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Climate Change

Last updated Friday 1 May 2009

Introduction  |  Mitigation Policy  |  Adaptation Policy  |  Strategic Planning  |  Work of the Joint Committee  |  Publications  |  Links

Introduction

From the United Nations’ 1992 Rio Conference and the Kyoto Accord of 1997, the issue of addressing climate change has risen in awareness to become a global issue requiring global solutions.

The primary focus is upon reducing levels of emitted greenhouse gases which are seen as contributing to the general rise in global temperatures through the human-enhanced atmospheric greenhouse effect.

Some scientists estimate that at current emissions levels, the world’s climate will reach a tipping point twenty years beyond which irreversible climatic impacts will occur.

There are two inter-related policy responses to climate change which focus on two categories of response:

Mitigation – responses which produce a strategy that seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Adaptation
– responses adapting current strategies so that Climate Change is integral to thinking.



Climate Change Mitigation Policy

On 29 January 2008 the Scottish Government published the Draft Climate Change (Scotland) Bill for consultation. The legislation aims to achieve 3% year on year greenhouse gas emissions reductions is proposed to contain a long-term target to reduce Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels (Cook, 2007).

The Scottish Government published a response to the consultation on 27 October 2008 to the proposals for the Scottish Climate Change Bill (Scottish Government, 2008). The legislation which will be brought before the Scottish Parliament by the end of 2008. It will establish the legal framework for a 80% reduction in the emissions by 2050 will include all six Kyoto Protocol Greenhouse Gases: Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Hydroflurocarbons, Perflurocarbons, and Sulphur Hexafluoride. The legislation will require annual reporting of performance regarding emissions targets, identify a mid-point target of 50% reduction in emissions by 2030 and will include emissions from aviation and shipping within the targets incorporated within the Bill.

In October 2008 a Scottish Government commissioned report was published outlining the potential impact on the Scottish economy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland.

The Scottish Government published a review by AEA Technology and Centre for Ecology & Hydrology on 14 November 2008 identifying and undertaking an initial assessment of policy options to mitigate against Climate Change in Scotland.

The objectives of the study were:

  1. to generate a range of policy options aimed at achieving reductions in net greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland;

  2. to conduct an initial assessment of the impacts of policy options in terms of costs and effects in Scotland; and

  3. to conduct an initial assessment of the feasibility, affordability and likely public acceptability of each option in Scotland.

This 80/50 target is in line with the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) recommendations and the European Parliament’s high-end reduction target to limit global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius and so limit the impacts of climate change (Commission of the European Communities, 2007; Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, 2007).

The Climate Change (Scotland) Bill (Scottish Parliament, 2008) introduced new legislation from the Scottish Parliament on 5 December 2008.

The UK Climate Change Bill was introduced in November 2007 to the House of Lords and gained Royal Ascent on 26 November 2008
(DEFRA, 2008). The 2050 target in the Act is now an 80% reduction by 2050 revised from a 60% target by 2050 in the Draft Bill. Following the Scottish Parliament's agreement in December 2007 to a Legislative Consent Motion, most of the provisions of the UK Act extend to Scotland.

Royal Assent for the Act allowed for the formal establishment of the Committee on Climate Change. On 1 December 2008 the Committee released its first report, Building a low-carbon economy - the UK's contribution to tackling climate change, recommending carbon budgets for each of the five-year periods: 2008 to 2012, 2013 to 2017 and 2018 to 2022.

A key piece of government policy was also published in 2007 Scottish Planning Policy 6 (SPP 6): Renewable Energy. This document outlines Scottish Ministers' target of generating 40%, quantified as six gigawatts, of Scotland’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020. SPP 6 outlines that the planning system used be used to support and encourage the continued growth of all renewable technologies and in particular development plans should set out a spatial approach for considering wind farm proposals over 20 megawatts. The Scottish Government have subsequently amended this target to a new target to generate 50 per cent of Scotland's electricity from renewables by 2020, with an interim target of 31 per cent by 2011.

The Scottish Government in September 2008 published a document setting out their approach to energy policy (Scottish Government, 2008) In October 2008, the Scottish Government and Forum for Renewable Energy in Scotland published the Framework for the Development and Deployment of Renewables in Scotland, the proposed framework was published to contribute to the Scottish element of the UK National Action Plan for renewable energy.

The Scottish Government has also published in 2008 Planning Advice Note 84 (PAN 84) detailing a methodology for calculating reduced carbon emissions in the context of producing development plans and assessing planning applications.  In 2007, the Scottish Government published A Low Carbon Building Standards Strategy for Scotland which was drawn up by an expert panel who were appointed to recommend measures to improve energy performance of houses and buildings in Scotland and set out recommendations for future building regulations.

At the local government level the need to address climate change has been identified and has resulted in January 2007 in all 32 local authorities in Scotland signing Scotland’s Climate Change Declaration. The declaration expresses Scotland’s local authorities intent and it outlines a commitment to take action against climate change. Various actions are outlined including reducing greenhouse gas emissions through their own operations, identifying measurable targets and timescales, incorporating adaptation measures into plans and encouraging local communities to take adaptation and mitigation action.

