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News
London’s wider greenhouse gas impacts
March 2020: A new research paper published by the Greater London Authority (GLA) considering an issue often raised – which is what is the total impact of London’s greenhouse gas emissions, taking into account the goods and services that Londoners use.
The paper ‘Consumption based Greenhouse Gas Emissions for London
(2001 – 2016)‘ undertaken by the University of Leeds, sets out that it was commissioned to understand “the total greenhouse gas impact Londoners have, including those emissions that take place outside London’s physical boundaries, in order to tackle the climate emergency.” The methodology employed in the report allows for “emissions that occur due to the consumption activities of London residents, including all the emissions associated with the production of goods and services throughout their complete supply chain…” So what difference does it make to London’s GHG emissions when taking into account a combustion based route?
Posted in Library, News
Tagged Carbon Emissions
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Climate Safe Streets Report Launch
19 March 2020: The London Cycle Campaign (LCC) launched today its ‘Climate Safe Streets’ report, “a roadmap to decarbonise the capital’s roads in the next 10 years.” The Climate Safe Streets report sets out clear priorities for change, including:
Rapidly delivering a high-quality cycling network: to enable people to choose to cycle their everyday journeys
Introducing Smart Road User Charging: to discourage the most damaging and polluting motor vehicle trips
Supporting the growth of zero-carbon shared mobility options: such as dockless e-scooters (if made legal), cycles, e-bikes and electric car clubs, so that all Londoners have suitable, sustainable transport choices on their doorstep.
The report presents some helpful statistics on the different modes of transport in the city – as well as providing international comparisons, as well and setting out targets for 2030.
Read the full report here.
Harrow Climate Emergency Update
19 March 2020: A wide ranging Harrow Council Cabinet paper ‘The Climate and Ecological Emergency – Interim Strategy and Action Plan‘ providing background to why the council has declared a climate emergency and sets out the challenge for the borough in terms of the level of emissions it is trying to reduce. Work undertaken to date to develop Harrow’s Proposed Strategic Framework for their forthcoming climate action plan has identified the following themes: Clean Energy Used Efficiently, Zero Emission Transport, a waste-free borough, Healthy Places for Us and the Rest of Nature, Good Governance and Long Term Sustainability, Ecoliterate and Engaged Communities, and a socially just transition. Read the full paper here.
London Plan: letter from the Secretary of State for Housing to the Mayor
13 March 2020: The Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), Robert Jenrick MP, has written to the Mayor on issues relating to housing and the New London Plan stating that there is a “need for an improved London Plan that meets London’s housing needs.” The Minister’s letter (which has attracted press attention – see here and here) goes on to say “I am left with no choice but to exercise my powers to direct changes.” An accompanying Annex to the letter sets out the changes the Minister wants to the London Plan. None of these relate to the major steps forward the New London Plan has proposed on increasing the carbon and energy efficiency of London’s new developments (see Policy SI 2 Minimising greenhouse gas emissions of the ‘Intend to Publish London Plan‘) – however – there will now be a delay to the publication to the London Plan until the Mayor enacts the changes set out in the Annex. The letter states:
“Due to the number of the inconsistencies with national policy and missed opportunities to increase housing delivery, I am exercising my powers under section 337 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 to direct that you cannot publish the London Plan until you have incorporated the Directions I have set out at Annex 1. Should you consider alternative changes to policy to address my concerns, I am also content to consider these.”
New Westminster Carbon Offset Fund Guidance
January 2020: Since October 2016, Westminster City Council has been securing for carbon offsetting from new development through planning obligations to ensure that new development is acceptable in planning terms by fully addressing its associated carbon footprint.
In September 2019, Westminster City Council declared a Climate Emergency and set ambitious targets for the city to be carbon neutral by 2040. Carbon offset funds provide an important resource for helping to support Westminster’s carbon neutral ambitions. This guidance provides some background to Westminster’s carbon offset fund, outlining the process for collecting carbon offset funds and the City Council’s criteria for allocating funds to local carbon saving projects, in accordance with Greater London Authority (GLA) guidance and Westminster’s carbon reduction targets.
Posted in News
Tagged Planning, Westminster
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Ealing Southall Climate Crisis Summit
January 2020: Good to see Ealing Southall MP Vivendra Sharma is organising a climate change summit on the afternoon of Saturday 18 January at the Dominion Centre, Southhall. The summit will be “discussing why we need fundamental change and how we will achieve it. Across panel discussions, group activities and Q&A sessions, we will also be hearing from those climate campaigners who are leading the fight against the ecological disaster facing us.”
