Partnerships

Partnership working is essential to tackle climate change.

Doorstep Green project in Ashton-under-Lyne. Photo by Natural England/Doorstep Greens.

Climate change is interwoven with other challenges such as economic development, reducing inequalities and improving health. Partnership working helps to ensure that climate change action delivers mutliple benefits in all these different areas.

Local strategic partnerships

Local strategic partnerships (LSPs) are a prime example. The increasing commitment from central and local government to the LSP system (and to the sustainable community strategy as the overarching local plan) will further cement the role of partnerships in the delivery of sustainable communities.

The Sustainable Development Commission has produced a report on local decision making and sustainable development: LSPs, sustainable community strategies and LAAs as part of its capability for local sustainability programme. The report sets out the key responsibilities of local authorities and their LSP partners concerning sustainable development and some of the opportunities and challenges that they face in meeting them.

Multi-area agreements

Multi-area agreements (MAAs) bring together local public and private sector partners to coordinate action at a sub-regional scale. Groups of councils covering a functional economic area, such as a city region, have the opportunity to work together on specific initiatives. These agreements will be essential mechanisms in the development of joint actions on climate change and sustainability.

The Nottingham Declaration Partnership has prepared a guide to climate change self evaluation for partnerships and local authorities that want to improve their approach to climate change.

Team work within local authorities

Within local authorities, teamwork is essential to meet sustainability and climate change objectives. This requires  cooperation between council services that may currently not see the direct connection, such as children’s services, highways or regeneration. These can be reflected in actions to deliver on local area agreement targets and the sustainable community strategy such as:

• obesity in children
• traffic congestion
• household waste
• fuel poverty

as well as reducing CO2 emissions and adapting to climate change.

Local authorities also play a key role in brokering partnerships with other stakeholders in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Their work is central to influencing the development of coherent, comprehensive climate change strategies which deliver more sustainable, better quality environments.