The Local and Territorial Dimension of the ’Net Zero’ Strategy: Conditions for Implementation in the United Kingdom

  • Kaiser Tamás
doi: 10.32575/ppb.2025.1.8

Abstract

Climate change, global warming and carbon emissions into the atmosphere make it increasingly tangible and urgent to accelerate the "green transition" and implement decisions to reach the net zero emissions target by 2050. As the impact of public policies to achieve these targets varies between regions with different levels of development, the role, institutional and administrative capacity of local and regional authorities is crucial in the process of achieving net zero. The UK is at the forefront of preparing for a "green transformation", and English city-regions are showing considerable activity to implement net zero, despite not having all the necessary legal, institutional, financial and human resources. The study argues that in order to achieve a coherent "green transition", there is a need to identify the potential and values of each region as well as to involve the relevant actors. Based on this, there is a need for co-created visions and strategies.

Keywords:

green transition net zero territorial inequality city-region decarbonisation

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