Local Government Innovation Workshop: Harnessing Tech to Mitigate Climate Change Risks and Meet Net Zero

The Event

Adapting to climate change and minimising its impacts whilst we are looking to create a more sustainable world is one of our most complex battles. Whether as a county council, district council or combined authority, local government has its own set of challenges when managing climate change risks and climate action initiatives. 

techUK is convening public sector and industry stakeholders to a workshop aimed at exploring how local authorities are dealing with the risk posed by climate change and how we can best support them on their journey to net zero. Harnessing the advantages of tech and digital innovation can have long term benefits for local councils’ digital strategies and vision to reaching net zero, reducing costs and attracting more innovative solutions that could even go further and helping tackle other issues. This is a great opportunity for county councils, district councils or combined authorities to showcase the challenges they face in a safe and neutral space, as well as connect with industry representatives to discuss what digital innovation and technologies are needed to help public sector organisations mitigate climate change risk and improve the adoption of sustainable practices in their community. 

Some of the challenges and opportunities that will be discussed include: 

• How can digital innovation support local authorities to understand and mitigate climate change risks? What are the technologies needed? e.g. Climate Change Statistics portal developed by ONS – How is it used by local authorities? Can the functionality be improved to support local authorities’ needs? 
• What are the rural vs urban disparities and diversity in challenges when it comes to climate change action? 

• How can investing in climate change action benefit the regions across the UK and support the growth of local tech ecosystems and the levelling-up agenda? 
• Are there opportunities for city councils to access financial tools that can help them aggregate resources and interventions? 
• Are there groups that local authorities should be collaborating with to manage climate action initiatives? e.g. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, The Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT) 
• How can local authorities prepare for environmental events that could impact its citizens through disruption in broadband and telecoms? 

The following speakers have been announced:

Kira Allmann

Senior Digital Strategy Officer, Manchester City Council

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Greg McDougall

Programme Director | Cloud Infrastructure Services, Capgemini

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Keith Townsend

Corporate Director for Environment & Climate Change, Islington Council

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Anna Bond

Deputy Director, Manchester Climate Change Agency