Memorandum submitted by the East of England
Development Agency
INTRODUCTION—THE
EAST OF
ENGLAND DEVELOPMENT
AGENCY
1. The East of England Development Agency
(EEDA) welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Environmental
Audit Committee's Inquiry into climate change and local, regional
and devolved government.
2. EEDA is the driving force behind sustainable
economic growth and regeneration in the East of England (Bedfordshire,
Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and the
unitary authority areas of Luton, Peterborough, Southend and Thurrock).
Our task is to improve the region's economic performance and ensure
the East of England remains one of the UK's top performing regions.
In the period since our establishment in 1999, EEDA's strategic
role has deepened and broadened across the regional economic landscape
and the changes announced in the recent Sub-National Review of
Economic Development & Regeneration will further our remit.
EEDA's core intervention areas have grown to encompass enterprise,
innovation, business support, regeneration, economic inclusion
and skills development. EEDA takes its statutory purpose to contribute
to sustainable development extremely seriously and is committed
to being an exemplar and leader on the climate change.
3. EEDA's current budget of £140 million
is just over 0.1% of the value of the region's economy. We therefore
pursue our purposes by setting and shaping the direction of the
region principally through the Regional Economic Strategy (RES);
we persuade and influence others to contribute to that RES; and
we set out to deliver a small number of interventions with our
resources that catalyse that process.
4. Climate change poses a very real threat
to the East of England. Our low lying geography, vulnerable coastline
and already scarce resources make the East of England the region
most at threat from climate change in the UK. EEDA is well-placed
to help the region to respond to this threat. There is, however,
also a strong economic opportunity rationale for our focus on
tackling climate change. The Stern Report identified a powerful
economic argument for taking early action and indicated that action
on climate would create significant business opportunities with
markets potentially growing to be worth hundreds of billions of
dollars each. The region is already the UK leader in the production
of renewable energy and predictions of 45% growth in the global
environmental technologies sector by 2015, coupled with a large
proportion of the UK's environmental goods and services sector
being located in the region, means that the East of England has
the potential to also become a leader in supplying future demand
for low carbon technologies.
5. In our regional leadership role, EEDA
is in the process of reviewing the Regional Economic Strategy
(RES) which will drive sustainable economic development in the
East of England to 2031. One of the three headline ambitions for
the RES is to reduce the levels of CO2 emissions and accelerate
the decoupling of resource use from economic growth. Under this
aspiration the Strategy is looking to deliver growth and development
within a specific target for carbon reduction; to harness the
world-class expertise of the companies and universities in the
region in environmental science, clean technologies and carbon
capture and storage; to embed a culture of resource efficiency
and environmental management within the business sector; and to
incentivise construction and physical development to perform to
high environmental standards. We are championing the inclusion
in the RES of a target of 60% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030.
We are also driving forward the development of a Regional Climate
Change Action Plan and hosting the Regional Climate Change Partnership
Manager, as well as continuing our investment in the regional
Sustainable Development Roundtable.
EEDA'S ORGANISATIONAL
ACTIVITY
6. EEDA is seeking to lead by becoming an
organisational exemplar. We expect to achieve ISO 140001 in early
2008, alongside renewal of our EMS accreditation. EEDA has an
internally based cross directorate Sustainable Development Steering
Group and an Energy Champions Group and has initiated work to
retrofit our office accommodation as a model for the 95% of the
regional businesses which will not have access to new-build offices.
7. EEDA has traditionally used the East
of England Sustainable Development Toolkit to ensure proofing
for all of our strategy and programme development work. Last year
we supported and worked with Inspire East (the EEDA funded Regional
Centre of Excellence for Regeneration and Renewal) and BRE to
develop the Excellence Framework, a comprehensive sustainability
tool, based on the Sustainable Communities Plan, to aid the use
of standards within the whole project life cycle (design, concept
development implementation and monitoring). As part of EEDA's
renewal of our own project management processes, we are now using
the Excellence Framework to underpin all projects. In addition,
EEDA has set in place minimum standards for all our investment,
based on the Excellence Framework, to support our commitment to
reducing the region's carbon footprint.
8. Alongside EEDA's own Sustainable and
Rural Development Team we also host Regional Managers from the
Carbon Trust, Envirowise, WRAP (Waste Resources and Action Programme),
the Biodiversity Forum and the Climate Change Partnership to ensure
broader coherence when delivering advice.
