The Communities Secretary points out the critical role local governments would play in tackling climate change effectively and bear the responsibility of bringing together various stakeholders to do the best for the community.
Thank you very much for the Energy Efficiency Partnership for hosting today's event; to Richard from the LGA, and to Rebecca for those introductory remarks. Everyone is this audience will know that there are now only eleven days to go until Copenhagen. No-one can underestimate the importance of achieving an ambitious, fair and effective deal in place to tackle climate change.
I think it's now clearly recognised that globally, we have been too slow, for too long. And we are fast approaching the point of no return: when we will no longer be able to keep increases in temperature to a manageable level.
Led by the Prime Minister, the Government has been working tirelessly to achieve the best possible result. But though global co-operation is essential, so is national initiative.
And though the implications of inaction are dire; the benefits of action are clear. We can - if we do the right things - take advantage of new jobs in new industries, towns and cities with less traffic, cleaner air, cheaper fuel bills.
But achieving these goals requires action at every level.
In addition to that action on the global stage - it needs national commitment - and local action.
I am proud to be part of the Government which was the first in the world to set legally binding targets to cut climate emissions. The first to develop a comprehensive plan to drive our transition to a low carbon economy.
It needs individual change - everything from cycling more, buying differently, being more conscientious in the way we live our daily lives.
But it also requires local action. Collective working, to develop solutions which work not just for individuals and their families, but for their entire community. There has been a resurgence of interest in local action - from food markets and allotments to the transition towns movement.
My contention is that local authority leadership can harness that collective energy; involve people who aren't yet engaged, bring in third sector partners and others. The Co-operative Party's recent report stressed the importance of this partnership approach, rooted in community action, with residents, businesses, and the public sector all working together.
Many of the changes we need - whether in housing, in planning, in transport - to move to a low carbon economy and society are best shaped and driven locally. Getting the national framework right is vital - and John Healey has this week set out more of the detail on low carbon homes and buildings. But councils have an important influence on how that works locally.
And councils will also play a role in delivering all the measures needed - whether energy saving measures in homes; lower cost, lower carbon heating solutions, or renewable electricity.
More fundamentally, councils are the leaders of their communities. They can not only co-ordinate but also inspire and galvanise action and behaviour change. They can set the standards for others to follow. They can make positive change feel meaningful and relevant to local people.
This is vital, because if we are to have a hope of really tackling this crisis, then everyone - not just the articulate and the affluent - has got to be involved and share in the benefits.
And - especially through their responsibilities for planning and housing - councils can help shape communities which are resilient to the effects of climate change. Last week's devastating floods reminds us again just how important that is.
As the slogan goes: think global, act local. Effectively responding to climate change requires local government to return to its roots in some ways; the issues it developed to address back in the 19th century - ensuring that people could afford the basic necessities of life - heat, light and water.
Joseph Chamberlain 'parked, paved, assized, marketed, gas and watered and improved' Birmingham in just three years as Mayor. The so-called 'gas and water socialists' pioneered secure municipal energy.
We need the same scale of ambition, drive and initiative again today to help communities make the shift to low carbon living - reinventing the civic role of councils which grew out of 19th century issues to rise to 21st century challenges.
Tackling climate change has got to become a central part of what local government is for - not an activity at the margins for the experts. This requires a change in mindset, a willingness to start doing things differently, embrace innovation and fully exploit their existing powers.
Some councils are exercising this leadership role very effectively. For example, in Manchester City Council last year undertook their own analysis of the implications of climate change, echoing the national review by Sir Nicholas Stern.
They put the costs of climate change to the city at around £21bn over 12 years. As a result, they have committed to reducing their CO2 emissions by 41 per cent on 2005 levels - a million tonnes by 2020.
They have involved over 100 organisations to shape a plan which sets out how the whole city will address the challenges and opportunities of climate change between now and then.
Of course, councils across the country face very different circumstances - and the bigger ones have more to gain from economies of scale - but the crucial point is that of leadership and ambition.
Today, local governments' responsibilities encompass everything from waste and transport to planning and housing - which can all have a big impact on our carbon emissions, for good or ill. Let me give you three examples.
