Together with Professor Morag McDermont of the University of Bristol and Jacob Barnes from the University of Oxford, the team will explore how national climate law is translated into local net zero implementation, the evidence base around this process, and pathways to improve it.

At a national level, the Net Zero Strategy, the UK’s Nationally Determined Contribution, and the recent Net Zero Review provide policies, strategies and recommendations to reach net zero. At a local level, over two-thirds of UK local authorities have declared climate emergencies and drafted climate action plans which are considered ‘locally determined contributions’ by the Climate Change Committee.

However, while this Committee acknowledges the significant role that local policymakers can play in the near-term delivery of net zero, there is no direct translation of national policies and strategies into local action and engagement. To support integrated, multi-level, net zero governance in the UK, this project will develop a typology to classify net zero policies; translate these policies into local capability challenges and opportunities based on SHAPE synthesis; and provide policy evaluations derived from meta-level scoping to evidence successful precedents and delivery gaps identified in the synthesis.