Download Appendix A - Three Rivers District Council

Appendix A
The development of a Climate Change Strategy and associated tasks.
This appendix highlights the issues with climate change on a national and
international level and sets out the Council’s approach to reducing
greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide (CO2). The writers acknowledge
the differences in opinion among scientists as to the cause of the changing
climate, but follow the Government’s guidelines on greenhouse gas reduction
and combating climate change.
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Introduction to climate change
Leaving aside the long lasting debate among scientists of the actual causes of
climate change, it has been accepted by many international governments that
climate change, although naturally occurring, is exacerbated by human
activities. Carbon dioxide is seen as the main catalyst of changes in weather
patterns, although it is important to tackle other greenhouse gases such as
methane, CFC’s HCFC’s etc.
The issue of climate change achieved international support at the Conference
on Sustainable Development in 1992 held in Rio de Janeiro. The conference,
where the Think Globally, Act Locally motto was accepted, followed by the
Kyoto Protocol agreement in 1997 and ratification in 2005. The United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change produced many reports, including
predictions and forecasting models for changing weather patterns. Political
consensus was reached that an urgent action in adaptation to and mitigation
of climate change is needed.
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The United Kingdom’s approach to adaptation and mitigation of
climate change
The UK introduced the Home Energy Conservation Act (HECA) in 1995. For
the first time local authorities were put in charge in reducing CO2 emissions in
their areas. The target was set to 30% CO2 reduction in a 10-year period.
This year has already seen many national indicators and targets being
introduced. The more significant ones being the Climate Change Bill and
National Indicators for Local Authorities. The main areas of activities are CO 2
reductions and adaptation to climate change. The two recent pieces of
legislation give a new strength and importance for local authorities to develop
their own Climate Change Strategies.
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3.1
Three Rivers District Council’s Climate Change Strategy
The Approach
Three Rivers District Council faces two distinct tasks - that of Community
Leader and Estate Manager. It is therefore important that adaptation to and
mitigation of climate change is addressed not only within the Council’s own
premises, but also in the wider community.
By the nature of the issue of climate change it is necessary to develop a
working document that will be of use to internal staff as well as outside
partners, businesses, voluntary organisations and public. As such the drafting
of the document will be time-consuming and will involve wide ranging
partners. It will also involve detailed and continuing monitoring of energy
consumed across the portfolio and the continued installation of new
technology whenever possible.
3.2
Key Themes
The Council has the opportunity to learn from Beacon Council’s in both
energy efficiency and climate change. An extensive review of existing climate
change policies has been carried out and the following conclusions were
made:
All of the reviewed strategies are divided into key themes. These consist of:
Energy; Waste; Transport; Procurement; Natural Habitat; Education and
Promotion; and Planning and Regulation.
The degree of which the themes are broken down and various activities
included varies. However, what is apparent from all the strategies is that the
importance of partnerships cannot be underestimated.
Each Key Theme will be set out with task and timescale, but more importantly
measurable actions that are transparent and comparable. Each task will have
a lead partner assigned.
3.3
3.3
Implementation
It is envisaged that the Council’s Climate Change Strategy will consist of a
Part 1 - containing basic information on climate change, the Council’s
approach to combating global warming, government’s targets and related
policies and reporting on the new performance indicators.
Part 2 - will be the working part of the Strategy concerning our efforts to set a
lead in the community through developing partnerships etc.
3.4
Reporting
The targets set for each identified task will correspond wherever possible to
the required measurements by the government, i.e. tonnes of CO 2 saved per
activity / person.
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The Sustainability Group will prepare a comprehensive report to the
committee once a year, with sub-reports on quarterly basis. It is equally
important to keep the public and partners informed of the progress. Marketing
strategy will therefore need to be agreed. This will include a web site
specifically designed for climate change issues.
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