The Centre for Climate Engagement (CCE) is working with partners to develop a guidance framework supporting local authorities to achieve net zero in a way that aligns with and supports national ambition on net zero. The project was awarded funding under Innovate UK’s ‘Net Zero Living Programme’. This report summarises the main findings from workshops testing the framework held in January and February 2025.
The project is creating a guidance framework for a ‘locally determined contribution’ (LDC) for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, responding to the growing recognition of the importance of place-based climate action. For the first time, the UK Government’s latest Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) acknowledged the vital role of local authorities. This need for alignment is reinforced in the Climate Change Committee’s recommendations for the UK’s Seventh Carbon Budget, which cite research by Dr Karen Barrass, a Senior Researcher at CCE working on the LDC project. Her work underscores the importance of establishing a framework to coordinate efforts between national and local government achieve the Government’s net zero ambitions.
Whilst there is a lot of uncertainty about how proposed local government reform might impact local net zero delivery, there is a lot of momentum related to local action and the LDC guidance can help realise the potential for local authorities to deliver, whatever the future holds.
Four workshops were convened early in 2025 each focussed on testing a different aspects of the LDC approach. The first was concerned with the overall design of the LDC guidance – the level of detail and assumptions made, the second gleaned insights from stakeholders specifically within the region on the tools that make up the LDC. The third was concerned with testing the LDC guidance process and the final workshop explored potential opportunities to expand, share and replicate the concept at the end of the Innovate UK programme in June 2025. The first three workshops are discussed below.
Dr Karen Barrass, CCE Senior Researcher and Technical Co-Lead on the project said:
“Using these workshops to refine the LDC guidance framework has strengthened the toolkit that local authorities can use to effectively manage this delivery – with the Cambridge and Peterborough region pioneering the approach. We are excited to finalise the outputs of the project and are grateful to all the expert stakeholders who have contributed their insights.”
Approach workshop
The first workshop was a technical discussion on the structure and content of the LDC draft guidance. It explored the four elements of the toolkit: the guiding principles, the influence mapping tool, and the carbon budgeting and the action pathway guidance. Experts were asked to consider if the approach taken was logical, if the level of detail provided in the guidance was sufficient and if there were any improvements that could be made.
Feedback largely confirmed that the approach was sound and the guiding principles were the right ones. Recommendations for improving the LDC guidance included:
- Simplifying and providing more examples (particularly in the context of mapping control and influence over policy areas)
- Sharing more details about the process of undertaking an LDC, as well as more substantive information
Community workshop
This workshop invited local stakeholders across Cambridgeshire to use elements of the guidance and share feedback. Using the fictional local authority of ‘Camborough’ participants were asked to complete influence mapping, carbon budgeting, action pathways and co-benefit exercises whilst project facilitators captured feedback and perspectives. Influence mapping really helps to inform the carbon budgeting process – the flow of the framework makes sense.
Key themes and recommendations from local stakeholders
- Collaboration in completing the exercises is key – include in the guidance more on the process of completing it.
- Understanding where the data comes from and how to use it is important.
- Finding a way to make it less abstract for non-experts.
Process workshop
This workshop invited local authority officers from partner councils to learn more about the LDC guidance framework and reflect on practical questions about how it might be used in the day-to-day, how obtaining the information to use it might work in practice and what could be done to make using it as easy and straightforward as possible.
Key themes and recommendations from local authority officers:
- More clarity on the outcomes of the LDC process are needed.
- Understanding how it fits within existing reporting and broader activities
- Who needs to be involved in the process and how can political buy-in be secured?
Summary
The workshops confirmed that the approach taken in the development of the LDC guidance was a logical one, that the elements of the framework each add value and are sequenced correctly. The engagement with stakeholders has highlighted that further refinement on the process of and governance surrounding completing an LDC would be beneficial. Several participants spoke of the value of such an approach.
Next steps
The Centre for Climate Engagement research team will be refining the elements of the guidance framework and integrating the co-benefits and investment work strands to the final toolkit. The team are talking to potential partners to explore replicability and rollout of the guidance amongst other local authorities and are in discussion with the UK Government about how the LDC could help embed place-based delivery into future nationally determined contributions.
Partners
The project exemplifies effective local climate action through its collaborative approach. Working with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, partners include the local authorities within the Combined Authority’s area including Cambridgeshire County Council, Cambridge City Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council, Huntingdonshire District Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, Peterborough City Council and Collaborate CIC.
Slingshot