The first is waste policy. Developing better uses for waste is going to be an essential part of our broader preparations for low-carbon living. In fact, taking advantage of new technologies means that much of the 'waste' present will turn out not to be 'waste' as we see it at present at all - as it can be reused to generate energy. That means councils starting to plan now for appropriate infrastructure which will cut waste and promote low carbon energy.
Some councils - like Sheffield and Nottingham - have been turning waste into power for years. Others - like Stockport - using their 'powers to trade' to generate money from their recycling services.
Yet figures published earlier this year showed a striking variation between the most effective and efficient councils and the rest. Too many are continuing to send recyclable or compostable waste to landfill and missing the chance to generate heat and energy from waste. This costs council tax payers as well as the planet.
The second is local transport policy - which is vital when you consider that more than twenty per cent of the UK's carbon emissions are from transport. Councils can have a big influence here - through the services they provide directly, through the schemes and ways of travelling they promote and through the way they manage their networks.
In contrast, we know that poorly planned transport policy has huge consequences for the local economy and quality of life.
The challenge now is for all councils to be thinking ahead and making sure that all their Local Transport Plans as ambitious as possible.
And the third area is procurement: the way that councils buy their goods and services. Together, councils spend in the region of £42bn a year. Between them, they have a million computers. Five hundred thousand lightbulbs in town halls alone. And in the region of fifty thousand vehicles.
If they all started to buy greener vehicles, to really explore the possibilities for lower carbon and electric cars, it would start to shape the national market, giving business greater certainty and ability to invest in more innovative technologies.
So there is clearly scope for councils to go further and be more imaginative and expansive in using their existing powers.
The introduction of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme in April makes that even more critical. This is the carbon reduction commitment, which as you know, is the new 'cap and trade' scheme we are introducing for large energy users.
We believe that by 2020 this could save in the region of 12 per cent of public sector carbon emissions, and that could generate over £400m worth of savings which could be invested in better services. Large councils should already be giving serious attention to this.
There have been recent stories that some councils are not yet preparing or grasping the nettle.
Those councils that are putting their house in order could potentially benefit from significant savings. But there are serious financial and reputational risks for organisations which don't deliver. And there is a question of accountability to council tax payers. Those larger councils which have not yet stepped up their work urgently need to do so.
But we also know that there are councils who are really pushing forward - and could go even further, with additional powers and support.
Many councils are clamouring to have a greater leadership role in retro-fitting and improving the housing stock. They believe that they could cut out inefficiency, create jobs, provide the right incentives, and better co-ordinate local action.
The £350m Community Energy Savings Programme, introduced in September which requires energy suppliers to invest in energy efficiency in deprived areas, working in partnership with councils, provides the starting point for this; and there is a clear challenge for councils to maximise these efforts.
There are also opportunities for councils to work in partnership with energy suppliers through the existing Carbon Emissions Reduction Target obligation on energy suppliers to invest in energy efficiency.
We are also now putting in place the financial support to underpin our ambitions for decentralised energy, set out in the Low Carbon Transition Plan in July. Through our zero carbon buildings policy, we are stimulating large investments both in on-site and off-site renewables.
The Renewable Heat Incentive, which will pay people who install renewable heat measures like solar water panels or heat pumps and the Feed In Tariffs which will pay people who generate their own renewable electricity, when introduced, can also potentially generate large income streams for local authorities.
Councils need to be ready for this, to help plan the infrastructure needed to achieve the change at least cost.
But how can we join all this up, in ways which make sense? The idea of local carbon budgets - which I first proposed in the consultation on strengthening local democracy - has received a positive response, and I know Ed Miliband shares that enthusiasm for the concept.
The context for that will, of course, be the drive towards Total Place - mapping all the public spending within an area and asking hard questions about the way that is spent. Securing efficiencies by cutting out duplication and waste - but also driving improvements by ensuring that money is used to greatest effect. Similar thinking lies behind the principles we've been exploring of local carbon budgets.
I believe there is broad agreement around some essential points.
