We will be using Slido the host the event online, run polls throughout the day and take questions from the audience before and during the launch. Slido works best when you download the app, but the toolkit launch can also be accessed through this link: https://app2.sli.do/event/u9hs5s1p

Please use joining code: #toolkit

On 20th June, Ashden will be launching a toolkit to help local and combined authorities to radically cut carbon emissions while delivering wider benefits. We’ll deliver our event in partnership with the Grantham Institute, who will present the headline recommendations from their new briefing paper on the co-benefits of climate action.

Protests by Extinction Rebellion, the remarkable wisdom of youth activist Greta Thunberg and the powerful film making of David Attenborough have all got citizens thinkng about climate change and its implications. However, much of the discussion is still about giving things up. We have a different view.

By connecting climate policy making to the needs of everyone, we can show that the consequences of climate action improve lives, instead of diminishing them. The results - which include better jobs, more money in local economies, clean air, better health, travel options, green spaces and warm and cheap-to-heat homes - engage peoples’ values, helping drive further change.

We have worked with sustainability leaders from city regions and local authorities to develop our toolkit, providing links to useful data sources, and examples from Ashden winners and pioneering local authorities. Through a co-benefits analysis, we can solve climate and social issues at the same time, and use housing, health, transport, infrastructure and economic development budgets in a smarter way.

The launch event will take place at Imperial College London (venue tbc) and speakers will include:

Sir Jonathon Porritt - Co-Founder of Forum for the Future, writer, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development

Dr Neil Jennings – Grantham Institute, lead author of Co-benefits of climate change mitigation in the UK (2019)

Mark Atherton - Director of Environment, Greater Manchester Combined Authority

Simon Brammer – Head of Cities, Ashden

Cara Jenkinson – Senior Programme Officer, Ashden

Dr Ruth Stevenson - Senior Lecturer, Centre for Alternative Technologies

Mareike Schmidt - Head of Operations at Q-Bot (Ashden Awards 2018 winner)

Cllr Clyde Loakes - Cllr Clyde Loakes is Deputy Leader of Waltham Forest Council

Agamemnon Otero - co-CEO of Repowering (Ashden Award 2016 winner)

Jane Wildblood - climate change and environmental sustainability professional lead for Bath and North East Somerset Council

Local Authority toolkit launch: Cutting carbon while improving lives