Category: Cities and local authorities, Policies and measures

Ealing Council Climate Action Plan Multi-Criteria Analysis

Aether developed a multi-criteria analysis of Ealing Council’s Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy (CEES) to support the Council with prioritisation and delivery of climate actions to reach their 2030 target of carbon neutrality.

The challenge

Ealing Council declared a climate emergency in April 2019 and set a target of 2030 to reach carbon neutrality for the Council and borough. The target covers all carbon emissions, both produced and consumed, by everyone in the borough. Ealing Council adopted the Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy (CEES) in 2021 and a two-year action plan was created for 2023-2025 which outlined key activities to push towards the 2030 target.

 

The solution

To aid with the prioritisation and delivery of these decarbonisation actions, Ealing Council commissioned Aether to estimate the implementation costs and wider benefits of the actions and to develop a tool to enable Council officers to refine and update the analysis as new information becomes available. This was developed through a multi-criteria assessment of the CEES actions.

This involved:

  • Stakeholder engagement to realise a political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental (PESTLE) analysis to understand the broader influences and success determinators of the actions
  • Estimating capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) of the actions, including staff time for the Council, asset purchases, external resources
  • Analysing wider social, economic and environmental impacts of the actions beyond decarbonisation, aligned with the 9 priorities identified in Ealing’s Council Plan
  • Qualitative assessment of the GHG emissions impacts of the actions

The analysis was developed in a Climate Impact Action Tool in Excel that the Council can use independently to view and refine the multi-criteria assessment in the future. This includes graphic viewers of the results across actions and detailed dives for specific actions.

A gap analysis of climate actions for the decarbonisation of Ealing was performed to help identify opportunities for further ambition and GHG emissions reductions.

 

The result

Ealing Council has a user-friendly multi-criteria assessment tool established to aid with the prioritisation and analysis of Ealing’s policies under the Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy. The tool can be used to update analysis as more data is collected. The next steps for Ealing will be to review the impact scores of their actions, consider further actions that could be drafted, and to make demands of Central Government to enable the significant changes that are required to meet the challenges of reaching net zero carbon.

See all case studies

Kathryn Hampshire

Principal Consultant

Related case studies

Oxford Sustainability Index

Category: Cities and local authorities, Policies and measures

Aether was appointed to develop a Sustainability Index for Oxford, comparing the city’s performance with others.

Read case study

North East Scotland sustainable energy action plan

Category: Cities and local authorities, Emission Inventories, Policies and measures

Aether led the development of the North East Scotland Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) for Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Angus and Moray.

Read case study

Runnymede Borough Council Climate Change Study

Category: Cities and local authorities, Emission inventories, Policies and measures

Aether, in partnership with Land Use Consultants (LUC), delivered a package of works to support Runnymede Borough Council’s (RBC) review of the 2030 Local Plan with a view to introducing stronger policies to address the impacts of climate change.

Read case study

News

Latest news

Posted on: 01 October 2024

Addressing the Inconsistencies in Investment GHG Emission Reporting

Inconsistent GHG emission data in investment reporting stems from undervalued resources, practitioner bias, and confusion over emission ownership, highlighting the urgent need for robust institutional frameworks to enhance accuracy and comparability for effective climate action.

Read full story

Posted on: 06 September 2024

Planning for Crisis: How the UK's National Planning Policy needs to step up to the Climate Emergency

The UK's planning system needs a more adaptive approach within the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to effectively address climate change and achieve net zero goals. Without significant reform, it risks continuing to undermine climate efforts and fail to protect communities from extreme weather.

Read full story

Posted on: 28 June 2024

Supreme Court Ruling Creates Clean Slate to Elevate Weight of Environmental Impact in Infrastructure Development

Communicating harm from greenhouse gas emissions is critical to the debate needed for decisions on major development and infrastructure projects. The 20th June 2024 Supreme Court of Justice decision creates a clean slate to move forward on the need for better evidence on the significance of environmental harm caused by greenhouse gas pollution.

Read full story

Posted on: 22 March 2024

An Update on Aether's Recent AQA Services

Aether's air quality team has been providing consultancy services across the UK. Recent projects include EIAs for residential and mixed-use developments in Somerset, ensuring compliance with air quality objectives through dispersion modelling, and advising on ventilation strategies for a redevelopment project in Westminster.

Read full story

Filter news by category

Aether Blog Air pollution Air Quality Assessments Barriers to Net Zero Capacity building Carbon Footprint Climate emergency Climate Equality Climate finance Consumption COP28 Culture Data visualisation Economic Status Emissions reporting European Topic Centre GHG Infrastructure Inventories Local government Mitigation MRV National government Net zero Oxfam Paris agreement Policy Recruitment Society Stakeholder engagement Waste Sector Wider impacts
Browse all news

Testimonial

Don't just take our word for it...

“It has been a pleasure to work with Chris Dore and Richard Claxton from Aether: they did their job in a very professional and timely manner. The workshop was organized and carried out in a cooperative spirit; the information provided to the workshop participants was complete and clear.”

Alina Novikova, UN/ECE Secretariat

“Chris was excellent to work with and always very pro active in making suggestions, taking work forward and applying his considerable technical knowledge in effective ways.”

Robert Vaughan, Defra Air Quality Team

“We have worked with Aether since 2019 to baseline, and subsequently update, our council and borough greenhouse gas inventories. It is a pleasure working with Aether’s professional, responsive, collaborative and helpful team. ”

Merton Council

“Both the face-to-face training and the online version have been of high quality, with dynamic methods and a practical orientation that have allowed students to reach a solid knowledge base. The products have been delivered within the stipulated deadlines with an excellent quality and the team has always shown willingness to make adjustments according to the requirements of CONAF. We are very satisfied with the work. ”

Javier Cano Martín, Professional Unit for Climate Change and Environmental Services, CONAF (National Forestry Corporation), Chile

“The team at Aether works very professionally and communicates very well which makes working with them a pleasure. Outputs are delivered on time to high quality. The team brings the rigour of technical knowledge and expertise and finds innovative ways of communicating complex messages. I would be happy to recommend the Aether team to organisations working on analysing and presenting emissions information in the public domain.”

Fiona Glover, States of Jersey

“Professional team and very collaborative communication. Effective result in terms of suggestions for improvement in the quality of the inventory and proposals on how to streamline specific topics.”

Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research

“If we have a need for any more reports in the future Aether will be first on my list.”

Alan Hardy, Kyson Design

“The support provided by Aether for this project was especially remarkable considering the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tools and methods used in order to engage local stakeholders really added value to the capacity building of the national team.”

Shanna Emmanuel, Saint Lucia BUR Project Coordinator

“Aether was a great asset in involving/engaging with Member States experts on highly technical subjects regarding GHG reporting. Very clear communication of issues and results.”

Andreas Pilzecker, DG CLIMA

“The Aether team were a joy to work with and I would recommend the consultancy - the service provided throughout the process was exceptional.”

Clare Bayley, Defra

Required form 'ContactES' does not exist.