HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
PLANNING AND PARTNERSHIPS PANEL
FRIDAY 9 MARCH 2007 AT 2.00 P.M.
A CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGY FOR HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL AND HERTFORDSHIRE – Proposed scope, timetable and work programme.
Report of the Director of Environment
Author: John Rumble Tel: 01992 556296
Executive Member: Derrick Ashley
1. Purpose of Report
1.1 To seek the Panel’s views on the development of a climate change strategy for the County Council and for Hertfordshire including:
Ø The proposed scope of the climate change strategy for the County Council, its timetable for development and the work programme for panel consideration of key issues arising from the strategies development.
Ø The process for developing a climate change strategy for Hertfordshire, the key stakeholders to be involved and the timetable for developing the strategy.
2. Summary
2.1 As part of its commitment as a signatory to the Nottingham declaration on Climate Change the County Council is committed to the development of climate change strategies for the County Council and for Hertfordshire. Both of these strategies will need to look at both mitigating the impact we are having upon climate change and adapting to the impacts that climate change will have on us.
2.2 It is suggested that the strategy for the County Council should focus on measures aimed at the management of the County Councils own estate and the activities it undertakes as a service provider. Through its community leadership role the County Council should through its leadership of Hertfordshire Forward develop a climate change strategy for Hertfordshire.
2.3 A strategy and set of actions dealing with mitigating the County Councils impact upon climate change would be in fully place and being implemented by March 2008, including agreement to greenhouse gas reduction targets for the authority. The adaptation components of the strategy and action plan will take slightly longer to put in place, but should be completed and starting to be implemented fully by September 2008. This timetable meets the commitment in the Nottingham Declaration to have a strategy in place within two years of signing.
2.4 It is suggested that the climate change strategy for Hertfordshire be developed alongside and as part of the Community Strategy for Hertfordshire with it being overseen by Hertfordshire Forward, the County Local Strategic partnership. Finalisation of the timetable and scope for this strategy would need to be agreed with Hertfordshire forward, but provisionally we would expect this to be completed by September 2008
3. Conclusion
The Panel are invited to consider:
3.1 Endorsing the approach to the development of climate change strategies for the County Council and Hertfordshire set out in this paper, including the proposed actions and timetables for the mitigation and adaptation strands of the climate change strategy for the County Council.
3.2 Agreeing with the intention to approach Hertfordshire Forward to act as the overseeing body for the climate change strategy for Hertfordshire and endorse the provisional timetable for its development.
4. Background
4.1 Cabinet on 22 January 2007 took the decision for Hertfordshire County Council to become a signatory of the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change. This decision was endorsed by County Council on 27 February 2007 and the Energy Savings Trust, the national body responsible for administering the declaration is due to be informed of the authorities agreement to signing immediately after County Council.
4.2 The Nottingham declaration comprises seven commitments which are to:
Ø Work with central government to contribute, at a local level, to the delivery of the UK Climate Change Programme, the Kyoto Protocol and the target for carbon dioxide reduction by 2010.
Ø Participate in local and regional networks for support.
Ø Within the next two years develop plans with our partners and local communities to progressively address the causes and the impacts of climate change, according to our local priorities, securing maximum benefit for our communities.
Ø Publicly declare, within appropriate plans and strategies, the commitment to achieve a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from our own authority’s operations, especially energy sourcing and use, travel and transport, waste production and disposal and the purchasing of goods and services.
Ø Assess the risk associated with climate change and the implications for our services and our communities of climate change impacts and adapt accordingly.
Ø Encourage all sectors in our local community to take the opportunity to adapt to the impacts of climate change, to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions and to make public their commitment to action.
Ø Monitor the progress of our plans against the actions needed and publish the results.
4.3 These commitments cover actions related to both the mitigation and the adaptation agenda for climate change.
Ø Mitigation is how we minimise our contribution to climate change.
Ø Adaptation is how we manage and adapt to the effects that climatic changes will have upon our environment and quality of life.
