Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will provide details of all contact they have had with local authorities since the Paris Agreement on climate change, with regard to seeking the assistance of those authorities in achieving the carbon reduction targets the UK has agreed as part of its Nationally Determined Contribution to the Global Target.

Climate change is one of the most urgent and pressing challenges we face today, and the UK Government is committed to tackling it. The Clean Growth Strategy, published in October 2017, sets out the Government’s ambitious plans for decarbonising the economy through the 2020s. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) continues to engage with Departments on implementing the strategy, including the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), which leads government’s relationship with local authorities.

The joint BEIS and MHCLG office for Cities and Local Growth works closely with Ministers from both departments, as well as Local Enterprise Partnerships and local authorities. BEIS has launched a £7m Local Energy Programme which provides support to Local Enterprise Partnerships and local authorities to help them implement energy projects which reduce carbon emissions and benefit their communities.

BEIS have worked with colleagues in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, attending a cities event in Bristol to building relationships between UK cities and EU cities on sustainability. BEIS Ministers and officials have attended multiple stakeholder events in support of locally led action on the Clean Growth agenda.

MHCLG have ongoing dialogue with Local Enterprise Partnerships and Local Authorities on support for low carbon projects via management of European Regional Development Funds.

MHCLG are currently consulting on a draft revised National Planning Policy Framework which includes guidance on meeting the challenge of climate change.