RSE Inquiry into Facing up to Climate Change Response by Aberdeen City Council 3rd March 2010 Q1: Do you perceive the changing weather patterns in Scotland and globally as affecting you and/or your organisation? Yes, it is expected that Scotland will have more extreme weather with warmer, wetter winters and sea levels rises of up to 600mm. Aberdeen is situated on the North East Coast of Scotland; therefore such weather patterns would threaten Aberdeen’s coastal areas and present an increased risk of flooding. In anticipation of such weather events a Flood Appraisal Group has been established in order to look at developing an approach towards prevention of flooding. This group includes officers from the City Council, Aberdeenshire Council and SEPA. A coastal defence scheme has also been progressed called the Aberdeen Bay Coastal Defence Modelling Study and Final Design to Complement the Dynamic Environment of Aberdeen. Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) are implemented for the drainage of all new road schemes and developments within the City. Flood studies, relating to capacity of water courses, have been carried out for the Gilcomston Burn, Glashie Burn and Den Burn. In order to meet statutory requirements for flood prevention and land drainage, the Council has considered recruiting additional members of staff to research and model the potential impacts from flooding and coastal erosion. An increase in severe weather events, such as the snow fall experienced in early 2010 will affect the Councils contingency planning and operational services. In addition the Council’s Nature Conservation Strategy 2010-2015 proposes to monitor progress in the development of guidance which will help the Council deal with the effects of climate change and future nature conservation. It also aims to conserve nature following current best practice and will be prepared to adapt its procedures based on the influence of Climate Change and associated appropriate direction. Q2: What are the impacts of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act on the goals and activities of your organisation in terms of investment and exposure to risk? Aberdeen City Council was an early UK leader in addressing corporate and community climate change matters. It published its Climate Change Action Plan in 2002 and its first Carbon Management Programme (for its own operations) in 2004 when it committed to a CO2 reduction target of 10% by 2010, and a further 15% by 2015 for its buildings, street lighting, fleet and business miles, based on its 2002/03 baseline. The Council is now undertaking the Carbon Management Programme for the second time and has set further ambitious targets of a 23% reduction in carbon emissions by 2015 and 42% by 2020 based on a 2008-2009 baseline. The Carbon Management plan proposes to account for carbon impacts within all future capital investments. Carbon emissions will be used as one of the measures to gauge the merit of Business Cases. With the forthcoming introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitment, the Council realises the importance of carbon management, particularly when a monetary value is placed on carbon. It is anticipated that the CRC will act as a legislative driver to promote investment into the Council’s Carbon Management Plan 2010-2015. Q3: What do you plan to do in response to these factors over the next 5-10 years? Aberdeen City Council is committed to reducing its carbon footprint in order to contribute to delivery of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act's emissions reduction targets. Therefore, in May 2009 signed up to undertake the Carbon Management Programme for the second time as well as signing up to the 10:10 campaign. The Carbon Management Programme has the benefit of ensuring the Council concentrate efforts on the areas of biggest CO2 reduction gains and is fit for the variety of new legislative requirement to address carbon management for example the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC). Aberdeen City Council qualifies under the CRC and is taking steps to prepare for its introduction. For example in December 2009 the Council was awarded the Carbon Trust Standard which not only acts as an early action metric under the CRC, but proves that the Council have continued to decrease their carbon emissions over the past 3 years. The Council also has an Energy Strategy (2003) and a Decentralised Energy Programme (2008) which commits to the installation of an onsite energy generation system to all new build Council properties and replacement of heating and hot water systems in existing Council owned buildings as the normal default position as well as adopting an annual target of a 2.5% reduction in fuel purchased on the bulk contracts for properties owned by this Council to apply over the next 10 years. Future carbon reducing initiatives include: • Combined Heat & Power: discussions are ongoing to extend the Seaton CHP installation by adding another generator to increase the capacity to 3MW electrical output and 4.2MW