Low Carbon Cities Programme – supporting Bristol, Leeds and Manchester in developing city-wide carbon reduction strategies.
by George Munson, Climate Change Officer, Leeds City Council
Early in 2008, the Carbon Trust and Energy Saving Trust jointly sponsored the Low Carbon Cities Programme (LCCP) exclusively with the Core Cities Group, designed to pilot an approach to generating significant carbon savings through joined up city-wide low carbon strategies. Initially this took place with three of our cities as pilots, with lessons rolled out across all eight cities. The vision was that of a city-wide carbon reduction target lead by the public sector, supported by the private sector and owned by the entire community.
Nine months on, it is worth reviewing the successes and learning points from the programme.
The most significant challenges for all partners were the short timescale (six months from inception to close) and the huge ambition of seeking to engage ‘citywide’ partners in so short a time.
On the positive side, there have been some notable successes, such as existing strategies reinforced, public sector and business better engaged and the development of a carbon calculator and engagement toolkit. LCCP has also developed much better links between the Carbon Trust, Energy Saving Trust and participant Core Cities.
The decision was taken by all participants to maintain an operational group to generate ideas, seek opportunities and swap intelligence between the partners. As a mark of the commitment from project sponsors, the Carbon Trust is financially supporting one city-wide carbon reduction project within each participant city.
Partners in Bristol identified the development of a Sustainable ICT Strategy for Bristol as a key area of shared interest. As a first-step, Bristol City Council is using support from the Carbon Trust to commission a piece of research to develop and test a clear and impartial methodology for defining Bristol’s Techno-Footprint i.e. the level of carbon emissions that can be attributed to ICT across a range of different employers in the city.
Manchester has seen the Mini Stern report generate real interest in carbon reductions at the highest level in the private and public sector. A figure of $20bn at risk from climate change legislation focuses the mind! Manchester partners are now building on this success to generate citywide awareness and branding of climate change, linked closely the recently signed Multi Area Agreement.
In Leeds, the LCCP process generated particularly strong working relationships with the health sector and education. The support from the Carbon Trust is therefore being used to progress a feasibility study to assess the potential to expand a major city centre CHP scheme to include the Leeds General Infirmary, University of Leeds, Leeds Met University, Leeds City Council and a number of other partners. This will guarantee low carbon decentralised energy for years to come.
On the horizon are further partnership projects, such as trialling close-to-market LED lighting and Energy Saving Trust support including energy planning and neighbourhood level carbon reductions.
The biggest remaining challenge is to ensure that the benefits to the three participant cities can be shared with all Core Cities. Fortunately, both Trusts are committed to supporting all eight core cities in carbon reduction, whether through core programmes or bespoke arrangements, and it is expected that any new work in this area will be linked to the LCCP infrastructure.
In truth, we have all only just begun. The participant cities have tangible strategies and are working towards long-term carbon reduction across their authority areas; the Trusts have learned what it is that cities need and in light of the new policy framework are evolving their programmes to provide cities with services relevant to considerations such as National Indicators on climate change and the Carbon Reduction Commitment.