Main navigation

Preparing the action plan

THE KEY OUTPUT FOR THIS STAGE is an agreed Action Plan which sets out what actions each council section and / or partner will take, what the timetable for action will be, who is responsible for delivery and what mechanisms will be used to report progress and to revise the plan over time.

The aim of this stage is to develop your council's and / or your strategic partnership's climate change action plan. The Climate Change Action Plan (which might also be called a strategy or a programme) is a document that provides a succinct summary of the context, vision, and proposals which may be read by any stakeholder. Much of the development work will have been done in earlier stages.

The process of preparing an action plan is very familiar to local authorities. The fundamentals are the same whatever the topic. In this section we provide a reminder of standard good practice on action planning. Your council may have its own guidance on how to prepare an action plan which you might prefer to follow.

Ideally a Climate Change Action Plan would cover both adaptation and mitigation as well all three council roles as Estate Manager; Service Provider and Community Leader. But this may be too much to tackle all in one go. Initially the action plan may focus on just one or two of these . Eventually you might opt for: 6 separate action plans; two plans covering adaptation and mitigation; or an integrated adaptation and mitigation plan. There is no right or wrong approach. The choice will depend on local circumstances.

Your council may already have strategies in place, such as an Energy Management or Home Energy Efficiency Strategy, which address important aspects of the council?s actions on climate change. If this is the case, you might choose to either link these strategies to the new Climate Change Action Plan or absorb them into the final document. Either approach is acceptable.

Below we suggest four steps for preparing an action plan, but please modify these to suit your authority's circumstances.

Finalising the proposal

Drafting the action plan

Resource the action plan

Consultation and final approval

Skeleton climate change action plan
The implementation section includes advice and examples of: embedding the Action Plan in council and partner policies
Links to local authority climate change action plans

The case studies below describe how councils and local strategic partnerships have developed climate change and sustainable energy plans and strategies.