LEADING THE
REGION IN
ADDRESSING CLIMATE
CHANGE
9. EEDA is committed to driving forward
the pace of change within the region, using the full range of
its work to effect a difference. We have been at the driving edge
of renewables, instigated a national pilot to drive resource efficiency
advice through Business Link, prioritised a low carbon theme for
our European funding, created environmental innovation centres
and will shortly be launching a carbon campaign targeted at communities.
10. EEDA has been at the cutting edge of
stimulating economic activity in order to deliver a low cost,
reliable and secure low carbon energy supply into the economy,
as demonstrated in 2003 with the creation of Renewables East (RE),
the regional renewable energy agency. RE has been tasked with
encouraging the region to meet its renewable energy targets, with
the East of England now on course to meet its target of 14% electricity
from renewables by 2010. EEDA and RE with support from other stakeholders
have been instrumental in securing the renewable transport fuel
obligation and banding of the Renewables Obligation Certificates
to increase the viability of offshore renewables and bioenergy.
The region has also been at the forefront of Anaerobic Digestion
bringing forward a new digestate standard. Finally EEDA alongside
the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Suffolk County
Council and Waveney District Council have invested £9.5 million
to bring forward OrbisEnergy, an enterprise hub at the centre
of encouraging offshore renewable energy.
11. Through EEDA's mainstream business support
activity, we are driving the private sector to recognise the benefits
of resource efficiency. As a result of EEDA's Chair, Richard Ellis,
jointly chairing a Business Resource Efficiency Taskforce with
John Healey, the RDAs collectively offered to develop and pilot
a mainstream business resource efficiency advice service routed
through Business Link. In addition to EEDA's national leadership
of this pilot, we have integrated it into the Information, Diagnostic
and Brokerage (IDB) offer in our region and will have provided
resource efficiency advice to 1000 businesses in the region by
the end of March 2008. In addition EEDA has supported a number
of key businesses to form part of the brokerage supply chain for
extended business support, brokered by Business Link, in innovative
areas such as waste exchange, as well as reduction and efficiency
etc. In 2007, we helped BITC to deliver the Prince of Wales' aspiration
of national and regional MayDay Summits focused on securing climate
change pledges from business and we will be continuing our support
in 2008.
12. EEDA is also prioritising a low carbon
economy theme through other business support programmes which
it manages. EEDA will be managing part of the new EU Rural Development
Programme and the EU Regional Development programme for the 2007-13
period and both these programmes are targeted towards achieving
impacts in areas such as business resource efficiency and innovation
in low carbon technology. For creativity and entrepreneurship
in business, EEDA has, this year, also taken its highly successful
Running the Gauntlet competition and added a low carbon element
to it. Through this competition, which has been running over the
last three years, EEDA has mentored and facilitated the development
of numerous new businesses in the region.
13. EEDA's innovation interventions are
being prioritised to deliver business growth in energy and environmental
sectors. EEDA has, for example, invested in an innovation centre
in Peterborough to support the growth of the city's hi-tech environmental
technology cluster which consists of 340 companies to date. EEDA
is also investing in the Centre for Sustainable Engineering (CSEng),
a national clearing house for information, expert analysis, practical
application and knowledge transfer linked to low carbon technologies.
14. We also believe that behavioural change
in the community has a vital role to play in delivering change.
EEDA is on the brink of launching a new campaign aimed at mobilising
communities in the East of England to come together to tackle
their carbon emissions. The multi-million pound Cut Your Carbon
Campaign will encourage and enable communities to take action
to reduce their footprint and enter a competition to win funding
for more costly carbon reduction actions. This work will build
on our experience of the University of East Anglia CRED programme,
which EEDA facilitated the creation of in 2003, which is reducing
carbon emissions by 35,000 tonnes per annum from households and
industry and has a global network extending into the USA and China.
15. To underpin its regeneration activity,
EEDA has funded projects such as Smartlife, which supports the
delivery of sustainable skills using expertise from at home and
internationally to increase the skills capacity of the region
to deliver areas of activity such as sustainable construction
for example.
1. How can central government best support
and encourage local authorities, regional government and devolved
administrations to take action on mitigation and adaptation, and
other climate change related areas like waste and transport? What
funding, powers, and structures are required to improve joined
up delivery of climate change policy at all levels of government?
