Spatial planning for climate resilience and Net Zero report

[edit] In brief

In July 2023 the Climate Change Committee (CCC), along with the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) and the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) published their Spatial Planning for Climate Resilience and Net Zero report. This relatively brief but significant report looks at the capability of the planning system (primarily in the England) and how the system can best support the legal obligations on the government in relation to climate mitigation and adaptation, bringing together survey research of planning practitioners, case studies and stakeholder roundtables.

[edit] Background

The report follows the letter from Lord Deben, Chairman of the Climate Change Committee, to the Prime Minister reiterating the 2023 Progress Report to Parliament on reducing emissions, published in June, the key messages of which were that failure to act decisively in response to the energy crisis and build on the success of hosting COP26 means that the UK has lost its global climate leadership. Inaction has been compounded by continuing support for further investment in fossil fuels and the Government needs to act urgently to correct the failures of the past year and reclaim the UK’s leadership role.

[edit] The report

The CCC commissioned the CSE and TCPA to conduct research into the barriers and opportunities of delivering climate mitigation and adaptation through the spatial planning system at the local authority level in England. The research examined the English planning system and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), and draws this together with a survey of planning practitioners, local plan case studies and stakeholder roundtables. The research highlighted that the planning system has the potential to be a key tool for Net Zero and climate resilience at the local level but is not delivering on this. It makes over twenty recommendations to the Committee on closing this gap between the current performance and potential of the system at the local plan level.

[edit] Key recomendations

The first set of recommendations relate to systemic change required to align the planning system with climate policy (direct extract from the CCC website) , which include:

• Consistent alignment of planning policy with mitigation and adaptation actions in the Climate Change Act. In particular, the NPPF must make clear the primacy to be afforded to climate change in plan-making and decision-making.
• Embedding climate change and spatial planning across decision-making levels.

The second set relate to more specific measures, directed at parts of the current system, highlighting a need for:

• Improved guidance on local carbon budgets and resilience frameworks.
• More detailed methodologies on specific areas of planning policy, such as on embodied carbon, resource efficiency and allocation of land for adaptation measures.
• Enabling local and multi-agency delivery of adaptation and mitigation at appropriate scales.
• Revoking the 2015 Written Ministerial Statement on plan-making and replacing it with a statement confirming that planning authorities are able to set more ambitious local standards on energy efficiency.
• A strategy for funding, resourcing and supporting local authority planning to address climate goals.
• Increasing knowledge, awareness and capacity across other stakeholders in the planning system, such as the Planning Inspectorate.

[edit] Industry response

Leading electrotechnical and engineering services body ECA has responded to the Committee for Climate Change’s (CCC) latest report, which say the current UK planning system does not live up to its potential to drive climate action. ECA has long campaigned for more joined-up policy and a top-down approach from central government which would enable local councils to properly plan, fund, implement and maintain crucial low-carbon infrastructure, such as public EV charge points and power network upgrades.

ECA agrees with the report’s conclusions that local council planning tools are not being used to facilitate low-carbon development evenly across the UK. The report argues that by placing climate change and emissions goals at the core of the planning system, the government could accelerate the roll out of low-carbon infrastructure.

ECA’s Energy & Emerging Technologies Solutions Advisor Luke Osborne said “Achieving Net Zero Carbon requires a massive, concerted effort from all corners of government, at both the national and local levels. This latest report from the CCC has shed light on a chronic lack of resources and an institutional culture that can act as a barrier to low-carbon development. If this is not rectified through joined-up policy from the top, we risk missing the boat on new technologies and infrastructure that could allow Britons to charge their cars, insulate their homes, and use renewable electricity easily and safely. The UK has a legally binding target to make a 78% reduction in emissions by 2035 and become a net zero emitter by 2050. To decarbonise the grid, we need long-term strategic incentives and consumer education about the benefits of low-carbon alternatives. Without a strategic plan which considers grid capacity and carbon use, our progress towards these targets will be impeded.”

ECA is calling on the government to:

• Adopt the CLC’s national retrofit strategy,
• Establish an effective home insulation scheme,
• Promote air-to-air heat pumps as suitable for retrofit in older buildings,
• Expand the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to cover the installation of low carbon heating devices,
• As well as other policy recommendations. Learn more about these, and ECA’s work, here.

This article is based on the direct report published by the CCC "Spatial planning for climate resilience and Net Zero (CSE & TCPA)" from July 19 and the ECA press release entiltled "ECA warns Gov’t against ‘missing the boat’ following Net Zero report" dated July 21, 2023.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

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• Climate Change Act.
• Global warming and the tipping point precipice.
• Greenhouse gases.
• Green infrastructure.
• How engineering organisations can adapt successfully to climate change.
• ICE articles on Designing Buildings Wiki.
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• Resilience of UK infrastructure and climate predictions.