Two-Thirds of Local Councils ‘Not Confident’ in Hitting Net Zero Targets

The Local Government Association said most of its members had little or no confidence in achieving net zero targets, and called on a local approach.

Solar panels at Kencot solar farm in Lechlade, Oxfordshire, England, on July 3, 2015. Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA

Two-thirds of local councils in England are not confident they will hit their net zero targets, according to a survey by the Local Government Association (LGA).

The association blamed it on a “bureaucratic system” of bidding for national government funding. They also called on political parties to back “a local approach” to deliver more value for money.

In a press release on Monday, the LGA said its survey found most councils (85 percent) have “little or no confidence in the approach to achieve net zero homes.”

Meanwhile, 80 percent have little or no confidence in the approach to achieve net zero transport, and 95 had little or no confidence that the goals can be achieved “in a way that is fair and inclusive to everyone.”

The survey also found that 9 in 10 councils believe there isn’t a sufficient financing plan in place to deliver net zero by 2050, with almost three-quarters of councils (73 percent) saying bureaucracy and uncertainty of government funding is unattractive to private investors.

One in four councils told the LGA they were “generally unsuccessful in bidding for net zero funds,” 60 percent of councils said they had been dissuaded from bidding because of the time and resources required, and 83 percent said they were “concerned by an excessive bureaucratic burden tied up with national funding pots.”

The LGA called on parties to “back local climate action, supporting a local approach that can achieve net zero by 2050 for half the cost of national approach and deliver three times the financial returns.”

Labour Councillor Darren Rodwell, environment spokesperson for the LGA, said, “Councils are leading transformative projects across the country, but their innovation is being strangled by the national approach to the transition to net zero.”

Mr. Rodwell said Whitehall “will not reach net zero without empowering councils to deliver local climate action in every village, town, and city.”

“With the right support, local areas could deliver net zero quicker and for less money, while boosting the local economy and ensuring local people benefit,” he said.

Net zero 2050 is a legal target approved by Parliament to reduce carbon emissions by 100 percent by 2050 compared to the 1990 baseline.

The Office for Budget Responsibility has said that the fiscal cost of net zero is around £20 billion a year in 2023’s money, equivalent to adding 21 percent of GDP to debt by 2050. The figure was calculated by taking the forecast savings resulted from the transition from the net costs.

Since Labour lost a by-election in which the Conservative candidate won on an anti-Ultra Low Emission Zone ticket, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has scaled back some of the policies, saying they need to be proportionate. However, concerns remain that the transition will affect households.

In November 2023, a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee said net zero policies such as carbon taxes, public investments, and subsidies had all been found to be inflationary.

Ofgem also raised concerns earlier this month that lower-income households are disproportionately hit by the cost of transitioning to net zero.

Some economists have also argued that the transition to net zero will be more expensive than expected because the estimates of potential savings were too optimistic.

Net Zero Watch, a think tank sceptical of net zero policies, said in January that maintaining a net zero grid with today’s technology could cost households up to £8,000 annually.

Panellists of an Economic Affairs Committee hearing also warned peers last month that costs could have been underestimated.

Speaking to NTD’s “British Thought Leaders” programme, Gwythian Prins, emeritus research professor at the London School of Economics and former adviser to the Ministry of Defence, NATO, and the United Nations, challenged the scientific basis for the necessity of reducing carbon emissions, saying the proposition that carbon dioxide emissions are uniquely responsible for temperature rises is based on fundamental errors.