16. Central government needs to recognise
that local authorities and regional bodies are already taking
action on mitigation, adaptation and other climate change related
areas, often in partnership, and that it needs to support and
encourage this work. In the East of England, for example, a regional
Climate Change Partnership has been established, with a coordinator
jointly funded by EEDA, Go-East and EERA, and work is underway
on developing a Regional Climate Change Action Plan. The new Regional
Economic Strategy for the region incorporates a focus on reducing
CO2 emissions and intends to set a carbon reduction target, whilst
the Regional Spatial Strategy has also set challenging targets.
The EU funding which EEDA will be responsible for from 2008 has
a low carbon metatheme and the region is on target to achieve
14% of its energy from renewable sources by 2010. Businesses are
being engaged in the climate change agenda through the mainstreaming
of resource efficiency advice through Business Link and EEDA's
Running the Gauntlet competition which had a low carbon focus
this year. Behavioural change is being driven through EEDA's soon
to be launched Community Cut Your Carbon Campaign and through
our investment in a carbon calculator for land-based businesses.
Renewables East, established by EEDA, has delivered training and
support to local authorities on renewable energy planning matters
with the region enjoying a high level of planning application
approvals as a direct result. However, whilst there is a lot of
activity already underway, there is still more to do and central
government has a role to play in helping the region to achieve
this.
17. To facilitate regional and local action,
the Government needs to set the strategic direction, remove barriers
to action on climate change and provide the evidence base to drive
change.
Setting and achieving targets
18. The Eastern region intends to establish
an ambitious carbon reduction target for inclusion in the new
Regional Economic Strategy which will come into effect in April
2008. However, there is still no clarity as to whether the Government
intends to cascade national targets to regional and local level
or whether it expects regions and local authorities to establish
their own targets which will be amalgamated into the national
target. There is also uncertainty as to whether regional/local
targets as set by central government will be legally binding and,
if they are, how the Government will ensure fit with the targets
which have already been set by regions or whether the expectation
is that the existing regional/local targets will be abandoned
in favour of the Government's targets.
19. The Government needs to make a clear,
urgent decision on how it intends to handle regional and local
carbon reduction targets. It needs to ensure that regional/local
administrations are given the flexibility to align Local Area
Agreement (LAA) targets and the targets set in Regional Economic
Strategies. It needs to connect its Climate Change Programme targets
to the regional targets which have been set. The Government needs
to take into account the carbon emission reductions being delivered
at regional/local level and understand how this contributes to
the UK's overall carbon reduction target. In addition, EEDA would
suggest that, if the region has set its own target in the absence
of a government steer, then the Government should seek to support
that target in any decisions it takes.
20. There is a lack of data on which to
found regional/local carbon targets. Regional/local bodies would
therefore benefit from central government providing robust and
back-calculated datasets, disaggregated to the regional/local
level. Whilst the region has commissioned its own evidence base,
there would be merit in consistent information being made available
to all regions to allow comparability.
Policy framework and strategic influencing
21. Government needs to set the national
policy and strategy framework for climate change activity and
carbon reduction. At the moment, there is a lack of coherence
between government policies. The Government needs to embed climate
change considerations into mainstream policy development using
robust evidence and intelligence which can be disaggregated to
regional/local level to ensure cohesion with policy development
and implementation at more devolved levels. The Government must
not allow climate change to be treated as an issue for one government
department but must ensure that all government departments consider
climate change when formulating policy. Providing a coherent strategic
direction through national policies is critical to enabling effective,
coherent action to tackle climate change at national, regional
and local level. The three tiers should be working towards the
same goals through a co-ordinated set of policies.
22. Where regional Climate Change Action
Plans have been established, government should have regard to
them when formulating national policy. In its expectations of
the new Integrated Regional Strategies, government should recognise
the contribution they can make to the climate change agenda and
ensure that these strategies are both encouraged to incorporate
this element and that regional, sub-regional and local partners
are tied in to delivering against this strategy. The Government
must not create a situation where local authorities are being
asked to respond to one set of targets which do not align with
regional targets and aspirations.
23. In regard to transport, DfT needs to
deliver against its recent discussion document, "Towards
a Sustainable Transport System—Supporting Economic Growth
in a Low Carbon World", in a manner which enables regional
and local transport decisions to promote integrated and sustainable
transport choices. It is vitally important that government guidance
of transport appraisal techniques and scheme development mechanisms
are refreshed to ensure that the greenhouse gas consequences of
these actions are fully considered. The guidance should also incorporate
advice on handling the adaptability of transport proposals to
climate change. This will ensure that as interventions come forward
from scheme promoters (including local authorities), the climate
change consequences are fully considered and resilient transport
networks developed. It will also be important that these impacts
are reflected in the transport prioritisation exercises for Regional
Funding Allocations.
