Councils need boost to reach net zero, MSPs report
Scotland will not meet its ambitious target of being net zero by 2045 without a more empowered local government sector with better access to the skills and capital it needs, a Holyrood report has concluded.
MSPs on the Net Zero, Energy & Transport Committee, which produced the report, also call on the Scottish Government to set out a comprehensive roadmap with detailed guidance for the sector on how to make its full contribution to net zero.
The report follows a year-long inquiry into the role local government should play in helping Scotland achieve its ambitious net zero goal by 2045.
It concludes that the Scottish Government should provide additional financial support to Councils in future budget cycles to help them contribute to national net zero targets – but also that attracting private investment at scale is essential, as the Government has estimated that £33bn will be needed to decarbonise heat in buildings alone. Government and its agencies must work with local government on an investment strategy that will increase investor appetite, with an expanded role for the Scottish National Investment Bank in coordinating public-private co-financing.
Other key recommendations to the Scottish Government include that it should:
- create a local government-facing "climate intelligence unit" to provide specialist help to councils in areas where in-depth specialist knowledge is lacking;
- allocate larger, fewer and more flexible challenge fund streams for net zero related projects at a local level that better support a holistic and place-based response to climate change;
- address the churn, repetition and delay in the planning process that is holding up major renewables and other projects necessary to help meet net zero goals and has a chilling effect on investment. The long-term decline in numbers of council-employed planners must be reversed in order to meet the ambitions of the new National Planning Framework, and planning apprenticeships should be introduced;
- clarify the role councils will play in an area-based approach to heat decarbonisation, and set out the additional support they will be offered in delivering of their local heat and energy efficiency strategies. The new Public Energy Agency should be empowered and directed to work with local government on area-based delivery.
The report calls for Government assistance to address a skills deficit at local government level and enable an area-specific, place-based approach to tackle climate change. It says the drive to reach net zero is making “unprecedented and often highly technical demands” on the sector.
“Over the course of almost a year of evidence-taking, it’s clear that unless key barriers facing local government are dealt with, we will not reach net zero by 2045”, committee convener Edward Mountain MSP commented.
“We saw for ourselves on committee visits across Scotland the leadership and good practice many councils and their local partners are modelling. But against a backdrop of financial pressure, where councils feel they are being asked to do more for less, they are struggling to think and plan strategically to maximise their contribution to net zero.
“We hope that the Scottish Government, COSLA and the wider local government sector will pay close attention to the recommendations we have made to enable the scale of transformational and behavioural change required for Scotland to succeed.”