EIR - Green skills training [Feb 2023]

Your request

Between 1 September 2019 and 1 September 2022:

1. How many green skills adult education courses have been provided by the combined authority, and;
2. How many people have been trained on the above green skills or green jobs adult education courses provided by the combined authority?
3. How many staff does the combined authority directly employ (excluding contractors or subcontractors), that work directly for the combined authority?
4. How many directly employed staff spend 3 or more days per week (0.6 FTE) on implementing the Climate Action Plan or other climate change projects? Please provide a list of all the roles.
5. Has the combined authority written to or met with UK national or devolved governments to ask or lobby for climate action since 1 January 2019? Provide evidence of the most recent letter or meeting such as a copy of the letter or email sent, or the date, topic of meeting and position of the person that the meeting was held with.
6. Have all senior management received carbon literacy training since 1 January 2019? Please state the type of training.
7. Have all current councillors who sit on the combined authority received carbon literacy training since being elected? Please state the type of training.

Preamble

We have done our best to accommodate your request but would like to emphasise that the  GLA is not a combined authority. That means that the services and functions that the GLA have are not directly comparable to the combined authorities, which are made up of constituent local authorities. 

The GLA consists of a directly elected Executive Mayor and the London Assembly, a body of elected representatives who scrutinise the work of the Mayor. It is not a group of councils working together to collaborate and take action as is the case with ‘combined authorities’.

The role of the GLA is set out in the Greater London Authority Act 1999, and as amended in 2007. Further details of the GLA's work can be found here. This is an important distinction, as, for example transport services in London are delivered by Transport for London, not directly by the GLA. 

Despite the difference to combined authorities, the Mayor of London is taking urgent action on climate change. He has set a Net Zero 2030 target for London and has a broad environment agenda which is tackling climate change, improving air quality and reducing inequalities in the city.

This includes proposals to further expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone to tackle the most polluting vehicles in Greater London. It also includes requiring all strategic new developments to be net zero, maximising carbon reduction onsite.

This has led to carbon savings 50 per cent better than achieved by national building regulations and is driving significant investment into renewable technologies such as heat pumps and solar PV.

The Mayor has set out his pathway to 2030 and is supporting acceleration to that target 
through technical accelerators which are supporting the development of business cases for 
energy efficiency and renewable energy projects across London. For example the Mayor’s 
Accelerator for workplaces has led to the retrofit of 680 public sector buildings in London 
saving over 30,000 tonnes of CO2 and 132 MWh of energy every year. 

London now has over one third of all of the UK’s electric vehicle charge points (11,500) of 
which 858 are rapid or ultra rapid and the largest zero emission bus fleet in western Europe (800 buses). 

In addition the Mayor is supporting the financing of projects through the Mayor’s Energy 
Efficiency Fund which has mobilised over £330m of investment into net zero projects.

The Mayor has also committed a further £90m to accelerate even more private sector finance through his proposals for a green finance facility for London, which will scale up activity supporting his net zero goals. 

The list above is far from exhaustive, but we would encourage you to find out more about the vast amount of work we are doing on the GLA website. 

In response to your request, please find attached further information we hold within the scope of your request.

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting 
reference MGLA220223-0803.