Many councils have committed to going carbon neutral, but they lack the power and funds to take effective citywide action

Jessie Sims is one of 600 people in Stroud, Gloucestershire, to have had their homes retrofitted to make them more energy efficient. In 2013, the district council replaced the windows and doors, insulated the loft and floors, and installed solar panels on the roof as part of its programme to become carbon neutral by 2030.

“I think it’s brilliant,” she says. “I used to have an old-fashioned storage heater, which cost a fortune to turn on and didn’t work well. Now it’s cosy and I’ve halved my fuel bills.”

Last week, the Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, called on councils to lead the way in cutting carbon. “Local government and local communities are absolutely essential to confronting the climate emergency,” he said. It follows the announcement by Theresa May last month to commit to net zero UK carbon emissions by 2050.

The idea of being carbon neutral is scary for a lot of people, but a carbon-neutral city has benefits for everybody

Stroud has been tackling the causes and effects of global heating since the 1990s. In 2009, it adopted a carbon management plan and in 2015 announced that it had become the first local authority in Europe to become carbon neutral. Energy-efficiency measures and renewable-energy installations include solar panels on all municipal buildings, secondary glazing and internal insulation on the council’s grade II-listed building, and ensuring all its electricity and heating comes from renewable sources. By creating a local waste-management company in partnership with neighbouring authorities, it boosted its low recycling rates to 61% and now sends the least waste per capita to landfill.

Last month, it outlined its plans to become a carbon-neutral area by 2030, by ensuring all its own vehicles are electric or hybrid; making all homes (not just social housing) energy efficient; shifting to very low or zero carbon renewable electricity and heat generation; and tree planting. It also envisages a “dramatic” reduction in emissions from road transport by switching to walking, cycling and renewable-powered public transport. “We’ve reached all the low-hanging fruit,” says Simon Pickering, chair of the district council’s environment committee and a Green party councillor. “It will no longer be business as usual to cut the energy use of all buildings by at least 80%, generate over half the district’s electricity needs from renewable sources and transform how we travel.”

With the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report last year warning that the human race has just 12 years to limit the most devastating impacts of global heating, stark images of the toxic effect of plastic on marine life in David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II, and Greta Thunberg and British pupils going on strike from school over the climate crisis, there is growing public awareness – and demand for action.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Stroud council has put secondary glazing and internal insulation in its grade II-listed building. Photograph: Simon Pizzey/Stroud district council

Stroud may have started tackling its emissions earlier than most, but Nottingham is arguably the most ambitious council, having set a target for the whole city to be carbon neutral by 2028. It has met the previous target of cutting CO 2 emissions by a quarter by 2020 two years early. Every new council house built has solar panels while council leaseholders have been offered discounted rates. It aims to plant at least 10,000 trees by 2023 and is creating bee-friendly areas in all neighbourhoods. It has one of the UK’s largest fleets of electric buses and claims to have the world’s largest fleet of biogas double-decker buses. The waste-collection depot has solar panels on the roof, to charge the council’s fleet of electric dumper trucks and street sweepers. A workplace parking levy on employers providing 11 or more parking spaces for staff generates £9m a year, which is ringfenced for renewable transport schemes and has already paid for the city’s new tram system. The trams are powered by the council’s not-for-profit energy company, which supplies all its electricity from renewable sources.

Sally Longford, deputy leader of Nottingham city council, says: “The idea of being carbon neutral is scary for a lot of people, but a carbon-neutral city has benefits for everybody.” Retrofitting and tackling congestion and air pollution improve health, lower bills and create good green jobs, she explains.

Oxford city council, meanwhile, is holding a citizens’ assembly to shape its action plan. It is on target to cut emissions by 40% by 2020 and plans to introduce a zero-emission zone in the city centre. It will also be trialling what it believes is the world’s largest hybrid battery to power ground-source heat pumps serving around 300 homes and increase electric vehicle-charging capability.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nottingham city council has introduced a workplace parking levy that has helped to fund a tram network extension. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Across Great Britain and Northern Ireland, more than 100 local authorities have recently announced a climate crisis. “In the past eight months local authorities representing more than half Britain’s population have declared a climate emergency in their areas,” says Kevin Frea, deputy leader of Lancaster city council and co chair of UK Climate Emergency Network.

