Download EN-12-05 Climate Change Strategy and the Nottingham Declaration

EN/12/05
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY PANEL – 21 MARCH 2005
CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGY AND THE NOTTINGHAM DECLARATION
Authorship:
Paul Lewis
(01449) 727422
1.
Summary/Main Issues
1.1
Climate Change is acknowledged by a significant majority of the world’s leading scientists
as having the potential to pose a serious threat to mankind, from a range of adverse
environmental impacts.
1.2
The Council signed the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change in 2001, and entered its
adoption of the declaration onto a publicly held register, however most of the commitments
made in 2001 have not been met.
1.3
Despite the level of potential risk posed by the effects of Climate Change, and
commitments made under the Nottingham Declaration, work with the Local Strategic
Partnership and on the Corporate Plan has not identified Climate Change, in its own right,
as a priority issue.
1.4
The purpose of this report is to broadly review the current situation in regard meeting
commitments made under the Nottingham Declaration, and the development of a Climate
Change Strategy, and to look at ways to raise the profile of this important issue with our
partners and stakeholders within the county.
2.
Financial Implications
2.1
No financial issues raised in the report.
3.
Recommendations
3.1
Members views are requested on the content of this report
Implications
Tick the appropriate box, to indicate whether there are
implications in any of the following areas.
Legal
Finance
Personnel
Staff resources
Unison consulted
Parish Council informed
Corporate Plan Headline Objectives
List the numbers of any of the 8 objectives that
apply
Yes
(There needs to be
appropriate comment in
report)
No
an
the
To be completed by HOFM
(The officer needs to be
prepared to answer why not, at
the member meeting)
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7
Additional documents
Tick appropriate box, and give brief details if Yes
Appendices
Background papers
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4.
Background/Comments etc.
4.1
Senior Management Group received a report for their consideration, in regard Climate
Change Strategy and the Nottingham Declaration, on 23 November 2004.
4.2
SMG considered the report and the minutes of the meeting show that SMG were in fully in
support of the issues raised, but considered it to be premature for the report to be taken to
Members at this stage.
4.3
SMG also considered that a better course of action may be to submit the issues raised in
the report through the LSP.
4.4
Members have requested that the report in question be brought to the Environment Policy
Panel for their consideration.
4.5
In recent years there has been much debate in regard the likelihood that climate change is
a ‘real’ phenomenon.
4.6
A minority of the scientific community continue to argue that climate change is a ‘naturally’
occurring process. However, the majority of the world’s top scientists now consider, on the
balance of evidence provided, that climate change is a man made process with the
potential to alter dramatically the way we live.
4.7
Recently, the Prime Minister has identified Climate Change as one of the most serious
issues facing the world. The Prime Minister’s view are supported by Government’s Chief
Scientist, who has described the threat from Climate Change as “…the most severe
problem that we are facing today… “
4.8
The Environment Minister, Elliot Morley, described those scientists continuing to dispute
evidence that climate change is occurring as “Flat-Earthers.”
4.9
In the U.S, the American Institute for the Advancement of Science, which includes many of
the top scientific minds in the U.S, recently went public in its criticism of George Bush’s
policy of continuing to deny the reality of climate change.
4.10
The bulk of scientific evidence supports that Climate Change is a reality, which means that
physical manifestations of the process, such as Global Warming, which leads to increased
incidence of severe weather conditions, pose a significant risk to the community.
4.11
It is widely forecast by expert scientists that incidents of severe weather and a gradual shift
in climate will have a number of serious outcomes.
4.12
As example, in France in 2003, many thousands of deaths were caused by freak weather
conditions caused by an extended heat wave, attributed to Climate Change, which caused
hard-pressed service providers to store, on a temporary basis many corpses in hastily
procured refrigerated vehicles.
4.13
This summer, flash flooding created havoc in Boscastle in Cornwall, requiring local
authorities to provide emergency cover to alleviate the severe damage caused by flooding.
4.14
Local Authorities have a multi-functional role to play in regard climate change issues, as
educators, planning authorities, emergency planners, community leaders, environmental
regulators and managers, providers of healthcare and custodians of community well-being.
4.15
The Council already ‘indirectly’ undertakes - as a corporate priority - ‘climate change’
related activities, by investing time, resources and money in certain areas.
4.16
For example, the drive toward the Council improving its recycling performance is indirectly
driven by climate change related E.U policies. Those policies are aimed at reducing the
impact of landfill on the production of ‘greenhouse gases’ such as methane, and by limiting
the amount of energy wasted, which would otherwise be expended on manufacturing
products from raw materials.
4.17
Another example of where the Council works in regard Climate Change issues, involves the
protocol in place with the Environment Agency, designed to avoid development in flood
plains, which may become vulnerable due to a rise in sea levels, predicted as a result of
Climate Change.
4.18
The Council follows energy efficiency ‘best practice’ for its own housing stock. For
example, by installing energy efficient central heating boiler replacements and insulation,
contributing indirectly to reducing the environmental impact of fossil fuel use, and driven by
the need to improve energy efficiency, as well as reducing ‘fuel poverty’.
4.19
Climate Change related issues indirectly drive all of these specific activities and many
others at the Council, not mentioned herein. However, all of the work occurs on an ‘ad hoc’
basis, without being placed under a corporate banner of Climate Change, as the Council
declared it would do under the Nottingham Declaration.
4.20
On 11 June 2001, the Executive Committee adopted the Nottingham Declaration on
Climate Change (report X/111/01). The Nottingham Declaration provides the framework for
managing effective community leadership in regard climate change issues. The recent
CPA report credited the Council for adopting the declaration.
4.21
By adopting the declaration, the Council entered its name onto a publicly available register,
and also made a series of commitments, as set out below.
The Council committed to:
a) Work with central government to contribute, at a local level, to the delivery of the UK
Climate Change Programme.
b) Prepare a plan with our local communities, by December 2002, to address the causes and
effects of climate change and to secure maximum benefits for our communities.
c) Publicly declare, within the plan, the commitment to achieve a significant reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions from our authority’s operations, especially energy sourcing and
use, travel and transport, waste production and disposal and the purchasing of goods and
services.
d) Encourage all sections within the local community to take the opportunity to reduce their
own greenhouse gas emissions and to make public their commitment to action.
e) Work with key providers, including health authorities, businesses and development
organisations, to assess the potential effects of climate change on our communities, and to
identify ways in which we can adapt.
f)
Provide opportunities for the development of renewable energy generation within our area.
g) Monitor the progress of our plan against the actions needed and publish the results.
4.22
It is clear that the Council has addressed commitment (c), on a partial basis.
4.23
In regard the other six commitments, no ‘tangible’ progress representing a ‘joined up’
strategic level approach to Climate Change has been made, at the corporate level.
4.24
Climate Change is a major global issue, with the potential to have a significant impact on
the local community, therefore it needs to be accorded appropriate status and become an
overarching priority for the Council.
4.25
The Council should also demonstrate effective community leadership in regard Climate
Change with the community, and with its partners and stakeholders.
4.26
In recognition of its potential significant risk, it does not appear to be appropriate to address
the major issue of Climate Change, within the Corporate Plan, under a ‘generic banner’ of
‘”an improved inheritance for future generations”, as this in effect ‘plays down’ the
significance of the issue.
4.27
It must be acknowledged that in reality, there is little the Council can achieve on its own in
regard Climate Change issues.
4.28
We can, given the right level of Senior Management and Member support and the cooperation of our stakeholders and partners, plus the necessary resources:

