities to improve the way they implement integrated urban transport systems.
The Cabinet Office aired concerns that councils may not make best use of mechanisms made available to them, such as those afforded under the Local Transport Act. The unit was charged with investigating how transport can be used to make urban areas more successful following Manchester City Council’s failed congestion charging proposal under the scrapped transport innovation fund.
John David, transport consultant and director of Amnick, told Surveyor at the time that few senior council managers had actually heard of the Local Transport Act.
Last week, Prime Minister Gordon Brown hosted what a senior government source told Surveyor was the most ‘high-profile climate change talks since Copenhagen’. However, Mr Miliband acknowledged it would be a long shot to expect a legal binding agreement at the Cancun climate summit in November.
So as UN negotiations are likely to continue delivering false hope in the short and medium terms – at least until China and the US really come on board – it will again be up to local authorities to continue leading the way.
But does this latest document provide enough help for local government in this fight? Or has the Government missed a real opportunity to capitalise on its performance in Copenhagen, by showing it is the party that takes the environment seriously during the election campaign?
Mr Denham says: ‘Tackling climate change is becoming a central part of the work of local authorities.’
So why not give them the same support and opportunities that have been provided to the private sector in the quest to establish the UK as the green economy to make other nations red with envy?