On 9 March DECC and the Local Government Group signed a ground-breaking Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which powerfully recognises the pivotal role that local councils have in tackling climate change.

It lays out how they will work together to help and encourage all councils to take firm action to reduce the carbon emissions from their own estate, homes, businesses and transport, and to participate in national carbon reduction initiatives at the local level, particularly the roll out of the Green Deal, smart metering and renewable energy deployment.

The action plan includes a new and more ambitious ‘Nottingham Declaration’ with targets and indicators, the development of an approach to monitor local emission reductions and involvement in delivery of the Green Deal.

The importance of this concise document for councils cannot be overstated as it acknowledges that national policies need local delivery and really does appear to put local government at the centre of the action.

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/lc_uk/local/local.aspx