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There is no accepted definition of ‘climate emergency’ in local government in the UK. However, the word emergency is used deliberately to suggest that urgent action is required, rather than ‘business as usual’. All local authorities already have plans for climate change, but the idea is that they are not moving fast enough to avert the looming crisis.
Usually, this is a pledge to either reduce the carbon emissions of the council to net zero by a defined date, or to reduce the emissions of the whole council area. The two are very different and involve hugely different indicators of the scale of ambition. In general, the emissions of a local authority are just 1-2% of the total emissions of the wider area.
At full council on 6 August 2019, a Climate Emergency was declared.
This set an aim of activities of the council being net zero carbon by 2030.
To achieve this, officers were instructed to draw up an action plan. This would calculate the council’s carbon footprint and appropriate steps to reach net zero carbon by 2030.
Secondly, the action plan should identify community actions to influence and encourage partners, businesses, community groups and individuals to join the council in striving to make the whole area net zero carbon.
So the motion commits the council to put its own house in order (such as its own assets, vehicles and activities); and then commits the council to influence and encourage the rest of Tendring to do the same.
There is much confusion about terminology. The first thing is that this is not about carbon dioxide (CO2). There are six greenhouse gases and all are included.
The difference between net zero carbon and zero carbon is that net zero involves balancing the amount of emitted greenhouse gases that cannot be removed by either offsetting or excluding (such as by developing renewable energy projects or planting trees). Zero carbon means no emissions – impossible for a local authority.
Plastic usage is not a part of tackling carbon footprint, other than in general terms; the carbon used in producing plastic and in transporting associated products. Indeed, in some cases plastic products can be more ‘environmentally friendly’ in this regard than others.
However, the issue of single use plastics coupled with plastic waste and microplastics ending up in the ocean and elsewhere in the natural environment is also a cause for concern.
To this end, TDC’s Cabinet has set an aim of the organisation being free of single use plastics by the end 2020, where possible.
In some cases single use plastic cannot be avoided, such as swabs for environmental health, or support wider environmental objectives – such as the use of plastic food waste bags.
TDC has appointed consultancy APSE Energy to support with work on the action plan, including defining the council’s carbon footprint.
The lead officer is Tim R Clarke, supported by Rebecca Duff-Cole, and an officer working group will be formed soon to develop work.
This is being overseen by a Members’ Climate Change Working Party, a cross-party group of councillors which meets regularly to look at what can be done to achieve the council’s climate emergency goals.
Staff briefings were held in February as an initial introduction to this work, and regular updates will be given. You may have also noticed the new campaign on your computer screens, the new section on Ping! and the video, which is well worth a watch – look out for more of these over the coming months.
By Steve Cirell, consultant with APSE Energy
APSE Energy has been appointed by TDC to advise on its climate emergency declaration and the work required to identify its carbon footprint and develop an action plan to reach its targets.
On 19 February I, as lead consultant with APSE Energy, addressed two staff briefings and a members’ briefing on the work being undertaken. This blog is based on those meetings.
TDC believes it is important to ensure all TDC Members and staff in the Council understand the commitment that has been made, so that they can spread the message and get people behind the plans.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report of October 2018 was the hardest hitting yet on the impact of human caused climate change on the ecosystems of the planet. It effectively said the world has 12 years to sort out global warming, or irreparable damage would be done to the environment.
It proposed a new target of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels (down from the previous 2C target) to prevent severe challenges to property, transport, agriculture and other services, and death and displacement to thousands of people across the world.
This was widely publicised and touched a nerve with the public. Local authorities started declaring climate emergencies to reflect growing public unrest with the pace of action to date, with Bristol and Manchester among the early movers.
The Government subsequently passed its own motion of climate emergency, followed by similar motions in Scotland and Wales. It has adopted a new national target, which is legally binding, of 100% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050 against a 1990 baseline. This is featured in the Climate Change Act 2008 (as amended) and raised the original target of 80%. This seemed ambitious at the time but seems less so now.
During the time since the IPCC report, more authorities have declared climate emergencies and there are now 270 authorities in this group. It is also the case that public opinion has continued to harden and a variety of independent surveys have shown that a large proportion of people in the community now accept urgent action needs to be taken on climate change.
If an authority has declared a climate emergency, what should it do next? An action plan needs to be developed for the next 10+ years – for Tendring the key date is 2030.
This will take time and effort to prepare and needs to be done carefully. This is what APSE Energy is assisting with.
Having a plan will be key. Every authority needs a target or aim, a route map of how to get there and projects that form the steps along the way.
The council will also need to monitor progress – and be prepared to admit that progress is not on track if this is the case, and why. Communications will be crucial. To get people on board, the council has to engage with them.
The council will also need to identify funding for this work.
If anyone thinks ‘this doesn’t concern me’ you are wrong – it covers every single council service and activity – and every single member of the council too.
We have been commissioned to assist with this work and steer the authority down a sensible path.
The two parts of the work are the strategy and carbon footprinting work, to determine the council’s current carbon footprint. Of course, the council can only chart a path to net zero carbon when it knows where it is starting from.
The Work on the Council’s Carbon Footprint
This starts by increasing awareness – many authorities that have done this have members and staff saying they don’t really know what it means or what their role is in the process – hence the briefings.
‘One to one’ meetings with the main teams about what data they need to supply and how plans can be drawn up to reduce the emissions emanating from that service have been held.
The key areas will be policy, buildings, heating and transport, plus the need to identify renewable energy projects the council can undertake. This will be all drawn together in an overarching plan outlining the steps necessary to deliver the council’s target.
Community Wide Work
The first part of the resolution on climate emergency was to get the council’s own activities to net zero carbon by 2030; the second part is helping the whole Tendring area to do likewise.
Here the Council does not control the situation and can only influence others to act – and many of them may not want to.
The issues at community level will be the same as for the council. Lessons APSE Energy has learnt in undertaking this work include choosing your partners carefully and focusing on those bodies with shared values who are likely to sign up voluntarily to similar targets as the council’s own – and actually achieve them.
Council members will be crucial to this part of the process, being very familiar with the various links the council has to external groups and having clear views on who it would be best to partner with.
Alan Barber is leading on this element and has asked for a wide variety of data from Tim R Clarke and his team about the council’s functions. Tim has been in touch with most departments about the submission of this data.
Energy use data is used, with a conversion factor provided by BEIS, to calculate the footprint. This data is then pieced together to give a total figure for the council’s carbon emissions – the figure it has to get down to net zero over the course of the ten years.
This is an exciting time for the council. It has stepped up to the plate and declared a climate emergency. Now it has to act like it and put in place provisions that will start to reduce its carbon footprint.
This work will involve everyone but should be viewed positively. Too often climate change work is reported negatively – it’s about giving up this and that, not being able to do Z, Y or Z in the future.
However, we take the view climate change work is about making things better – better air quality, less pollution, lower costs of energy, more renewable energy, more biodiversity, better energy security, local jobs and growth, better health and wellbeing, leading to happier, healthier and longer lives. This is a prize worth fighting for and public opinion seems to support this.