Local authorities are undertaking extensive decarbonisation planning to support their climate goals. The approaches used include Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES) in Scotland and Local Area Energy Plans (LAEP), developed by Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) with Innovate UK support.

Given the importance of local delivery in meeting national Net Zero targets, Innovate UK and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero want to understand the role of decarbonisation planning in enabling local authorities to act on Net Zero.

This report sets out Regen’s findings and recommendations from a programme of stakeholder engagement on the role of local decarbonisation planning in delivering Net Zero. A broad range of stakeholders were engaged through interviews and surveys, culminating in a workshop on 23 March 2023.

Key findings

Decarbonisation planning is delivering value to local authorities and other stakeholders. This value lies primarily in aligning key actors in a local area behind a clear pathway and highlighting a set of actions. Plans have driven local political discourse and helped local authorities grasp the scale of the change. It is possible to deliver local decarbonisation projects without setting an overall pathway, but it is likely to be less efficient and less cost-effective, posing a risk to achieving Net Zero targets in time to help avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The value of decarbonisation planning will increase as local areas play a greater role in Net Zero delivery. Central government has recognised the importance of local delivery and is placing statutory Net Zero delivery responsibilities on local authorities, such as heat network zoning and electric vehicle (EV) charger strategies. Ofgem is also proposing the introduction of a regional energy system plan, which will require consistent local authority input.

There is a risk that, without an overarching cross-sector approach to local decarbonisation planning, national Net Zero initiatives such as those in transport, housing, and power sectors will establish their own siloed local processes, leading to multiple conflicting sources of the truth and risking sub-optimal outcomes from significant public investment. In contrast, a joined-up approach can develop plans that meet multiple objectives at once, giving higher confidence that best-value outcomes will be achieved from public investment and delivering wider economic and social benefits.

The value of decarbonisation planning could be increased by clarity and consistency on the methodology and the ‘status’ of plans. There is a lack of clarity on how the outputs of plans influence key local authority statutory functions such as spatial and transport planning. There is also no clearly agreed role for local decarbonisation plans in supporting local delivery of national initiatives or energy network planning. Improving the availability and consistency of data used in decarbonisation plans would also improve quality and reduce costs.