Investment
24. Carbon reduction criteria should be
embedded into government funding streams to drive behavioural
change. EEDA is already demonstrating how this can be achieved
through our requirement that all capital build projects we invest
in strive to achieve the BREEAM Excellent standard (or equivalent).
25. The Government also needs to provide
certainty in the funding it makes available. Climate change is
a long-term issue which will require sustained investment over
the medium to long-term and consistency of funding. On 21 December,
RDAs learned that Defra is unlikely to provide direct BREW (Business
Resource Efficiency and Waste) funding to RDAs for the period
2008-11. This decision is disappointing. Historically, we used
the funds to support six regional initiatives targeted at minimising
business waste to landfill by looking at converting waste into
renewable energy, by reducing waste in the construction sector,
by providing environmental awareness training, by connecting businesses
with community groups who might be able to use the waste products,
by using a web-based materials exchange to swap waste and by increasing
recycling and re-use within the supply. Our plans, which were
under development with partners, for the future of the programme
were focused on achieving better alignment between these initiatives
and delivering an enhanced coherence across the East of England.
Skills
26. The Government should also consider
providing additional investment in skills development. EEDA is
working with partners to identify skills gaps and develop solutions
as there is a significant lack of capacity in the emerging environmental
sectors. Aspiration is not yet matched by the ability to deliver.
The Government should support the Sector Skills Councils to work
with RDAs to develop swift and effective solutions to this problem.
2. Is there clarity about the role played
by local authorities, regional governments and devolved administrations
in tackling climate change? How can their actions be coordinated
and monitored? How can the accountability and transparency of
the response at a local level be improved? How effective has the
Nottingham Declaration process been?
27. EEDA is clear about its role in tackling
climate change and is working, through the Regional Economic Strategy
and the regional Climate Change Action Plan, to bring clarity
to the region on roles and responsibilities. EEDA views its role
as providing regional leadership on the economic dimensions of
climate change, both adaptation and mitigation, including the
development of low carbon technology and services, driving forward
investment in renewable energy and supporting the growth of the
environmental goods and services sector. We are working closely
with partners to help them determine their role in relation to
the climate change agenda and to ensure there is regional/local
and public/private sector cohesion. For example, EEDA is funding
UKCEED to work on developing a carbon targeting and accounting
methodology for local authorities that will enable them to better
understand policy and strategy decisions and how they will impact
on carbon emissions. There is a real risk that, with the growth
of the climate change agenda, without strong regional leadership
a lack of co-ordination and duplication will occur and that customer
confusion will reign due to the proliferation of funding streams
and bodies.
28. EEDA views the current Regional Economic
Strategy and, when it comes into effect, its replacement, the
new Single Regional Strategy, as important tools for driving clarity,
co-ordinating action and monitoring performance. Central government
has an important role to play in making sure that this goal is
achieved. It is currently developing its thinking around the new
Single Regional Strategies and it needs to encourage all public
sector bodies operating in the region, whether national, regional
or local, to work to deliver the Strategy. By using this as the
framework for the co-ordination of investments, it will help to
mainstream the Government's low carbon aspirations.
29. The regional Climate Change Action Plan
will also be an important tool for co-ordinating action and EEDA
is working with partners to ensure that it is aligned with the
new Regional Economic Strategy which will come into effect in
2008. It is important, in our opinion, that both of these documents
have complementary aspirations and that they provide clarity to
the regional picture rather than creating confusion.
30. In terms of monitoring and accountability,
there needs to be recognition of existing monitoring and reporting
requirements which local and regional bodies are subject to and
an understanding that these existing requirements are likely to
deliver evidence of the action being taken to deliver against
the climate change agenda.
3. What, if anything, needs to be changed
in the framework governing the actions of devolved administrations,
regional government and local authorities? For example, does there
need to be a more explicit reference to climate change in the
local government performance framework and will the new performance
indicators on climate change be enough to stimulate action?
31. EEDA welcomes the inclusion of climate
change mitigation and adaptation indicators in the new Performance
Framework for Local Authorities and Local Authority Partnerships.
Performance indicators have the potential to provide a real impetus
for action at a local level, provided they are targeted at real
delivery and supported by clear advice from government on how
emission savings should be calculated and reported.
