UK Co-Benefits Atlas Launches to Highlight Social Value of Climate Action

The UK Co-Benefits Atlas, based on data modelling by the CO-BENS team at the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI) and developed in collaboration with the School of Informatics, was presented at a launch event hosted in partnership with sustainability charity Ashden.

Climate co-benefits are the positive effects that come from actions taken to reduce carbon emissions. While the primary aim of climate policy is to tackle the climate crisis, these actions often bring about immediate, local, and tangible improvements to people’s lives. For example, encouraging walking and cycling not only cuts vehicle emissions but leads to cleaner air, fewer road accidents and better physical and mental health. 

In many cases, these co-benefits are experienced more quickly and more widely than the climate impacts themselves. As climate action increasingly focuses on homes, transport and lifestyles, rather than just energy production, these broader impacts are becoming more visible and more valuable.

By clearly demonstrating these additional benefits, co-benefits help to make climate action more relevant, cost effective and publicly acceptable. They help to shift the narrative away from sacrifice and towards shared gain, showing that climate-friendly policies can also reduce inequality, improve public services and strengthen communities.

The UK Co-Benefits Atlas allows users to explore how climate interventions affect over 46,000 local areas across the UK. The tool is informed by the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) Seventh Carbon Budget, which provides advice to the UK Government on the actions needed to achieve net zero. Combining this advice with detailed data, such as demographics, air quality, transport links and housing efficiency, the tool models how different policies might play out in specific locations, helping identify where investment can have the biggest impact.

Informed by analysis from Climate Change Committee’s Seventh Carbon Budget, the Atlas estimates that every £1 invested in climate action could deliver up to £14 in societal benefits[1],potentially generating up to £160 billion in national benefits over the next 20 years.

The UK Co-Benefits Atlas is designed to support smarter, fairer and more effective climate decision-making. It can be used in three key ways;

• to explore UK-wide scenarios to see the national picture of how different climate polices deliver co-benefits across the country,
• to focus on local areas to understand how communities might be affected and where action is needed most,
• to support joined- up working by identifying where coordination between regions could lead to better outcomes.

The tool also highlights potential ‘hassle costs’—such as longer journey times or behavioural changes—that might act as barriers to adoption. Including these factors offers a more realistic and balanced view of the challenges involved in reaching net zero, while also helping to design policies that are more practical and inclusive.

Understanding and communicating these co-benefits is crucial to building public support, securing funding, and delivering effective, joined-up policies. The UK Co-Benefits Atlas was created to help visualise these wide-ranging impacts in different parts of the UK and help to deliver the outcomes communities want to see, as well as delivering on greenhouse emissions targets. It shows that acting on climate is not just the right thing to do for the planet, but an incredibly effective way to invest in our collective wellbeing and building a fairer and healthier society.

Explore the data Atlas to further understand connections between a wide range of social, economic and environmental priorities:

Ashden: Climate Solutions in Action | Website

The Seventh Carbon Budget | Climate Change Committee Website

Scotland Beyond Net Zero

[1] Sudmant, A., Boyle, D., Higgins‐Lavery, R. et al. Climate policy as social policy? A comprehensive assessment of the economic impact of climate action in the UK. J Environ Stud Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-024-00955-9