But Simon Brammer, head of cities at sustainable energy charity Ashden, which has just produced a toolkit for councils, thinks they need to do more. “We think cities need to respond much faster,” he says. “They are responsible for producing up to 80% of the UK’s CO 2 emissions.”

Theresa May commits to net zero UK carbon emissions by 2050 Read more

And too often, these declarations are butting up against development demands. Manchester city council’s plan to become carbon neutral, for example, explicitly excludes airport emissions – and, indeed, the council has a part share in the airport . Norwich and Herefordshire councils have been criticised for approving ring roads, despite having declared a climate emergency.

And while lots of local authorities have committed to tackling global heating, many have yet to do so, including most of the home counties and many other county councils. Cumbria county council has even approved a new deep coalmine.

Planning laws can hamper council plans for new developments to be zero carbon or carbon neutral, or to approve onshore wind farms. From 2006, authorities were able to insist that houses were built to the highest energy standards, but this regulation was scrapped in 2015.

A report by the Association for Public Service Excellence (Apse), published later this week, says local authorities need to take an organisation-wide response to action on climate issues: from councils’ corporate financial strategy to all council services, in particular housing, waste and recycling, transport and infrastructure investment. Climate-emergency declarations are welcome, but they are statements of intent unless they are followed up in the short-, mid- and long-term with measurable outcomes, it will say.

“Local councils can be at the heart of tackling climate change, but to translate declarations into tangible carbon-reduction actions there is a huge question of resources,” says Paul O’Brien, Apse’s chief executive. “If we are serious about tackling waste, sustainable housing development, air quality – to name just a few of the issues that contribute to carbon emissions – we will need a real step-up in the resources available to local councils. Climate action matters, but there is a disconnect between what local councils can realistically deliver when resources are being choked by austerity.”

Back in Stroud, Sims is clear that cutting carbon has been beneficial for her as well as the planet. She says: “Now I eat well and heat well.”

• Additional research by Jessica Murray

Bristol city council: ending ‘business as usual’

Last year, Bristol city council became the first local authority to declare a climate emergency. It committed to making the council carbon neutral by 2025 and the whole city by 2030.

Now it has just published its implementation plan, which once passed at a full council meeting later this month, commits the council to a 200% increase in renewable energy, low-emission public transport, building a new waste centre to improve recycling rates, installing solar panels on 10,000 council houses, retrofitting 7,000 homes with insulation and other energy efficiency measures each year, as well as training councillors and staff in climate change issues.

Other measures include assessing all major projects against their impact on emissions, expanding the number of electric car-charging points and a dramatic reduction in single-use plastics.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Our response must be inclusive, to ensure that everyone benefits’ – Marvin Rees, mayor of Bristol. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian

In a statement, Bristol’s elected mayor, Marvin Rees, said the climate emergency was “one of the biggest global threats facing our planet”. “We might be one city in the context of a worldwide issue, but it’s vital we take immediate action,” he said. “Our response must be inclusive, to ensure that everyone benefits.

“The report shows our biggest challenge is consumption of goods and services from outside Bristol. This is a fundamental challenge to city government, corporations and citizens to take urgent action to change behaviours.” But it is hard to see how the city will achieve its ambitious green targets if controversial plans to expand Bristol airport, which Rees strongly supports, are approved. The proposals are designed to double passenger numbers by 2045. North Somerset – a unitary authority that has also declared a climate emergency – will rule on the planning application for the airport.

Some argue the council isn’t going fast enough. Green party councillor Carla Denyer, who proposed the climate emergency motion, welcomes the decision to introduce an annual carbon budget and to set a tougher carbon neutrality target but criticises the lack of concrete detail. “Eight months after full council declared a climate emergency, this is still a plan to produce a plan,” she says. “We need an end to the ‘business as usual’ approach, replaced with rapid and ambitious action, and unfortunately there isn’t enough of that in this report.”