4. To what extent should there be disaggregated
targets for different levels of government? How should independent
targets, for example Scotland will set its own emissions target
for 2050 (80% reduction rather than UK target of 60%) and the
Greater London Authority has committed itself to making a 60%
cut by 2030, fit together with national carbon targets and budgets?
How can Government monitoring and forecasting of emissions be
improved so as to disaggregate emissions, and the impact of carbon
reduction policies, in different regions and nations?
32. EEDA believes that there should be disaggregated
targets for different levels of government, as they are useful
in highlighting the desire and need for activity. EEDA is therefore
working to establish a carbon reduction target for the East of
England for incorporation in to the new Regional Economic Strategy.
We are concerned, however, that central government may, once our
target is in force, subsequently take a decision on regional/local
targets that does not align with the regional target which has
been established for the East of England. We would ask central
government to support any regional targets which have been established
in the absence of disaggregated national targets. If the Government
intends to cascade national targets to regional and local level,
then we would ask that this be announced as soon as possible.
Local authorities should be encouraged to work to a disaggregation
of the regional target and not be asked by central government
to set local targets in isolation.
33. We would like to reiterate the point
that central government needs to provide robust and back-calculated
datasets, disaggregated to the regional/local level, to support
this process.
5. How advanced and co-ordinated are local,
regional and national programmes of adaptation to climate change?
What support is there for adaptation? How vulnerable to climate
change are local authorities, regional government and devolved
administrations?
34. The East of England is vulnerable to
the effects of climate change and we are therefore taking adaptation
very seriously. The regional Climate Change Action Plan which
is being developed for the East of England has a strong adaptation
focus. Activity by partners will be co-ordinated through this
Plan to ensure increased resilience of the regional economy and
natural environment to climate change, to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and to grow the economy sustainably in areas of opportunity
created by climate change.
35. Government has a role to play in helping
regional and local action on adaptation by providing robust evidence
which can be used to inform decisions and costings, by investing
in adapatation and by helping to disseminate best practice. It
is important that the UK Climate Impacts Programme continues to
provide robust scenarios, including at regional level, and is
funded to continue to provide up-to-date scientific expertise
in this rapidly developing area as this information is vital for
planning and decision-making. The Government should provide funds
for investment in adaptation activity, especially climate-resilient
infrastructure and should remove policy barriers that prevent
adaptation uptake. Whilst government has a role to play in the
provision of an evidence base and dissemination of information,
action on adaptation is best decided and taken at local level.
The Government should help to resource this action.
36. The proposed Local Area Agreement adaptation
indicator will help to drive adaptation activity by local authorities
if selected.
6. How should the Committee on Climate Change
reflect the interests and needs of the different levels of government
across the UK?
37. The RDAs stated in their response to
the draft Climate Change Bill that the Committee should include
regional representation to ensure that it provides advice to the
Government which recognises the diversity of regions and the contribution
that they can make to tackling climate change through fit-for-purpose
policy. EEDA fully endorses this view. Although the Government
responded that the Committee should consist of experts, not representative
of stakeholder groups, EEDA is concerned that without an understanding
of the intricacies of policy implementation and the regional/local
agenda, the Committee could provide government with advice which
is difficult to implement. The Committee must have a mechanism
for engaging with regional and local stakeholders, including RDAs.
EEDA, as the lead RDA on climate change, would be happy to act
as a representative for the RDAs in this matter.
7. What are the barriers to greater local
or regional action? Do the different levels of government have
sufficient powers to take action? What changes in policy are needed
to support action at a local level? What policies are working
well?
38. EEDA is making a significant commitment
to tackling climate change through both its regional leadership
and its in-house activity. Its partners are also stepping up to
the mark and the region is pulling together to take action on
climate change. There remain, however, barriers which need to
be tackled nationally to facilitate regional/local delivery. Answers
to previous questions identify some of the barriers to regional/local
action in more detail, but this is EEDA's headline list of barriers:
— There needs to be a clear and consistent
policy and strategy framework for climate change with carbon reduction
mainstreamed nationally accompanied by appropriate enabling strategies.
This in turn will filter through in to regional and local implementation.
— The Government's climate change priorities
need to be applied consistently across the breadth of mainstream
policy development.
— There needs to be common and robust
evidence and intelligence which can be used in the formulation
of national, regional and local policy and delivery.
— The Government needs to provide clarity
on whether it intends to cascade national targets to regional
and local level or whether it will accept and recognise the targets
which have been set in the absence of government targets. Uncertainty
risks creating confusion and unaligned targets.
