In September, environmental law charity ClientEarth wrote to 100 local authorities requesting information on their plans to combat climate change; specifically advising on the need to integrate robust carbon reduction targets into their Local Plans.

Being involved in the preparation of Local Plans for our local authority clients, we invited ClientEarth to our London office to better understand the campaign. We explored their expectations and shared views on the ways we can  help our clients respond to the challenge. A key message was that planning is fundamental to a low carbon future, so development plans and planning decisions need to be based on robust evidence, including the quantification of carbon impacts.

With a rise in the number of local authorities and other organisations declaring a climate emergency, our planners, designers and landscape managers are fully engaged in this agenda. We are ready to support our clients in their journey to net zero. To understand the scale of these declarations, and the involvement of our clients, we have mapped the local authorities that have declared an emergency and recorded the range of target dates.

Click on the map to see target dates change over time.