Citywide Climate Change Strategy & Action Plan 2010
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Citywide Climate Change Strategy & Action Plan 2010 - 2020 Delivering Newcastle’s Sustainable Community Strategy Foreword We realise the need for a citywide climate change strategy, one that provides a comprehensive response to the threats and opportunities that we face. We also recognise the urgent need to secure a low carbon future and prepare for a changing climate. I’m proud to say the strategy goes much further than before. It raises our ambitions and sets out how we plan to deliver against national and European commitments. At the heart of the strategy is our Sustainable Energy Action Plan that sets out a scenario to reduce our carbon emissions, and makes us confident enough to commit to our Newcastle Climate Change Declaration, adopted by the full Council in March 2010. The strategy also contains plans to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate. These will help us to seize the opportunities that a low carbon future presents, and to protect our heritage and citizens into a sustainable future. We all have a part to play, from our day-to-day actions and efforts to live in a low carbon future, to the development, delivery and uptake of physical measures to minimise our impact on the environment. This presents significant economic opportunities for our City. However, we cannot do this without understanding and preparing to live with the inevitable risks of a changing climate. Although the strategy lays the foundations for these actions, achieving our goals will not be easy. In this time of austerity we need to be bold in our choices and strong in our convictions, so that we make the decisions necessary for the future. But whilst many would feel overwhelmed by these challenges, I feel quite the opposite. What makes me confident in our ability to achieve our aspirations is the distance we have already travelled. All the organisations involved have already made tremendous progress and in 2009 we were ranked the most sustainable city in the UK. However, we must not rest on our laurels. The amount of work required to translate the strategy into reality is huge, and with research on climate change becoming ever more refined, our understanding of how to tackle the issues broadens and deepens on a daily basis. As a result, the strategy becomes a defining moment on our journey. Cllr David Faulkner Chair of Newcastle Partnership Leader of Newcastle City Council 0 Content: Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................. 2 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................... 6 2. Baseline Emissions................................................................................................................ 10 3. Targets..................................................................................................................................... 11 4. Trend Data............................................................................................................................... 12 5. Sustainable Energy Action Plan............................................................................................ 13 6. Mitigation – Policy, Research and Innovation...................................................................... 19 7. Awareness, Communications & Behavioural Change......................................................... 28 8. Adaptation – Policy, Research & Innovation........................................................................ 34 9. Highways Infrastructure.........................................................................................................38 10. Council Buildings & Assets.................................................................................................... 43 11. Council Fleet & Travel............................................................................................................. 47 12. Local Development Framework and Regeneration .............................................................. 51 13. Domestic Housing................................................................................................................... 55 14. Transport.................................................................................................................................. 62 15. Economic Development & Private Sector Engagement....................................................... 67 16. Drainage & Flood Management.............................................................................................. 71 17. Appendix A – Electricity, Gas and Heat Consumption in Newcastle.................................. 76 18. Appendix B – The Newcastle Climate Change Declaration ................................................. 80 19. Glossary................................................................................................................................... 81 1 Executive Summary This strategy sets out our overall programme for tackling climate change. It outlines our targets, our data, current governance arrangements and our calculations for delivering carbon reductions. However, more importantly it sets out a series of action plans around how we plan to deliver carbon emissions reductions from Newcastle. It also sets out some of our current and future work to tackle the adaptation agenda. Detailed information on these aims can be found in the main report, but it is briefly summarised here. By signing the EU ‘Covenant of Mayors’ agreement, we are committed to delivering a reduction in carbon emissions in excess of 20% by 2020, we are using a 2005 baseline. Newcastle’s carbon footprint is approximately 1.9 million tonnes of CO2 per year as measured in 2005 by the national indicator NI186 – this is our baseline. This means the Council’s operational share is approximately 3.8% (72,000 t CO2). Reducing the remaining 96.2% requires a strong partnership approach. Delivery of this strategy will be overseen by the Climate Change Partnership within the Newcastle Partnership. In England and Wales the Climate Change Act 2008 adopts an 80% reduction by 2050 from a 1990 baseline; this includes a 34% reduction by 2020. Our strategy is aligned accordingly, meaning a 20% reduction from 2005 to 2020 will deliver Newcastle’s part in achieving an emissions level as per the national carbon budget. Our commitment under the EU Covenant of Mayors on Sustainable Energy requires the development of a Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) in line with these targets; this has helped inform the development of the action plans set out in the main document. The SEAP carbon reduction scenario includes the scale of interventions across 29 potential measures. By delivering all of these by 2020 we will deliver our overall targets for carbon reductions in the city, as set out above. The calculations from the SEAP are then used to help inform the scale of required delivery programmes within some of the work streams and action plans in the main document. The main areas of work are as follows: The Mitigation – Policy Research & Innovation work stream has been working with partners to collate relevant information to help inform deliver of measures. One of the key projects has been developed as part of the Science City Partnership. The Newcastle Carbon Routemap project has been developing a database for the purposes of understanding the energy and carbon profile of Newcastle upon Tyne at building level. This will help to evaluate future investment options in retro-fit programmes and support the development of decentralised energy projects. To date, we have collated aerial thermal heat maps and building height data to inform roof orientation and pitch, developed a detailed profile of the housing stock covering age and type and collated relevant insulation data sets in GIS. Individual housing energy profiles are being developed in partnership with Newcastle University & NaREC to refine this tool and help inform policy. We have also developed a series of energy maps which help show the spatial distribution of energy demand across the city. Future efforts will expand the database to industrial and commercial buildings, including public sector. The Awareness, Communications and Behavioural Change work stream seeks to bring about broader awareness of Climate Change across the City and with it the necessary behavioural changes in response to the associated challenges. This approach is intended to give our residents the opportunity to improve their knowledge around the causes and impact of climate change and encourage them to take positive action to reduce carbon emissions and help create local sustainable communities. Progress made to date together with intended future actions falls within the following broad areas: 1. OurNewcastle 2 2. Enviro Schools 3. Electricity Monitors scheme 4. Campaign Working with Warmzone 5. Reductions to Landfill 6. City Life 7. Climate Change Partnership 8. Events 9. Support of National and International Events The Adaptation – Policy, Research & Innovation work stream aims to further our understanding of the way climate change is likely to impact on Newcastle to enable us to plan accordingly. Whether it is building bridges or refurbishing our housing stock, a more detailed understanding of our likely climate will help us prepare for the challenges that lie ahead in providing facilities and services in a different environment. We are in the early days of forming an adaptation