4.4 The 3rd point of the Nottingham declaration asks the authority within two years of signing to develop plans, with partners and local communities to progressively address the causes and impacts of climate change; this will be the climate change strategy for Hertfordshire.
4.5 The decision taken at Cabinet on 22 January stated that the climate change strategy should encompass the following activities:
(a) the direct impacts that arise through the activities of the County Council in the operation of its own services;
(b) the impact and influence the County Council has with its partners through policies and strategies for Hertfordshire; and
(c) the development of greenhouse gas reduction targets for the County Council and Hertfordshire
4.6 Climate change is becoming an increasingly important issue nationally and the Government is establishing new policies and initiative that Hertfordshire will need to take into account in setting its own response to climate change. The main influences to any climate change strategy are likely to be:
· The government has just set up a new office for climate change which is intended to coordinate and bring together the activities of the Treasury, DCLG, DEFRA, and the DTi to ensure a consistent and high level response to the issues.
· The recent publication of the Stern review by the Treasury has raised the profile of climate change issues and the costs associated with them significantly.
· Reference to a new climate change bill was included in the Queens speech to parliament on 15 November 2006 and this is expected to have some reference to greenhouse gas reduction targets.
· Regionally Government Office is promoting work on carbon neutral development and the need for carbon reduction targets across the region. This may end up with a regional variation of the Nottingham declaration being actively promoted to local authorities within the East of England.
· Reference to climate change activity and consideration has been included in the new CPA 2005 Key lines of enquiry for corporate assessment: Criteria for Judgement and is as follows:
Key Question 5.1 What progress has the council made in delivering its priorities and improving quality of life for local people?
Environment
• The council is starting to encourage the adoption of climate change mitigation and/or adaptation features into the planning, design and construction of new developments.
Transport
• The council is starting to improve accessibility and make it easier for people to get to where they need to go by encouraging alternatives to the car. The planning system is taking steps to site jobs, services and amenities so that a car is not needed. Public transport use, walking and cycling rates are increasing. As a result congestion is not worsening and some of the negative environmental impacts of transport, such as poor air quality, noise and climate change are stabilising.
4.7 All of these influences will have a bearing on what is expected from the strategy and what is expected from the County Council in respect of its own activities and in its community leadership role.
5. Current Greenhouse Gas Emissions levels in Hertfordshire
5.1 One of the first steps in developing a Climate Change Strategy for HCC and Hertfordshire is to establish a baseline for current greenhouse gas emissions against which future targets for reduction can be set.
5.2 Under the Kyoto Protocol the basket of greenhouse gases deemed to be contributing to climate change are as follows:
Ø Carbon dioxide (CO2)
/Ø Hydroflurocarbons (HFCs)
Ø Methane (CH4)
/Ø Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)
Ø Nitrous oxide (N2O)
/Ø Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)
In order to calculate greenhouse gas reductions all of these are converted to CO2 equivalents by using their global warming potential multiplication factors and these are shown below:
Gas / Global Warming PotentialCarbon dioxide
/ 1Methane
/ 21Nitrous oxide
/ 310Hydroflurocarbons
/ 140 – 11,700Perfluorocarbons
/ 6,500 – 9,200Sulphur hexafluoride
/ 23,9005.3 CO2 is by far the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, but although contributions from the other gases may be smaller they are no less significant because of their global warming potential. At present little is monitored locally in respect of the full basket of gasses, with the exception of CO2.
5.4 We have a fairly good picture of CO2 emissions for Hertfordshire as set out in the 2006 Quality of Life report. This report publishes several sets of statistical information in relation to CO2 emissions in the County. These figures derived from national data sets and are broken down to district council area by type of use, domestic, industrial and commercial and road transport and by energy source, gas and electricity. The overall level of annual CO2 emissions in Hertfordshire based on this data is 8,500,000 tonnes, with transport the single largest contributor and equates to 8.2 tonnes per person resident in the County. These figures are based on emissions related to energy use within the UK and are allocated to the point of end use rather than the point at which they are emitted.
