We know carbon and the climate are priorities – sometimes the number one priority – for many local authorities across the country and some amazing things are already being done.
The scale of response, or ‘carbon maturity’’, however, varies enormously from authority to authority, with some having declared an emergency and made little additional progress to others with fully developed delivery programmes and actively challenging government to move faster.
Research from Decarbon8 validates this:
- 40% have declared a climate emergency but haven’t set any targets
- 19.2% have set targets only for their own operations and buildings
- 27.5% have declared targets for county-, borough- or city-wide activities
- 8.2% have set specific
We also know that wherever a local authority sits on this maturity scale, there is no clear roadmap set down – those who are leading have learned for themselves how to lead, while very few have a clear sense of how they compare with others and what the most appropriate best next actions for them are.
We created the City Science Carbon Maturity Model to fix that.
It is the first independent audit for local authorities to help classify where they sit on a spectrum of preparedness for the climate emergency – ‘carbon maturity’ – to quantify the actions they are taking and to help prioritise what they should be doing next.
How will the Carbon Maturity Model help local authorities reach Net Zero more effectively?
By getting an independent assessment from the Carbon Maturity Model, local authorities are able to understand (and demonstrate to stakeholders) where they are and more effectively work out their next priorities. We believe it helps them in numerous important ways, including:
- Helps them take stock of where they are
- Provides independent validation of their climate emergency response
- Provides an appraisal framework for external suppliers, procurement and contracts
- Helps identify areas for improvement or enhanced scope
- Enables benchmarking against other local authorities or regions and best practice
- Helps stimulate and frame discussion around the wider implications of Net Zero
- Clarifies and helps address potential barriers and delivery gaps
- Provides a framework for prioritisation
- Facilitates a structured approach to defining next steps
- Repeated annually, it enables demonstration of continued progress and momentum
What is the Carbon Maturity Model?
The City Science Carbon Maturity Model classifies local authorities into one of five core stages – from Climate Aware up to Climate Influencer – depending on their response to the climate emergency.
Level 1: Climate Aware
Climate Aware organisations have declared a climate emergency and have developed clear targets for their regional response
Level 2: Carbon Conscious
Carbon Conscious organisations have developed a Net Zero Strategy, have quantified the impacts of different activities and established a monitoring and review process
Level 3: Carbon Activist
Carbon Activist organisations have developed a funded, multi-year pipeline of activities to deliver Net Zero across all sectors
Level 4: Carbon Leader
Carbon Leader organisations have embedded Net Zero thinking in all processes, policies and activities and as a result are leaders in their response to climate change
Level 5: Carbon Influencer
Carbon Influencer organisations have fully formed external programmes and are influencing and innovating to deliver change in hard-to-decarbonise sectors
By understanding where they sit on the Climate Maturity Model, local authorities can immediately get a better sense of the scale of the challenge they face and the best route forward.
How the Carbon Maturity Model works.
The City Science Carbon Maturity Model works a bit like a personality test, where local authorities answer a series of questions around each of the 5 carbon maturity levels, with basic, intermediate and advanced questions as appropriate in each level.
As the diagram below shows, each level has different ‘Maturity Criteria’ with appropriate assessment thresholds. For example, at Level 1 – Climate Aware – the basic threshold would be to have declared a climate emergency while the advanced threshold would be to have detailed targets in place.
The whole process takes less than an hour and can either be done as a self-assessment or with the City Science team (see below). Once this is complete, we end up with a score that indicates what percentage of each level the local authority is successfully on top of. If the Carbon Maturity Model were a computer game, it would be the percentage of the level they had completed. Sometimes we see people doing well at a high – more mature – level but having missed some key things at a more basic one. Generally, we encourage local authorities to have completed 80% of a level before focussing on the next one.
Scores from the Model are also categorised by type, so City Science can show local authorities how well they are doing across different specific areas: general approach; organisational emissions; transport emissions; domestic emissions; industrial emissions; wider footprint; engaging citizens and so on.
How does the process of getting a Carbon Maturity Model assessment work?
It’s very simple and straightforward – the City Science team and model will do all the heavy lifting for you.
Step 1 – Questionnaire
“As described above, we offer two approaches to completing the Carbon Maturity Model questionnaire:”
- Self-assessment
- Guided assessment
In the self-assessment approach, we will send you a private link to complete the questionnaire on your own. This should take less than half an hour, assuming you have the required information.
In the guided assessment approach, a consultant from City Science will take you through the questions and input your answers. This helps ensure clarity around the questions and will normally take an hour (although there may be some items you’ll want to check with other departments).
Step 2 – Report
Once all the answers have been processed, City Science will give you a full report, including an assessment of both your overall carbon maturity level and detailed breakdowns against the different levels and by different areas. The images below show example outputs.
Step 3 – Explanation
A City Science consultant will explain the findings of the report and help you identify key learnings and potential opportunities that will enable you to make better progress towards Net Zero.
As well as helping you better understand your own situation and clarify your best next actions, the report can be shared with stakeholders to provide independent validation for the situation you are in, the progress you have made and the challenges you face.’
How much does a Carbon Maturity Model assessment cost?
Our goal at City Science is to help organisations deliver decarbonisation more quickly and more effectively and we believe our Carbon Maturity Model is a significant breakthrough in helping local authorities achieve Net Zero.
We are therefore offering all local authorities the assessment – including guided completion of the questionnaire, the full report and an in-person explanation of the findings completely free of charge ahead of COP 26.
Next steps
If you or your organisation would like a Carbon Maturity Model assessment from City Science, or just have more questions, please email on info@cityscience.com