Green and clean. How can local government deliver services and engage citizens for a more sustainable future and a cooler climate?
Sixteen awards were announced at Chambers Ireland’s virtual awards, with Mayo winning Local Authority of the Year alongside 3 thematic awards. This blog outlines the winners of each category and the great initiatives responsible for their success.
This briefing summarises the Government’s response to the Committee on Climate Change’s annual report, assessing progress in reducing emissions over the past year. The role local authorities can play in meeting this ambitious 2050 target will also be explored, making this briefing relevant to those with roles in sustainability, energy and planning.
Achieving carbon neutrality in the UK and Scotland within the next twenty to thirty years requires innovation throughout the housing system. This paper examines innovation impacts in embodied, operational and land-based emissions, and explores routes to make yesterday’s innovations tomorrow’s ‘business as usual’.
When Aberdeen City Council was named Local Authority of the Year at the MJ Achievement Awards 2020, judges noted “a pioneering capital programme and significant investments in the social and cultural future of its communities”. In this blog Co-leaders Douglas Lumsden and Jenny Laing share their work, emphasising sustainability initiatives.
Lisa Mclean, CEO of NSW Circular, recently spoke with SGS Economics and Planning’s Jeremy Gill to discuss the implementation of a Circular Economy in the Australian context: the specific barriers, opportunities, and the role of local government. This briefing is based on that conversation.
The Draft Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland details around £24 billion of major projects and large programmes, including a number of investments where tangible local socio-economic and environmental benefits are recognisable, which will be discussed in this Swift Read. This brief provides an outline to local authorities on what upcoming infrastructure investment may mean for…
LEZs are aimed at improving air quality, protecting public health and supporting wider climate change ambitions. Work on introducing more LEZs in Scotland have resumed after Covid-19 delays, but they are not expected until 2022, and there are also delays to English Clean Air Zones (CAZs) planned for 2020; in some cases postponed indefinitely.
Tara Callinan from SGS Economics and Planning interviews Dr John Bates, Research Director at the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC (CRC), to better understand how local governments can access and benefit from the work of the CRC to support their community’s disaster preparedness.
This briefing reviews the draft text of the Irish Government’s Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2020, which draws on recommendations of the Citizens Assembly on Climate and those of a Joint Oireachtas committee on Climate Action. The Bill was also a key commitment of the Programme for Government where it was identified as…
As institutions across the world look for ways to “build back better” this briefing examines a Scottish Government review that brings together evidence, actions and stories on (pre-Covid) progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In summarising this report, case studies from local authorities across Scotland are used, and we explore how the localisation of…