— There is a skills gap in all aspects
of the emerging and growing environmental sector. The Government
needs to work with RDAs and Sector Skills Councils to identify
and address these gaps.
— The Government needs to recognise
that cost is a major barrier, particularly for individuals, and
take steps to address this.
— The Government needs to remove the
barriers currently holding back the rollout of decentralised and
renewable energy by altering the regulatory licence exemptions
which limit the maximum size of electricity generation plants
exempt from the burdens of a Supply Licence, adapting the regulatory
and market structure for electricity to reflect the different
scale and economics of decentralised energy, providing more incentives
for renewables and Combined Heat & Power.
— The Eastern region has a significant
number of communities in fuel poverty that are off the gas network
and in hard to treat homes reliant on oil heating. The Government
needs to meet the needs of this group of people in addition to
its focus on those who can afford to pay for the installation
of microgeneration equipment.
8. What impact will the new Planning Policy
Statement on climate change have on emissions reductions and work
on adaptation? How are the so called "Merton rules affected?
How might other planning guidance be changed to reduce emissions?
39. Planning has a crucial role to play
in both effectively insisting on measures to tackle climate change
and in allowing new low carbon endeavours and enterprises to be
brought forward. The recent Local Government Association (LGA)
report on councils and climate change highlights planning as one
of the four areas in which local authorities can make a difference.
40. With activity lead by Renewables East
and Inspire East, supported by EEDA, EERA, and the EST, over 30
events have been delivered during the last three years, providing
training and support information to local authorities planning
officers, staff and councillors. This has led the region to enjoy
an 83% approval rate for renewable energy projects since 2003.
However further work is required to ensure that knowledge and
understand of the issues remains high.
41. The East of England is planning to accommodate
and encourage substantial housing and economic growth over the
coming years. In recognising the complexities and pressures this
puts on the drive to reduce regional carbon emissions the region
submitted a "Merton" style policy into draft regional
planning guidance. Although this has been commended by Yvette
Cooper as an exemplar to all regions, its inclusion has been called
into question. The stakeholders in the region believe that it
is vital to give development in the region a requirement to address
low carbon issues whilst ensuring a level playing field.
42. EEDA has yet to fully digest the new
Planning Policy Statement which was only published on Tuesday
18th December, but initial indications are that, whilst the Statement
is to be broadly welcomed, it has not gone far enough to support
the creation of a level playing field in the regions and has introduced
some uncertainties.
9. Are local authorities meeting their duty
to enforce building regulations in relation to environmental measures?
Does the enforcement regime discourage non-compliance?
43. EEDA is not in a position to comment
on this question.
10. What good practice is there to be shared?
How is best practice shared and does central government support
for sharing best practice work? What role should UK Climate Impacts
Programme, IDeA, Salix Finance, the Carbon Trust and Energy Savings
Trust play in providing support?
44. EEDA acts as the lead RDA on the climate
change agenda, disseminating information and good practice across
the RDAs, stimulating debate on vital issues and liaising with
government departments. We have established a national cross-RDA
group, which met frequently during 2007, to discuss issues and
develop policy and practice linked to broad sustainable development,
as well as more specific arenas around climate change, resource
efficiency, waste and energy. We have also created a monthly information
bulletin targeted at RDAs and provide an online library of information
for RDA colleagues. In addition, EEDA has led the production of
three good practice publications, "Tackling Climate Change
in the Regions", "Smart Productivity" and "Smart
Growth" which have been disseminated widely to partners and
stakeholders.
45. EEDA firmly believes in the need to
share information at regional/local level to avoid duplication
of effort, learn from good practice and strengthen relationships.
EEDA directly participates in a wide range of regional partnerships,
including jointly with Go East and EERA, Renewables East and Inspire
East. EEDA also sits on a number of strategic steering groups
(eg GO East Low Carbon Aspiration Group), as well as being an
active participant in the Sustainable Development Roundtable and
the East of England Environment Forum.
46. As well as EEDA's own Sustainable and
Rural Development Team, we host Regional Managers from environmental
organisations such as Carbon Trust, Envirowise, WRAP, the Biodiversity
Forum and the regional Climate Change Partnership to ensure broader
coherence when delivering advice. We are also investing in a regional
Waterwise Manager. Through regular team meetings, EEDA staff and
our hosted partners share good practice and knowledge.
47. Last year the Regional Assembly conducted
a review of the region's activities in tackling climate change
and found significant activity being delivered throughout the
region through organisations such as Renewables East.
2 January 2008
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