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Local government has an important role to play in mitigation and adaption to climate change. In the UK, 82% of all emissions fall within the scope of local government. However, in UK climate legislation there is no statutory requirement for local government to address climate change. Eighty percent of local authorities have declared a climate emergency and developed climate action plans. The aim of this study is to explore the association between social vulnerability (poor health, financial resources, deprivation, house prices) and the quality of climate action plans as measured by a scorecard system created by Climate Emergency UK. We hypothesis that areas with lower levels of social vulnerability will have higher quality climate plans. We utilised a citizen science created dataset ranking local government’s climate action plans and administrative data on local area characteristics related to social vulnerability at the local authority level. Descriptive analysis and multivariate regression were employed. We found a very small but significant association between total weighted score, central government funding and average house prices. For the individual dimensions of the quality of climate action plans, higher male life expectancy and house prices were associated with better commitment and integration and having a greater percentage of the population over the age of 65 was associated with a lower score in this dimension. More urban areas and less deprived areas had higher scores for planning climate education, skills and training. We suggest that greater national guidance is needed including sharing good practice on how to build community support and additional funding for climate change mitigation/adaption in particular for education, skills, and training in more deprived areas may help to prevent variations in climate action plans increasing inequalities.

Local government has an important role to play in mitigation and adaption to climate change. In the UK, 82% of all emissions fall within the scope of local government. However, in UK climate legislation there is no statutory requirement for local government to address climate change. Eighty percent of local authorities have declared a climate emergency and developed climate action plans. The aim of this study is to explore the association between social vulnerability (poor health, financial resources, deprivation, house prices) and the quality of climate action plans as measured by a scorecard system created by Climate Emergency UK. We hypothesis that areas with lower levels of social vulnerability will have higher quality climate plans. We utilised a citizen science created dataset ranking local government’s climate action plans and administrative data on local area characteristics related to social vulnerability at the local authority level. Descriptive analysis and multivariate regression were employed. We found a very small but significant association between total weighted score, central government funding and average house prices. For the individual dimensions of the quality of climate action plans, higher male life expectancy and house prices were associated with better commitment and integration and having a greater percentage of the population over the age of 65 was associated with a lower score in this dimension. More urban areas and less deprived areas had higher scores for planning climate education, skills and training. We suggest that greater national guidance is needed including sharing good practice on how to build community support and additional funding for climate change mitigation/adaption in particular for education, skills, and training in more deprived areas may help to prevent variations in climate action plans increasing inequalities.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2006., This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections., Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-122)., This thesis examines the feasibility of creating a publicly traded, synthetic REIT-type investment fund for the purpose of investing in a portfolio of international real estate assets. The investment strategy is driven by both an increasing supply of international real estate opportunities and an increasing demand for international real estate investments. The fund will be domiciled in the Cayman Islands, where it will benefit from a tax exempt status, limited regulations, and a well established investment fund industry. The global investment strategy of a synthetic REIT-type Cayman Islands fund is a novel investment strategy. Because no standard investment structure for an international real estate fund exists, the analysis will focus on creating a fund level and tier level structure in order to achieve certain defined investment, tax, and regulatory objectives. These objectives include providing accessibility to a broad range of investors, minimizing taxation, minimizing regulatory requirements, providing market liquidity and transparency for shareholders, and targeting real estate investments in 40 countries. A primary focus will be on creating a tax-efficient tier structure for repatriating income from real estate investments to the fund., (cont.) The feasibility of the fund will be assessed based on how successfully it achieves these objectives. In general, the fund will have several competitive advantages over international REITs, REOCs, and private equity real estate funds. The fund will not have to comply with various organizational, asset, income, long-term debt, distribution, and foreign ownership rules that are imposed on REITs in order to achieve a tax exempt status. REOCs are subject to corporate level taxation and many REITS impose withholding tax on dividends to foreign investors. The fund will be more tax-efficient because no such taxes will be imposed on the fund. The fund will provide more market liquidity and transparency, to a broader range of investors, than private equity real estate funds can provide. Additionally, since most REITs and REOCs are domestically focused, the global investment strategy will provide greater portfolio diversification benefits., by Scott Butterfield., S.M.