Lancashire County Council will deliver a presentation at the meeting.
Minutes:
Andrew Mullaney, Head of Planning and Environment at Lancashire County Council presented four environmental studies commissioned by Blackpool Council, Blackburn and Darwen Council, Lancashire County Council and the LEP.
The studies were commissioned as part of the County Council’s resolution to transition to net carbon zero, in line with the declarations of climate emergencies with time scales varying from 2030 to 2050.
1. Pathway to Net Zero Carbon
8,500,000 tons of Co2 was emitted in Lancashire a year, equally spread across transport, domestic buildings, industry and commercial sectors.
The study explored 3 possible pathways,
· 100% net zero by 2030, considered impossible to achieve in 93 months.
· 68% reduction by 2030 (compared with 1990), and
· 78% by 2035 (compared with 1990), could be achieved with strong action.
Net zero was defined as a state where any carbon emitted would be offset by environmental action, such as tree planting or restoration.
Consideration was given for high uptake of electrification, but there was debate as to the role hydrogen would take.
Maximum intervention would be required for Lancashire to be net zero by the early 2040s, which could include:
· Transport – encourage the uptake of walking, cycling, public transport, while removing the incentive of personal vehicle usage.
· Domestic building intervention would include ensuring all homes and businesses were insulated, with energy efficient glazing, heating and lighting.
· Large scale carbon removal intervention, including peatland restoration and tree planting.
2. Climate resilience – The methods and means to cope with climate change.
Since the industrial revolution, the average temperature had been gradually climbing.
The study showed that Lancashire is on average 1.5 degrees warmer than at the end of the nineteenth century.
By 2080, it is estimated that if no change were made, the annual temperature would increase by 4 degrees, and a two-fold increase was expected in the frequency of heavy rainfall leading to increased flooding and surface water.
3. State of the Environment Report
Over the previous 30 years, 24 indicators were explored over 8 themes.
· Air quality – There were 24 degisnated Air Quality Management Areas in Lancashire
· Water quality
· Waste – 34% of waste went to landfill, with 46% recycled, but the figures had plateaued for a number of years.
· Noise
· Energy
· Climate change
· Nature recovery/biodiversity – The new Environment Act contained duties for Councils related to nature recovery.
· Transport
4. Renewables Development Report
2011 forecasted that by 2021 in Lancashire, 807 MW would come from renewable, actual figure fell short at 544MW. Three areas, wind, biomass and heat pumps were below expectation.
Emerging themes from the studies.
· Green infrastructure programme delivery was required
· Major green housing programme, every building to be domestically efficient
· Local energy planning – important and linked to the local plan, exploring the energy use, and how it would be provided and how to deploy renewables.
· Transport – improvements to buses, active travel and electric vehicle charging.
Members raised that until there were better house building standards from Central Government that forced new builds to be energy efficient real progress would be difficult to achieve, and added that prior to the abolishment of the previous Core Strategy, the Councils would have achieved level 6 for sustainable homes. It was questioned why new builds were not built with solar panels and enquired if the local policy could fill the void left by the lack of a national policy.
It was clarified that exploration was underway with other authorities about placing solar panels on social housing and was raised that restrictions had to be justified to ensure development viability was not impacted. It was raised that there was conflict for homebuilders between building greener homes and remaining competitive.
Decision: The report was noted