5.5 An alternative way of looking at CO2 emissions is to look at the emissions associated with the consumption of resources occurring in the County. This method allocates the CO2 to the point at which resources are used and will account for CO2 wherever it is emitted across the world. Consumption of resources in Hertfordshire is relatively high due to the high affluence levels in the County and looking at CO2 in this way gives a per capita CO2 figure of 13.135 tonnes per person per annum and this gives a Hertfordshire total of 13,600,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum.
5.6 We are less well equipped in terms of the picture of CO2 emissions resulting from Hertfordshire County Council activities with data limited to information on energy use in County Council premises and the resulting CO2 emissions arising from it.
Current annual expenditure on Fuels (£1,000,000)2003/4 / 2004/5 / 2005/6
Gas / £6.5 / £10.4 / £9.6
Electricity / £4.0 / £5.5 / £5.0
Oil / £0.4 / £0.51
Gas prices have decreased on average 7% in the last year.
Electricity prices have not changed in the last year.
Consumption (million kWh)
2003/4 / 2004/5 / 2005/6
Gas / 300 / 300
Electricity / 50 / 45.5
Oil (litres) / 1,531,000 / 1,700.000**
** this figure will vary due to existing oil stored in the tanks
CO2 Emissions(tonnes)
2003/4 / 2004/5 / 2005/6
Gas / 57,000 / 57,000
Electricity / 8,600 / 7,826
Oil / 4,050 / 4,497
Total / 69,650 / 69,323
Source: Herts Property
5.7 This gives a figure of just over 69,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from energy use in County Council property in 2005/06. There is no information available for CO2 emissions from transport related to County Council services.
6. A Climate Change Strategy for the County Council
6.1 An action pack to aid implementation of the Nottingham Declaration has been produced by the Energy Saving Trust. Within the action pack the main areas of action set out for local authorities are as shown in figure 1 below and these set out a possible framework and approach to the climate change strategy for the authority.
Figure 1. Main areas of local authority action to address climate change
6.2 As can be seen from figure 1 there are two strands of activity running through all of the action areas, those of mitigation and adaptation.
Ø The first of these, mitigation will relate to those activities that will reduce the contribution we are making to the causes of climate change and should be seen as measures to reduce our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, primarily CO2. For example actions may include:
v The installation of energy efficiency measures; and
v Investment in more fuel efficient and lower emission vehicles transport.
Ø The second strand, adaptation, is those actions that are taken to adapt to the changing climatic conditions that will affect Hertfordshire in the future. It is about looking forward at what might happen to the climate and predicting in what circumstances and conditions services will need to be delivered in the future. Examples which may emerge are consideration of measures such as:
v Keeping elderly residents cool during hotter summers; and
v The need for enhanced drainage on major transport routes to avoid disruption during flooding.
6.3 It is suggested that the strategy for the County Council focus on addressing the mitigation and adaptation issues associated with the themes of managing our own estate and service provision.
6.4 The main impacts of the County Council in respect of CO2 emissions are its energy use in its own property and its Transport use for service provision. In order to investigate these issues and agree greenhouse gas reduction measures the following key actions are suggested as part of the development of the mitigation strand of the strategy are set out below:
/ Action / Existing HCC Activity / Timetable /1. / Establish a robust baseline for HCC greenhouse gas emissions through the development of a greenhouse gas emissions inventory for the County Council. / Information is available for CO2 in respect of energy use in HCC properties, but a complete baseline will need to be defined. / June 2007
2. / Develop and implement a monitoring plan to update data on greenhouse gasses on an annual basis. / Limited monitoring is undertaken through monitoring of spend on energy for HCC premises. / Sept 2007
3. / Investigate future scenarios for greenhouse gas reduction. / Nov 2007
4. / Complete cost-benefit analysis of greenhouse gas reduction measures. / Feb 2008
5. / Agree greenhouse gas reduction targets and actions / March 2008
This approach would suggest that we could have a mitigation strand of the County Council climate change strategy agreed and in place by early 2008. This would not delay any activities that are already underway but would bring them together and provide insight into additional activities that would need to be undertaken by that date.