CANFFUND - Cambridgeshire Governance Framework to unlock net zero finance

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The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Commission for Climate estimates that £700M/yr of funding is required through the 2020s to decarbonise and adapt for climate change. An ambitious funding plan is needed.Phase-1 feasibility showed that 98% of Cambridgeshire's spend reinforces fossil fuel pathways. The redirection of finance flows from high- to low-carbon in Cambridgeshire requires a robust evidence-based governance framework and new financing solutions to align local and national net-zero delivery.**Locally Determined Contributions (LDC)** align local net-zero plans and commitments with national commitments and reporting requirements in a clear framework. Like the UK's Nationally Determined Contribution, LDCs consist of targets and commitments and the implementation plans for achieving them, backed up by an accounting system aligning local and national data and clarifying roles and responsibilities.The LDC will provide the local context and ambition to be reflected into national commitments to meet UK's international agreements. This will serve as another example of the UK's global leadership at COP conferences, but also as a useful tool for other UK, international, and local actors to understand how their contribution can be accounted for.This project will **develop and test a guidance toolkit** for a world-leading Cambridgeshire LDC, creating an innovative, whole-system approach to shifting finance to deliver benefits for places, people and the climate, as well as value for money in the low-carbon transition.This project builds on the work of Phase-1 to progress the feasibility of using LDCs as a facilitator for finance, contributing to developing a range of new financing solutions to enable investment into local projects and support delivery of net-zero.Our guidance will focus on designing an LDC that overcomes identified non-technical barriers to investing in net-zero at a place-based level. It will focus on reducing regulatory inconsistencies and uncertainty and explore how to address barriers such as lack of consistency in portfolio management approaches across authorities, and low understanding of the issues and opportunities across communities and other stakeholders.We will use our Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP) as a case-study for applying the guidance, but the findings will be designed to be applicable across local authorities more broadly too.In its core, the LDC will:* provide a governance mechanism for national governments to deliver on their commitments through local accountability; and* enable local government, communities and business so see how their net-zero actions contribute to the national picture.