Category: Cities and Local Authorities, Policies and Measures

Ealing Council Climate Action Plan Multi-Criteria Analysis

Aether developed a multi-criteria analysis of Ealing Council’s Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy (CEES) to support the Council with prioritisation and delivery of climate actions to reach their 2030 target of carbon neutrality.

The challenge

Ealing Council declared a climate emergency in April 2019 and set a target of 2030 to reach carbon neutrality for the Council and borough. The target covers all carbon emissions, both produced and consumed, by everyone in the borough. Ealing Council adopted the Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy (CEES) in 2021 and a two-year action plan was created for 2023-2025 which outlined key activities to push towards the 2030 target.

The solution

To aid with the prioritisation and delivery of these decarbonisation actions, Ealing Council commissioned Aether to estimate the implementation costs and wider benefits of the actions and to develop a tool to enable Council officers to refine and update the analysis as new information becomes available. This was developed through a multi-criteria assessment of the CEES actions.

This involved:

  • Stakeholder engagement to realise a political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental (PESTLE) analysis to understand the broader influences and success determinators of the actions
  • Estimating capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) of the actions, including staff time for the Council, asset purchases, external resources
  • Analysing wider social, economic and environmental impacts of the actions beyond decarbonisation, aligned with the 9 priorities identified in Ealing’s Council Plan
  • Qualitative assessment of the GHG emissions impacts of the actions

The analysis was developed in a Climate Impact Action Tool in Excel that the Council can use independently to view and refine the multi-criteria assessment in the future. This includes graphic viewers of the results across actions and detailed dives for specific actions.

A gap analysis of climate actions for the decarbonisation of Ealing was performed to help identify opportunities for further ambition and GHG emissions reductions.

The result

Ealing Council has a user-friendly multi-criteria assessment tool established to aid with the prioritisation and analysis of Ealing’s policies under the Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy. The tool can be used to update analysis as more data is collected. The next steps for Ealing will be to review the impact scores of their actions, consider further actions that could be drafted, and to make demands of Central Government to enable the significant changes that are required to meet the challenges of reaching net zero carbon.

See all case studies

Kathryn Hampshire

Associate Director

Related case studies

Adaptation and Mitigation Planning for Tamworth Borough Council

Category: Cities and Local Authorities, Emission Inventories, Policies and Measures

Aether, in partnership with SE2 and Mesh, delivered a package of work to support Tamworth Borough Council to develop an evidence-based climate change adaptation strategy and mitigation action plan.

Read case study

Oxford Sustainability Index

Category: Cities and Local Authorities, Policies and Measures

Aether was appointed to develop a Sustainability Index for Oxford, comparing the city’s performance with others.

Read case study

City of London Air Quality Data Visualisation

Category: Cities and Local Authorities

Aether developed an online, interactive data visualisation for the City of London that could be used by policy makers and the general public to explore data and information on air quality. Topics covered include air pollutant emissions, bus fleet emission control technologies and the health impacts of air pollution.

Read case study

News

Latest news

Posted on: 10 September 2026

Rail Freight Group award win

Aether were the winner in the Innovation category at the Rail Freight Group Annual Awards. The award recognises two RSSB research projects which are already delivering improvements for the rail freight sector.

Read full story

Posted on: 19 June 2026

NECD Review Week in Brussels

Aether spent a week at the European Commission in Brussels as part of the review of air pollutant inventories submitted under the EU’s National Emission reduction Ceilings Directive (NECD).

Read full story

Posted on: 18 May 2026

Power Query Workshop in Estonia

Aether travelled to the Estonian Environmental Research Centre (EKUK) in Tallinn to deliver a two-day training workshop for the inventory team to build capacity on the Excel power queries used in the GHG inventory templates previously set up by Aether in 2022.

Read full story

Posted on: 30 April 2026

Capacity Sharing in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Aether delivered a three-day GHG inventory capacity building workshop in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, towards development of the BTR1.

Read full story

Filter news by category

Aether Blog Air Pollution Air Quality Assessments Barriers to Net Zero Capacity Building Carbon Footprint Climate Emergency Climate Equality Climate Finance Consumption COP28 Culture Data Visualisation Economic Status Emissions Reporting European Topic Centre GHG Infrastructure Inventories Local Government Mitigation MRV National Government Net Zero Oxfam Paris Agreement Policy Recruitment Society Stakeholder Engagement Waste Sector Wider Impacts
Browse all news

Testimonial

Don't just take our word for it...

“ It is always an absolute pleasure working with Aether. I always know what is expected of me. Their work ethic is of a very high standard and projects are always handled in a very professional manner. I have learnt many skills in terms of project management, quality control and workshop training styles from Aether and I hope to carry these principles forward in my own work. I look forward to collaborating with Aether more in the future. ”

Luanne Stevens, Gondwana

“ The team at Aether works very professionally and communicates very well which makes working with them a pleasure. Outputs are delivered on time to high quality. The team brings the rigour of technical knowledge and expertise and finds innovative ways of communicating complex messages. I would be happy to recommend the Aether team to organisations working on analysing and presenting emissions information in the public domain. ”

Fiona Glover, States of Jersey

“ The support provided by Aether for this project was especially remarkable considering the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tools and methods used in order to engage local stakeholders really added value to the capacity building of the national team. ”

Shanna Emmanuel, Saint Lucia BUR Project Coordinator

“ It has been a pleasure to work with Chris Dore and Richard Claxton from Aether: they did their job in a very professional and timely manner. The workshop was organized and carried out in a cooperative spirit; the information provided to the workshop participants was complete and clear. ”

Alina Novikova, UN/ECE Secretariat

“ Aether was a great asset in involving/engaging with Member States experts on highly technical subjects regarding GHG reporting. Very clear communication of issues and results. ”

Andreas Pilzecker, DG CLIMA

“ Engaging Aether to support us to develop the first GHG Inventory System and first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for the United Republic of Tanzania has been a rewarding experience due to their high level of professionalism, creativity, timeliness and value for money. We will definitely consider Aether in our future initiatives. ”

Abbas Kitogo, Programme Specialist Energy and Climate Change, UNDP Tanzania