Publicise Climate Change issues in the media;
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Actively promote and perhaps subsidise energy efficient products, goods and services;
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Actively promote use of more energy efficient forms of transport;
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Demonstrate ‘community leadership’ by procuring ‘renewable’ energy;

Promote and support developments that facilitate provision of renewable energy and local
power generation schemes.
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Continue to demonstrate best environmental practice as an organisation;

Encourage partners and stakeholders to engage in the discussions to lead toward
development of a Climate Change Strategy for Suffolk, to fit in with the East of England
Regional Climate Change Programme;
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Review emergency plans in consideration of potential impacts of Climate Change.
4.29
Corporately, Climate Change appears to have been marginalised, probably due to the
‘intangible’ nature and uncertainty of its effects.
4.30
Another contributory factor to this ‘sidelining’ effect is possibly because the Council’s
‘corporate priorities’ have been produced within the framework of the Community Strategy,
leading to the development of the Corporate Plan, and through association with what can
be described as a relatively ‘blinkered’ Suffolk Speaks MORI survey work, none of which
have recognised the level of risk posed by Climate Change to the community, or
commitments made by this Council, when adopting the Nottingham Declaration.
4.31
As the main players in the LSP and the MORI survey work, mainly comprise
representatives from Suffolk Police, Health and Social Service ‘professionals’ and the
voluntary sector, it is hardly surprising that broader environmental sustainability issues have
become ‘marginalised’, when there is insufficient representation from environmental bodies
and professionals, to ensure that Climate Change issues appear on the political agenda.
4.32
The LSP has provided invites to hard-pressed, under-resourced, ‘environmental’ bodies
such as Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Countryside Agency, English Nature and the Environment
Agency. However, looking at the Community Strategy and Corporate Plan, it is clear that
those bodies have not raised the most pressing environmental issue of the 21st Century,
very far up the political agenda.
4.33
In addition, the Council has not worked, as yet, with the LSP to facilitate the production of a
Climate Change Strategy, as the Council agreed to do when Members signed the
Nottingham Declaration.
4.34
The key to what the Council can achieve lies in working with others toward delivering its
commitments made under the Nottingham Declaration. However to do this the issue must
be pushed higher up the agenda of all those concerned.
4.35
Perhaps the best way first step toward making it happen is at the Suffolk Chief Executives
Group, where the need to produce a Climate Change Strategy for the county should be
‘kick-started’ and given the right steer, at the appropriate level.
4.36
Further impetus can be given to the issue by ensuring the Council works with the LSP to
begin to consider how best to develop a Climate change Strategy for the district and the
county as a whole.
4.37
The issue of Climate Change will certainly not receive the level of recognition it deserves
when driven by a few environmental Officers within a number of authorities, each trying to
raise Climate Change higher up the agenda, in the face of ‘demand led’ service priorities,
which are not necessarily prioritised to reflect the level of risk posed to the community.
4.38
The Council should also consider reviewing how it intends to meet commitments made
under the Nottingham Declaration, and the responsibility it has as Community Leaders, by
looking beyond the next ‘budget cycle’ insofar as this important issue is concerned.
4.39
Climate Change as an issue should not wait until the next Community Strategy is produced,
or the subsequent Corporate Plan is implemented in a few years time.
4.40
Paul Lewis
Waste & Environmental Co-ordinator
Background Documents:
Report: Climate Change Strategy and the Nottingham
Declaration