Local Councils crucial to fighting climate change

Action by local authorities is crucial to the UK`s efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions, Climate Change Minister Phil Woolas has said, as statistics on local and regional emissions for 2005 were published. The statistics underline the vital role local authorities can play in fighting climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions, both through their own actions and by setting an example to the wider community. Local authorities are increasingly taking up the challenge to reduce emissions and more than 270 local authorities have now signed up to the Nottingham Declaration, a voluntary pledge to address climate change that any council can make to its own community. Many local authorities are also doing excellent work to reduce emissions in areas like promoting renewable energy and improving energy efficiency in public and private buildings. This is the third year that these statistics have been produced, and the quality of the estimates has improved since the first results, for 2003. They are still experimental statistics but are suitable to inform the development of emissions reductions initiatives. Work is progressing to publish the 2006 data as a national statistic next year.