Monitor progress against the vision and strategy

The Climate Change Action should include a longer term vision and strategy. As well as monitoring implementation of the detailed actions, it is also important to assess progress against these longer-term targets. The advent of national performance indicators for CO2 emissions should make this task easier for mitigation.

We recommend that when developing your Action Plan(s) that you develop a vision and strategy of:

• • How your authority intends to adapt to a changing climate
  • Targets for future emissions

As well as monitoring implementation of the detailed actions in the climate change strategy, it is also important to assess progress against the longer term vision. This information can be used to decide if the Action Plan is sufficient to meet the vision or if it needs to be strengthened. The introduction of national performance indicators for CO2 emissions should make this task easier for mitigation targets.

Updating emission baselines

Updating NI 185 (CO2 reduction from Local Authority operations):

• The key is to establish systems that enable the data to be easily updated, for example through financial systems. (See the case study below.) Information on trends in emissions can help to identify where emissions remain high and therefore new projects to include when refreshing the Action Plan.

Updating NI 186 (Per capita reduction in CO2 emissions in the LA area):

• This data will be provided annually by Defra. Although the data will not go into great depth about the sources of emissions, it will provide sector breakdowns for industry, domestic and transport emissions. It may be useful to map sector trends and to use this information to identify new projects when refreshing the Action Plan.