of heat. As well as plans to change the fuel supply from natural gas to biomass. Further plans include the development of a city centre network to link with other blocks of flats and public buildings. The longer term aim is to develop a ‘ring main’ of multiple CHP stations run on a variety of fuels. • Low Carbon City Wide Strategy: the Council are planning to develop a Low Carbon City Wide Strategy in order to co-ordinate renewable energy approaches across the City. This strategy will make recommendations on low carbon approaches to be taken in different areas of the city focusing on such issues as densities, proximity to possible district heating network, type of energy demand (residential or industrial), renewable resource (water, sun, wind). • Low Emissions Zone in the City Centre. The draft Air Quality Action Plan for Aberdeen has identified that a LEZ will have the most impact for improving air quality in the city centre. Although the LEZ is not expected to reduce carbon emissions it will impact upon particulate matter and nitrates – both of which contribute towards climate change. Aberdeen City Council is also a signatory to several climate change commitments including: 2009 • Scottish Business in the Community Climate Change Pledge • World Energy Cities Partnership: Calgary Climate Change Accord • Local Authority Carbon Management Programme • EU Covenant of Mayors • 10:10 Pledge 2007 • Scottish Climate Change Declaration 2004 • Aalborg Commitments 2001 • ICLEI Cities for Climate Protection Campaign 1996 • Aalborg Charter for Sustainable Development Q4: How integrated is your response with other organisations in similar or related fields? Aberdeen City Council is a member of the North East Climate Change Partnership (a partnership of 17 organisations based in the Grampian area) who are also taking part in the Inquiry. Q5: What are the main barriers to change for you and/or your organisation? Meeting targets: such as those set under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act and Carbon Management Plan is going to be the main challenge. The Council’s emissions profile shows that buildings are our biggest emitters. Schools are responsible for 18% of the Council’s carbon footprint. At present the Energy Management Team works with Schools to reduce energy consumption. The Council are also undertaking a project to replace inefficient school buildings with new efficient buildings through PPP’s. Reporting: issue of using a variety of methods for measuring baselines and performance to meet targets e.g. Carbon Trust Standard, Carbon Reduction Commitment etc all use different reporting techniques. Funding: issue of lack of own funds to undertake energy efficiency. With competing Council priorities and decreasing budgets (a trend which is set to continue) often operational requirements are prioritised above carbon management. A resolution to this would be to introduce a fund dedicated to implementing carbon reduction projects which we hope to do through the Carbon Management Plan. Senior Management Support: embedding sustainable development in governance and strategies as well as gaining private sector and public engagement /buy in; Economic growth: pressure to maintain/increase economic and population growth in the region. In addition the delivery of housing growth and the need for sustainable communities. Scepticism: disconnect between transport issues and the impact on the environment in the minds of the public, officers, senior management and councillors or apathy due to convenience of the car. Q6: What are the relative merits for your organisation of a carbon tax; emissions trading; energy regulations for performance standards; or incentive schemes? The CRC has the potential to benefit Aberdeen City Council, as comparisons will be made with large private companies who may not have considered carbon management previously. Transport: Q: How could the Council’s transport emissions be cut by 30% by 2020, and what are the barriers to achieving this? A: Given the responsibility of the Council as a major employer in the City and an organisation for leading by example it is virtually impossible to separate out the measures that should be applied across the Council from the approach that should be taken City- wide. It is also true to say that when looking at transport emissions the focus tends to be on improving vehicle technology. There is a real misunderstanding if this is touted as the solution; improvements in technology may reduce transport emissions but they wont solve other problems of congestion, safety and health, which in turn have economic and social implications. Ultimately if everyone had a non-polluting private vehicle the whole transport network would grind to a, albeit cleaner aired, halt. There is a wider requirement to address the issue of modal split and shift which then brings in elementary questions of how this is delivered and funded. For the Council’s transport emissions to be cut by 30% there would have to be an overhaul of the vehicle fleet to alternatively fuelled vehicles.