Local authorities will have a key role in leading the development of the low carbon economy in their area. By drawing connections locally and improving engagement with local people, areas can do better and go further than would be possible by national policy alone. But different areas will have different opportunities, capacity and interest.
The language of carbon budgeting has caused some people to see visions of bureaucracy rather than carbon saving - or of councils being asked to deal with the carbon consequences of infrastructure like a new motorway in their area.
It is clear that local carbon budgets won't work if they act as a rigid straightjacket or encourage councils to just focus on ticking boxes. Rather, they must provide a framework which encourages creativity, innovation, and above all, ambition - especially for those councils, like Manchester, and the new Leeds City Region, who are already pushing ahead.
And it is also clear, as many people pointed out in the consultation, that councils can influence and shape what happens in their area, but cannot control everything.
If the Tate Modern was still Bankside power station, we could not expect Southwark council to be responsible for its emissions.
As the LGA said in their response to the consultation, we need an approach which is 'strategic, coherent, and transparent.' I agree.
We are still working through the formal systems for carbon budgets in national government. It is too soon to talk about any formal extension of these systems. But not, I believe, to develop an approach that helps to unlock the potential in local government.
We need an approach that is grounded in, and builds upon, the framework and incentives which already exist, such as the National Indicator Set and the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.
The first step, of course, is for councils to reduce the emissions from their own estates. Many have already been doing this - looking at what can be done across their buildings and operations. And we want to see all councils following this lead - getting their own house in order first.
But we envisage the local carbon budget going further, encompassing other activities in the area which councils can influence, such as local transport, waste and small scale renewable energy schemes.
These budgets would not be traded, as in the carbon reduction commitment, but more as a target, based on councils own analysis and priorities, and on the way that we work in the local area agreements.
This would be an approach based on partnership: a deal freely entered into on both sides. With local authorities volunteering greater action in return for support from central government.
We should be enabling councils to go as far as they believe is possible, giving them an ability to take responsibility across the wider economy.
So councils could look at all the ways of cutting carbon emissions in their area - whether through supporting business efforts and community activities; increasing the use of public transport and electric cars; insulation and district heating schemes. They would then use this to model their own budget - setting out long term trajectories and goals.
This would put councils in control of their local response, with ownership over their individual targets set out in their budgets: bringing coherence and direction to what other wise could risk being piecemeal and stand alone projects.
So what would we need from local government?
* Commitment and ambition
* Evidence of engagement with local people
* Robust, well founded plans
* And a track record of success.
And what can central Government offer in return?
We need to develop this, and work out the parameters of this deal - what the right framework, support and incentives should be; what other freedoms and flexibilities councils will need.
Some of this is already in place, and some is in the pipeline, but there are other areas where we will need to go even further.
First, we know that there are major investment challenges ahead: particularly in our infrastructure for renewable energy and heat. Some of that will be national investment in large-scale developments like wind farms. But a lot of the changes will take place at the local and community level: through district heating schemes, solar panels and so on.
At Budget 2009 we announced that we would allocate £20m to the Low Carbon Infrastructure programme run by the Homes and Communities Agency. This supports low carbon community and district heating schemes. This has been very successful - and over subscribed. So I can today announce that I have topped that up with a further £5m for next year.
Second, we know that further planning reform is needed so that planning catches up with both the latest technologies and the public demand for action.
If you want to be able to charge an electric car on your drive, or believe that your community should be generating power from a wind turbine, the planning system should support that - though of course, we need to manage the likely impact on the surroundings sensitively.
We are consulting on the necessary changes so homeowners, businesses and councils can choose the technology which makes sense for them.
More broadly, though our first planning policy statement on climate change was published only a couple of years ago, the pace of change is now such that it increasingly looks out of date.
So we will shortly be refreshing that statement so that it reflects more recent developments - the latest climate change projections, the low carbon transition plan, and new targets for renewable energy. And we will set out a clear route map to show how regional and local planning will achieve national ambitions to cut carbon emissions.
Third, we need to make sure that councils are taking the lead in improving the built environment.
