15th July 2025 – Responding to the Local Government Association’s announcement that councils back the call for “statutory duties and powers… to lead on climate action”: 

Today, the Local Government Association (LGA) released a statement covering the response from local authorities and civil society on the LGA’s consultation on whether councils should have a climate statutory duty. 

The statement concluded that there was a clear consensus backing the call for a climate statutory duty and the LGA has “adopted as its headline position, that: local authorities need statutory duties and powers, sufficient funding, and robust support to lead on climate action.”

Isaac Beevor, Partnerships Director at Climate Emergency UK said:

“Councils and civil society are united in the call for English councils to have a legal duty to tackle the climate crisis. The UK government must listen to this strong call from councils and introduce a fully-funded climate statutory duty, especially as the upcoming English Devolution Bill represents the perfect opportunity to do so.

“This is the first time that English councils have collectively called for more responsibility to tackle the climate crisis. Councils have redeclared that tackling the climate crisis continues to be a top priority and that residents want more renewable energy, more homes retrofitted and more frequent and electric public transport. This message will resonate across the UK and is a rallying cry for councils to do their utmost to tackle the climate crisis and for the government to fully support local climate action through a funded climate statutory duty.”

The full LGA statement can be found here.