The Committee on Climate Change, the statutory body set up to advise ministers on how to meet the government’s carbon targets, called for local authorities to be ordered do develop and implement plans to cut carbon emissions. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

Funding cuts to squeezed local authorities are putting the UK’s carbon targets at risk, the government’s climate advisers warned in a report published on Thursday.

The Committee on Climate Change, the statutory body set up to advise ministers on how to meet the government’s carbon targets, called for local authorities to be ordered do develop and implement plans to cut carbon emissions, with national funding to do so.

Prof Julia King, a member of the committee, told the Guardian that local authorities’ climate change initiatives had been badly affected by austerity measures, with climate efforts often one of the first services to go during budget cuts.

But she said: “Local authorities have the potential to significantly impact the UK’s scale and speed of emissions reductions. There is a wealth of good work being done already at local and regional levels, but many opportunities remain untapped. It is essential that these opportunities are delivered if we are to meet our national carbon targets.”

Continue reading UK carbon targets at risk over local authority funding cuts