Through the Decent Homes programme, councils have already helped to make sure that social housing is among some of the greenest homes in the country. The Warm Zone programmes, which councils like Kirklees have introduced to help communities cut fuel bills and the new Community Energy Savings programme is taking that further.
Councils - and planners in particular - will need to become much more proactive in planning for innovative energy solutions, and for the infrastructure which will help realise our ambitions for zero-carbon housing and buildings.
We want them to be able to shape the decisions that developers make about how to reach the zero carbon standard - how they bring in allowable offsite solutions as well has what they do on site. Our zero carbon homes policy could lead to an investment pot of nearly a billion pounds being available by 2020 from allowable solutions. Local Authorities with robust, well founded plans, supported by the local community, will be well placed to shape how that could be invested in local renewable energy schemes.
I also see councils having a crucial role in improving the rest of the built environment. It took thirty years for central heating to become mainstream technology. And when double glazing came out, it was way beyond the price range of ordinary households. We can't afford to wait that long - or for energy efficient technology to stay out of reach.
But if the big players in the market all work together, what seems like state of the art technology today, can become affordable and mainstream much more quickly. So we are setting up a consortium where large scale public and private sector organisations can work together to research and invest in the latest energy efficiency products, encouraging innovation and economies of scale. We have asked LGA to be part of this consortium and I am keen that councils should also sign up in their own right.
And finally, I recognise that councils will need support as they start to develop their plans and ambitions. So I intend to make a further £3m available next year to support capacity building, research and pilot activity. We will work with stakeholders over the coming weeks to define the scope of that activity, building on the excellent programmes offered by the Energy Saving Trust, Carbon Trust and the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships.
I am also very pleased that the EST has launched new guidance for local authorities - I am sure that Andy Deacon can say more about that later.
We now need to build on these broad developments and focus in on the detail. Over the next few weeks, I will be working intensively across Whitehall and with local Government, involving all the key stakeholders to examine the details of what would be needed to realise local carbon budgets, what the existing evidence base is, and how they could be tested through pilots and then implemented, ensuring our approach ties in with the developing strategy on Household Energy Management, which DECC is leading on, at the turn of the year. This will inform further announcements in January.
Over the coming months, there are further developments in the pipeline which will strengthen councils capacity to act - and also test their readiness to deliver.
Copenhagen, of course, is the next clear milestone, and will undoubtedly have huge repercussions for both our national and local action.
By the end of the year, the Departments for Transport and Health will publish a joint active transport strategy and national cycle plan setting out how councils and government will work together to increase cycling and walking.
The Household Energy Management strategy, setting out how we will bring the existing housing stock up to scratch, will follow in the New Year.
The introduction of Feed In Tariffs and the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme will follow in April.
So while it is encouraging that so many councils signed up to the Nottingham declaration, now is the time for all councils to translate that commitment into action. The unique role that councils play in their communities means that they are ideally placed to take a leadership role in tackling climate change. Their existing broad responsibilities already give them substantial powers to act: and there is a challenge for all councils to be maximising their existing role.
There are, however, other extremely ambitious and proactive councils keen to go further. There are developments already being established or shortly coming on stream which will help to expand their role - to name just a few which I've described this morning: the Community Energy Savings Programme, the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, the Renewable Heat Incentive, the Feed In Tariffs.
There are other areas - like in planning and the built environment - where we are proposing other developments which will further enhance their capacity to respond effectively. And the concept of local carbon budgets could represent a way of ensuring that all this activity is properly co-ordinated across an area.
Climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge facing us today: not us as a government or as a nation, but as a planet. Faced with a challenge on that scale, it would be all too easy to be paralysed into inaction.
But, as ever, with that challenge comes new opportunities. Greener councils of the future will not just be taking advantage of those opportunities - but also helping to create them, to the benefit of local communities and residents.
This is complicated and sometimes even baffling if you don't keep track of all the acronyms. We will be looking at how we can best communicate all this to councils in the most practical and effective ways. One thing, however, is clear. Effective local leadership, driving local innovation and solutions which makes sense for their communities, is vital. We will support them in whatever ways we can - and in return, we expect councils to step up to the mark.