ENERGY - Some Macro and Micro Aspects of Spatial Planning1

ENERGY - Some Macro and Micro Aspects of Spatial Planning1 I. INTRODUCTION (i) Scope Policy approaches to the finding, generation and conservation of energy are enormous in scope. The issues which touch upon the policy approaches are global in nature and are significant drivers of international political events. Energy security is a primary consideration of all western governments and is a significant factor in political stability in developing countries and of course, in the oil producing countries. Likewise, questions of food security are closely related to fossil fuel availability and price. Political and social unrest in respect of both environmental and economic consequences of energy and food security issues has been evident in recent years. Moreover, the policy drivers in respect of energy generation and conservation are intimately and closely linked to policy measures to address climate change. If there were one word which was most appropriate to start a discussion on how to ‘put the world to rights’, then “energy” might be that word. In this paper I seek to set out something of the broad context which gives rise to a range of domestic policy approaches which materially and significantly affect land use in planning decisions. I seek to identify the range of impacts which energy related policies have upon planning decisions and then identify the present position and trends in respect of energy generation and design. 1 Paper published in the journal of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association, May 2011 2 (ii) Context - Economic Growth and Sustainable Development The tension between economic growth and development which is sustainable has long been identified2. The tension has been illustrated in this way: “There is an old Persian legend about a clever courtier who presented a beautiful chessboard to his king and requested that the king give him in exchange one grain of rice for the first square on the board, two grains for the second square, four grains for the third square, and so forth. The king readily agreed, and ordered rice to be brought from his stores. The fourth square on the chessboard required eight grains, the tenth square took 512 grains, the fifteenth required 6,384, and the twenty first square gave the courtier more than one million grains of rice. By the fortieth square a million million rice grains had to be piled up. The payment could never have continued to the sixty-fourth square; it would have taken more rice than there was in the whole world.” Evidently, growth and the resources to sustain it are linked. Western governments are presently engaged in strenuous efforts to sustain economies to achieve growth and to avoid further recession. In many parts of the world, including China and the BRIC countries, there is significant growth. A growth rate of 3% equates to a doubling of production and consumption every 25 years. I leave the further debate of that point to the economists, and likewise avoid canvassing the impact of increasing world populations3. 2 See Meadows, D., Meadows, D., Randers, J., and Behrens, W. (1972). The Limits to Growth Earth Island Press, London 3 However, for those interested in the topic, see Lester Brown “World on the Edge – How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse” – Earth Scan 2011, available via www.earth-policy.org. 3 (iii) Context - Climate Change There ought not be any need to canvass climate change in this paper because the central features are so widely known. Indeed, they have been identified, if not accepted, for a long time4: “To match the terrestrial limit there is a very clear atmospheric limit, in terms of the inability of the atmosphere to absorb an ever increasing amount of the greenhouse gases we are emitting, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. With the exception of the United States and some Middle East oil producers, there is not a country on earth that does not now subscribe to the international scientific consensus that global warming is a problem already with us and inexorably worsening.” I have already made it clear that am not an economist and make it equally clear that I am not a meteorologist or climate scientist. However, perhaps you, like me, noted that during 2010 there were record high temperatures in Russia and that somewhere between 300 and 400 new fires were starting daily resulting in the loss of many millions of acres of forest. Likewise, it will be recalled that there were torrential rains in Northern Pakistan and massive destruction, the effects of which remain today. At the time of writing, the biggest cyclone to hit Eastern Australia is doing its damage5. 4 See Jonathan Porritt in Sustainable Development: Panacea, Platitude or Downright Deception? (the Linacre lectures 1991) published by OUP 1993. 5 In respect of the Pakistani experience the following is a startling summary (taken from Brown (2011), page 5): The destruction was everywhere. Some 2 million homes were damaged or destroyed. More than 20 million people were affected by the flooding. Nearly 2000 Pakistanis died. Some 6 million acres of crops were damaged or destroyed. Over 1 million livestock drowned. Roads and bridges were washed away. Although the flooding was blamed on heavy rainfall, there were actually several trends converging to produce what was described as the largest natural disaster in Pakistan’s history. On 26th May 2010, the official temperature in Mohenjo – Daro in south central Pakistan reached 128 degrees Fahrenheit, a record for Asia. Snow and glaciers in the western Himalayas, where the tributaries of the Indus River originate, were melting fast” 4 II. POLICY APPROACHES (i) European Policies and Energy Strategy Clearly, European and domestic energy policies are inter-related. Hence, I summarise the European position. Energy security has been a matter of significant concern at the European level for some years. In September 2007 the Commission tabled the third internal energy market legislative package6. It aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, increase the share of renewables to 20% and improve energy efficiency by 20%, all by 2020; the so-called “20-20-20” initiative. That approach was reviewed by the Second Strategic Energy Review7, which has itself now been superseded by the November 2010 document Energy 2020 – A Strategy for Competitive, Sustainable and Secure Energy8. The urgency and significance of the document are self-evident: “Energy is the lifeblood of our society. The wellbeing of our people, industry and economy depends on safe, secure, sustainable and affordable energy. At the same time, energy related emissions account for almost 80% of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The energy challenge is thus one of the greatest tests which Europe has to face. It will take decades to steer our energy systems into a more secure and sustainable path. Yet the decisions to set us on the right path are needed urgently as failing to achieve a well functioning European energy market 6 COM (2007) 0528-32 7 COM (2008) 781 8 COM (2010) 639 5 will only increase the costs for consumers and put Europe’s competitiveness at risk. Over the next ten years energy investments in the order of !1 trillion are needed, both to diversify existing resources and replace equipment and to cater for challenging and changing energy requirements… These choices will be felt over the next thirty years or more.” The first priority in the Energy Strategy is achieving an energy efficient Europe. In that regard the strategy9 provides: “Special attention should be given to the sectors with the largest potential to make energy efficiency gains, namely the existing building stock and transport sector.” Figure 1 Renewables Growth - Energy Predictions by 202010 9 See page 6 10 Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament - Renewable energy road map - Renewable energies in the 21st century: building a more sustainable future COM/2006/0848 final 6 The Commission has set out the roadmap to growth in renewable energy (Fig 1). European policy in respect of nuclear power is neutral. Nuclear power stations currently produce around one-third of the electricity and 15% of the energy consumed in the European Union. The approach is to leave it to each member state to decide whether or not to pursue the option of nuclear power. The European intervention has been in the areas of furthering research and protecting the public by establishing common safety standards, both as to operation of nuclear sites and disposal of the resulting waste. (ii) Targets The policy approaches to energy issues can be seen to follow similar trends between countries. Targets are a starting point. The Climate Change Act 2008 set 11 targets in respect of CO2 emissions . The renewable energy strategy, by way of example, makes the focus of policy quite clear: “to meet the challenge of climate change, we need to save carbon in every sector of the economy – this will mean a rapid transition to renewable energy”12. “This strategy will help us tackle climate change, reducing the UK’s emissions of carbon dioxide by over 750 million tons between now and 2030”13. 11 Section 1: (1) It is the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the net UK carbon account for the year 2050 is at least 80% lower than the 1990 baseline. (2) “The 1990 baseline” means the aggregate amount of— (a) net UK emissions of carbon dioxide for that year, and (b) net UK emissions of each of the other targeted greenhouse gases for the year that is the base year for that gas. And Section 5 (1) The carbon budget— (a) for the budgetary period including the year 2020, must be such that the annual equivalent of the carbon budget for the period is at least [34%] lower than the 1990 baseline; 12 See the Foreword to the 2009 Strategy.

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