Affluent districts stamp carbon footprint on the rest

A snapshot of green indicators shows unsustainable lifestyles in affluent areas, and councils need clear mechanisms and incentives to tackle them, writes Niki Charalampopoulou
Society Guardian,
Thursday October 16 2008

Despite the current financial crisis turning attention away from sustainable development issues, the urgency of climate change makes the green agenda ever more pressing. As the EU council prepares to meet in Luxembourg later this week to discuss targets for greenhouse gas emissions cuts for 2020, it is a good time to take a closer look at the contribution of British communities to climate change.
A snapshot of local authorities' per capita carbon footprint by Local Futures draws on the latest experimental data released by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). SEI's carbon footprint indicator measures carbon dioxide emissions at the district level, associated with various aspects of residents' lifestyles: emissions caused by domestic energy use; transport; housing; consumption of food; and other goods bought and used by households, including emissions incorporated in imported goods.
The data shows great variation between local authorities, with the southern part of the country placing a disproportionate burden on the environment. Out of the 25 districts with the largest per capita carbon footprint, 19 are situated in London and the south-east - with seven of them in Surrey.
It is perhaps no surprise that districts whose residents have the largest carbon footprint in the country are the most affluent ones, highlighting unsustainable lifestyles and patterns of consumption in these areas. Districts scoring high on SEI's indicator are also clustered in the south-west (mainly in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Dorset) and parts of Norfolk, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex in the east of England.
The north-east, Wales and the West Midlands on the other hand, are the best performing regions, with most districts featuring in the bottom quartile.
There are great disparities within London, as its boroughs populate the lists of the top and bottom 10 local authorities in terms of carbon footprint. The figure for London City - the local authority with the highest per capita footprint in the country – stands 50% higher than that of Newham, which appears to have the smallest score nationally.
Cities generally tend to fare better, recording smaller figures in the housing and transport components of SEI's indicator than suburbs and more remote areas. This most likely reflects efficiencies deriving from urban density and from the developed transport systems found in cities.
While somewhat unsurprising, the patterns in the per capita carbon footprint of local communities revealed by the data can serve to inform and galvanise action on the ground. Local authorities have a unique opportunity to make a real difference in tackling climate change through their renewed planning and economic development duties.
Clearly, as the data shows, for some local authorities this opportunity also presents great challenges. At the same time, unless clear responsibilities and powers for climate change mitigation are devolved to the local level, this unique opportunity will be forgone.
If the government is serious about its commitment to tackle climate change, it needs to provide local authorities with clear mechanisms and incentives to implement specific carbon reduction policies. These are related to delivering carbon neutral housing and sustainable transport schemes, enabling green entrepreneurship and promoting sustainable consumption at the individual and collective level - which would at the same time create thousands of "green collar" jobs, much needed in the current economic downturn.
If such conditions are not in place, delivering the emissions reduction targets that the government has committed to will become an even more remote possibility than it appears to be today.
Niki Charalampopoulou is a research assistant for the Local Futures group