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Local action must be taken to fight climate change, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has warned ahead of crunch talks on global warming.
In a speech at the Labour Conference, Miliband urged councils to compete for cash from a £10m scheme called the Low Carbon Communities Challenge to fund green projects, like electric car charging stations.
Amid concerns that the UN-sponsored summit in Copenhagen this winter may fail to agree worldwide emissions cuts, small changes have been highlighted by Miliband as the way for progress to be made.
He labelled the challenge an “opportunity” for communities to lead the way in tackling climate change and saving money.
“We’re searching for communities across the country to kick start the low carbon revolution”
The UK has the most ambitious emissions reduction commitments in the world and projects like this will develop the policies we need to be successful.
“With just over two months to go until the crucial climate talks at Copenhagen, the UK is well placed to show it is taking action in all areas to combat climate change,” he said.
LGC blogger and local improvement adviser on climate change Warren Hatter welcomed the announcement.
“Shaping the low carbon communities of the future isn’t just about providing technical solutions – more than anything, it depends on councils working with communities to change behaviour and lifestyles,” he said. “The Low Carbon Communities Challenge gives a small number of authorities the chance to beef up their work in this area.”
EasyBorough
Mr Miliband earlier weighed into the controversy over Barnet LBC’s self-styled “EasyBorough” model of mass outsourcing of service delivery.
Delivering his keynote speech at the Labour Party annual conference yesterday, the energy and climate change secretary used the north London borough as an illustration of what he described as a “completely different view of public services” on offer from the Conservatives.
He said: “A Tory council has even given it a name: the Ryanair model of public services: lots and lots of queuing and waiting, a bare minimum service for the many while the few get to pay their way.
“That’s the choice we’ve got to lay before people. The Ryanair model may be an okay way to run an airline but it is no way to run a hospital, a care home, or any of our public services.”
Peter Hain, secretary of state for Wales, used his speech to accuse Tory leader David Cameron and shadow chancellor George Osborne of exploiting “this global crisis to do what even Thatcher could not do” by slashing and burning local government.
