How Local Authorities can jointly tackle climate change and air quality

The Environmental Policy Implementation Community (EPIC) have today published a guidance document titled: Integrating Action on Air Quality & Climate Change: A Guide for Local Authorities.

EPIC is a community of environmental experts within the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES) which was formed through a merger between the IES and Environmental Protection UK  – formerly known as the Coal Smoke Abatement Society and the UK’s oldest environmental charity.

The guidance document is specifically aimed at  local authorities and is a complete update of work published by  Environmental Protection UK in 2013.

As the title suggests, the document advocates a dual approach in tackling climate change and air quality,  promoting positive change on a global and local level. To this end it provides an assessment of how effective different measures might be in improving air quality while dealing with climate change.

This assessment takes the form of a traffic light system which highlights the positives, minor positives, minor negatives and negatives for a given policy.

For example, traffic control measures such as Low Emission Zones have a Positive effect on air quality and a Minor Positive effect in terms of climate change.

However, there are other things to consider. Such schemes have a Minor Negative impact on vulnerable communities, while the potential of a public backlash against such schemes is a definite Negative.

The measures available to Local Authorities are divided into chapters on Transport, Built Environment and Overarching, the latter covering waste and sustainable procurement.

Each chapter includes case studies, such as the The Sustainable Distribution Centre developed by Southampton City Council in partnership with a global logistics company , which reduced the negative impacts of delivery and servicing activities across the city.

Visitors to our National Air Quality Conference in London next month will have the chance to learn more on this subject from Sarah Legge, Chair of EPIC Air Quality & Climate Change Task Group.

Sarah said of the guidance: ‘This will support local authorities and others to take more effective action on transport and the built environment, and deliver larger benefits and fewer unintended consequences for the climate, air quality and health.’

Adam Donnan, CEO of the IES said: ‘In 2024 the IES launched a permanent programme of work to support local authorities through EPIC, our Environmental Policy Implementation Community. This was motivated by the critical importance of delivering environmental policy to help make our local communities more resilient, healthy, and sustainable, but we also recognised that local authorities have limited resources to tackle the environmental crises. EPIC’s first piece of published guidance presents a unique opportunity for local authorities to maximise the impact of their actions.’

The Document can be downloaded here.