Local governments are at the forefront of managing crises, be it COVID, war, or the climate emergency. To be able to do so, local governments rely on their staff, which implies having a large enough local workforce to carry out the necessary tasks. The study conducted by Energy Cities explored the human capacity in local governments and demonstrated that several hurdles, like limited operating budgets, strict rules on local government debts, or a need to increase the attractiveness of employment, in fact prevent municipalities from recruiting the staff they need.
The accelerated local energy transition requires local governments to recruit a rising number of specialised local experts. Local gov. need to be enabled to set up corresponding training and long-term engagement opportunities to meet those demands.
— Martin Horn, ICLEI Europe President and Mayor of Freiburg
It is necessary to recruit and train local staff to have strong local energy public services, to achieve the climate transition in buildings, and to increase local investments and jobs. That need is addressed by the campaign #LocalStaff4Climate.
The manifesto, opened for signatories, calls for more local staff for future-proof municipalities and urges to national governments of EU Member States and the European Commission to:
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Finance the recruitment of municipal and local public bodies staff
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Make jobs more appealing and support local pooling of expertise
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Provide training and reallocation programmes to upskill municipal and related local public bodies staff
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Provide a framework enabling local governments to develop their own green budget, investments, and workforce
During the years up to 2030 our region and the UBC cities will face a lot of large scale and demanding challenges. Many of these challenges are known and we need to find a path and solutions to these challenges. Time, knowledge, resource and dedicated political leaders as well as employees in cities will be needed for finding best possible solutions.