These national policy developments complement the recent Commission of the European Communities (2007) An Energy Policy for Europe which seeks to achieve a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries compared to 1990 levels by 2020. The EC also recognise once a new international commitment exists that Europe will need to increase the target to a 30% reduction by 2020 and 60-80% by 2050. The EU Energy Policy also seeks to secure Europe’s energy supply, stimulate the economy through technological development and secure more jobs for its citizens. The EU in early 2008 also published the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (Commission of the European Communities, 2008).

 

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Climate Change Adaptation Policy

Climate change presents major challenges for Scotland’s land-using industries according to the Scottish Government’s recent consultation on proposals for a Scottish Climate Change bill.

The Scottish Government state that the role of the town and country planning system in adapting to climate change is already addressed in Scottish Planning Policies such as:

SPP 3 Planning for Homes

SPP 7 Planning and Flooding

Planning Advice Note 69 (PAN 69): Planning and Building Standards Advice on Flooding provides further information and includes an annex on climate change research.

The Scottish Government also states that adaptation to Climate Change impacts will also be addressed in the second National Planning Framework .

The Scottish Government is currently developing a Scottish adaptation strategy to identify priority adaptation action required in Scotland and to clarify roles and responsibilities in achieving this action. Initial consultation on the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Framework was published in June 2008.  Measures to address adaptation in Scotland will be primarily addressed through this document and any legislative requirements could be included in the Scottish Climate Change Bill.

The UK Climate Change Bill contains several provisions regarding adaptation to the impacts of climate change in the UK. The Secretary of State is also to be given a power to direct relevant authorities performing public functions to assess the risk associated with climate change impacts. In a Scottish context this power will relate to reserved matters only, and land-use planning is not a reserved function.

The recent publication by the Commission of European Communities outlines the challenges faced by societies worldwide in terms of adapting to climate change in Europe and outlines a series of options for EU action. The Commission of the European Communities (2007) Green Paper Adapting to Climate Change in Europe – Options for EU Action highlights the key role of spatial planning in linking together various sectors of the urban environment and highlights a particular role for regional spatial planning.

“Spatial planning could provide an integrated framework to link up vulnerability and risk assessment with adaptive capacities and adaptation responses thus facilitating the identification of policy options and cost-efficient strategies.”


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The Role of Strategic Planning

The Joint Committee’s work recently has focussed on the mitigation approach whilst recognising the linkage between effective adaptation and the longer-term response of mitigation.

The focus of the mitigation approach is about ensuring that strategy does all that it can within its design to reduce energy consumption and thus greenhouse gas emissions. Land-use, as the principal factor governing land-use distribution and development density, and therefore the origins and destinations associated with trip generation, can contribute much to the reduction of consumption and emissions. However, land-use change is necessarily long-term in nature and is one part of a complex interrelation of cause and effect and thus requires to be partnered by operational and management responses.

The Commission of the European Communities (2007) Green Paper Adapting to Climate Change in Europe – Options for EU Action highlights the key role of spatial planning in linking together various sectors of the urban environment and highlights a particular role for regional spatial planning.

“Spatial planning could provide an integrated framework to link up vulnerability and risk assessment with adaptive capacities and adaptation responses thus facilitating the identification of policy options and cost-efficient strategies”.

It could also be argued the spatial planning has similar potential in facilitating the capacity for mitigation, identifying policy options and cost-efficient strategies

Indeed, the Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change (2006) highlighted the role of spatial planning in implementating adaptation and mitigation measures, stating that a series of decisions will need to be taken over the next ten years or so to stabilise the current increases in greenhouse gas emissions and move towards low carbon technologies for power, heat and transport. This raises further requirements for discussions on requiring new large developments to incorporate combined heat and power systems, balancing renewable energy developments with environmental resources, biodegradable waste being used as biomass for CHP purposes. It could be argued that the spatial planning system is obvious channel for these discussions and decisions.

 

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The Work of the Joint Committee

InterMETREXPlus

The Glasgow and the Clyde Valley Structure Plan Joint Committee agreed in early 2007 to implement a process which would assist the formulation of a strategic development planning response to planning for climate change. As part of the process the Joint Committe agreed to continue to be lead partner in an extension to the InterMETREX project.

The project extension InterMETREXPlus, funded by INTERREG IIIC, was based around the use of the GRIP (Greenhouse Gas Regional Inventory Project) model, developed by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

The InterMETREXPlus project has been essentially a pilot project for an INTERREG IVC project, EUC02, which seeks to develop a tool to analyse the implications of adaptation and mitigation policies within the context of the existing metropolitan development strategies.

The Joint Committee is grateful for the co-funding it received from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the INTERREG IIC programme. This has enabled the Joint Committee to engage with a wide range of stakeholders and for all participants to involved in a process that provides a solid basis for starting to develop and share spatial planning responses to climate change.

The Joint Committee looks forward to working with its partners in developing this work further through the INTERREG IVC programme
if the funding proposal is successful in 2008.

The EUC02 proposal was assessed in October 2008 and was not awarded funding in the first round of INTERREG IVC programme. METREX and partners have been encouraged to re-apply for funding in early 2009 through the second round of funding.


INTERREG IIIC logo      INTERREG IVC logo      Project Part-financed by the European Union

 

FP7 Project C-RED

The Joint Committee in early 2008 agreed to participate in a Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) project submission entitled
Carbon Emissions Reduction in Buildings and Built Environment (C-RED) along with lead partners Glasgow City Council and
Glasgow Caledonian University
.

The twin aims of the C-RED project were:

  • Increase regional contributions to the reduction of carbon emissions from buildings and built environment in Glasgow,
    Bari (Italy), Belgrade (Serbia), Novi Sad (Serbia), Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Turin / Piedmont (Italy).

  • Maximise the benefits of research infrastructure for regional economic development.

The project proposal was submitted in March 2008 and subsequently the C-RED project partnership has been informed that has been unsuccessful in this round of funding .

For further information on Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) visit cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html

 

Adaptation and Resilience to a Changing Climate

Green Infrastructure Design for Climate Adaptation and Resilience

The Joint Committee has recently agreed to participate as a stakeholder in a proposal submission entitled Green Infrastructure Design for Climate Adaptation and Resilience lead by the Centre for Urban Regional Ecology (CURE) to the Adaptation and Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARCC) programme, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC).

The overall aim of the proposal is to better understand critical interactions between the natural and built environment with a view to informing climate change adaptation via green infrastructure planning and design.

The outline project proposal was submitted on 26 June 2008 and the project partnership hopes to be invited over the summer of 2008 to submit a more detailed funding proposal in September 2008 with a final decision made on project funding through the ARCC programme in early 2009.

If you have any questions then please contact either Gordon McNaughton or Grahame Buchan on 0141 229 7730.

The project proposal was submitted in June 2008 and subsequently the C-RED project partnership has been informed that has been unsuccessful in this round of funding.


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Publications

  Glasgow and the Clyde Valley Greenhouse Gas Inventory: A Summary Guide  PDF    1.19 MB

  GRIP for Europe Pilot Study: Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Glasgow and the Clyde Valley  PDF   440 KB

   InterMETREXPlus Final Report 2007  PDF    1.67 MB

   Glasgow and the Clyde Valley Scenarios  PDF    2.10 MB

          Download Excel spreadsheet   GCV Day 1 Scenario 2050  Excel    28 KB
          Download Excel spreadsheet   GCV Day 2 Scenario 2050  Excel    32 KB
          Download Excel spreadsheet   GCV Day 3 Scenario 2050  Excel    39 KB

   GRIP Scenario tool video  WMV    12 MB

   METREX Metropolitan Mitigation Manual  PDF    3.77 MB

Details of the various InterMetrexPlus project outputs are available from www.euco2.org
and a copy of the summary prospectus of the EUC02 project is available:

   EUCO2 Prospectus  PDF    239 KB

The GCVSPJC also contributed a paper to the 2007 METREX Climate Change Conference hosted by the Metropolitan Region of Hamburg:

  METREX Hamburg Conference on Climate Change 2007  PDF    4.06 MB

The GCVSPJC has contributed articles to the February and December 2008 editions of Scottish Planner summarising the InterMETREXPlus project.

  
Scottish Planner, Issue 121, February 2008   PDF    1.14 MB

  
Scottish Planner, Issue 126, December 2008   PDF    1.14 MB


The GCVSPJC also contributed to the SEPA GRIP workshops for Scotland in March 2008,
a PDF copy of the report is available from

www.sepa.org.uk/PDF/GRIP.pdf

The work of the Joint Committee using the GRIP Model was discussed in the
Sustainable Development Commission Scotland Workshop on Consistent Emissions Reporting
,
a report of which is available from
www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/Wkshp_Report_LA_%20Area_Wide_Emissions.pdf


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Useful Links

Scottish Government
www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/climatechange

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
www.defra.gov.uk

Scottish Environmental Protection Agency
www.sepa.org.uk/climate_change.aspx

Scottish Climate Change Impacts Partnership
www.sccip.org.uk/default.aspx?pid=1

UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP)
www.ukcip.org.uk/

Sustainable Scotland Network
www.sustainable-scotland.net/index.asp?pg=1

Scottish Parliament Climate Change Cross-Party Group
www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/crossPartyGroups/groups/cpg-climate.htm

Scottish Carbon Counting Group
www.carboncounting.co.uk

Scottish Council for Development and Industry
www.scdi.org.uk/energy/index.html

Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research (SNIFFER)
www.sniffer.org.uk

United Nations Environment Programme
www.grida.no/products.aspx?m=36

European Commission - Environment Directorate-General
ec.europa.eu/dgs/environment/index_en.htm

European Environment Agency
www.eea.europa.eu

Committee on Climate Change
www.theccc.org.uk/

Shell - Energy Scenarios to 2050
www.shell.com/home/content/aboutshell/our_strategy/shell_global_scenarios/dir_global_scenarios_07112006.html


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Link: North Lanarkshire Council Link: Glasgow City Council Link: East Dunbartonshire Council Link: West Dunbartonshire Council Link: Inverclyde Council Link: Renfrewshire Council Link: South Lanarkshire Council Link: East Renfrewshire Council