Ealing Council is one of the 26 London local authorities (to date) to declare a ‘Climate Emergency’ – which was agreed at the Council’s April 2019 meeting. A July 2019 council paper sets out some immediate priorities following the signing of the declaration (appendices to which are posted here), and further actions are also set out in a Cabinet meeting paper of October 2019).
Local community group, Ealing Transition, has been hugely successful by working with Schools Energy Co-op in deploying a number of solar projects on schools across the borough, details of which are set out in a presentation provided to Community Energy London in September 2019.
Full details and registration details of the Ealing Climate Crisis Summit event are on the following Eventbrite page.
Posted in Events, London Boroughs, News
Tagged Ealing, London Councils, Photovoltaics, Schools
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Waltham Forest the first Council to install the first permanent City Trees in London
31 December 2019: Interesting story issued on the last day of the year from Waltham Forest Borough announcing that it is to be the first council to have “permanently installed two City Trees in Leytonstone. CityTree is a free-standing outdoor air cleaning system that uses the power of biotechnology to emulate the pollution-reduction benefits of 275 urban trees.”
The press release goes on to provide some further detail on the CityTree, which is apparently a “… self-sustaining structure that contains a water tank, with automatic irrigation and plant sensors all powered by on board solar panels and batteries. The different types of moss bind environmental toxins such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxides while at the same time producing oxygen. Cutting-edge integrated technology can deliver comprehensive information on air filtering performance and status as well as environmental data on the CityTree’s surroundings.”
There’s no image of what this technology look’s like on the news release – but Westminster Council ran a pilot earlier this year – which includes a picture of what the CityTree looks like – which can be seen on AirQuality News’s website here, which also states the “technology has previously been trialled in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and Oslo. It is being supplied in the UK by green technology firm Evergen Systems.”
A blog on the Evergen website sets out some pretty remarkable results of 2018 field tests undertaken in Delhi, where it has also been installed. There’s not much detailed data at the moment that I can find out on the CityTree, but I’m sure the recently appointed Waltham Forest Climate Emergency Committee, which I sit on, will be examining CityTree at a forthcoming meeting.
Posted in London Boroughs, News
Tagged Climate Adaptation, Photovoltaics, Waltham Forest
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Haringey Pension Fund invests in Low Carbon Emerging Equity Fund
1 October 2019: The London Borough of Haringey Pension Fund is to be the seed investor in a MSCI Emerging Markets Low Carbon Target Index Fund managed by Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), following investment advice from Mercer. This low carbon fund aims to reduce exposure to carbon emissions of these investments by an estimated 73% compared to the fund’s previous emerging market investments. Read the full press release here.
Posted in News
Tagged Green Finance, Haringey
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London City Airport Draft Masterplan and Climate Change
September 2019:The Chief Executive’s foreword to the London City Airport’s Draft Masterplan, currently out for consultation, commits the organisation to the following: “We will become a carbon neutral business by 2020 and fully support and welcome the Government’s recent commitments to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Our ambition is to be at the forefront of this agenda, and we will achieve these 2050 targets by employing the latest technology and innovation and working with our airlines and partners to help the achieve these goals too.”
The Masterplan’s Sustainability Strategy sets out that on ‘Carbon and Climate Change’ the airport’s plans are to:
- Become an independently accredited ‘carbon neutral’ business by 2020;
- Work with airlines to deliver more new generation aircraft which are more fuel efficient and will emit fewer carbon emissions per passenger per flight;
- Achieve net zero emissions by 2050, consistent with the emerging
- commitments from governments and industry around the world;
- Invest more in low carbon technology and more energy efficient buildings;
- Promote increased public and sustainable transport usage by staff and passengers;
- Work with airlines and manufacturers on the hybrid and electric
- aircraft agenda; and
- Work with NATS to deliver their predicted annual savings in fuel burn and CO2 emissions through participation in the Government’s airspace modernisation process.
However, as pointed out by HACAN (Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise), London City Airport has admitted that it does not know as yet the impact on climate change emissions of their expansion proposals.
London City Airport GHG Emissions
September 2019: Helpful press release from HACAN (Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise) stating that London City Airport has admitted that it does not know the impact on climate change emissions of the expansion proposals outlined in its draft Master Plan currently out for consultation. A technical note on ‘carbon and GHG emissions’ sets out that:
“It is not possible at this time to calculate total emissions which might arise from the draft Master Plan because this relies upon the accurate quantification of GHG emissions using detailed modelling and data from a combination of aircraft forecasts, fleet mix composition, construction and engineering designs, energy supply, and other details of the proposed future infrastructure. However, during the Master Plan period up to 2035, it can be expected that further improvements in aircraft fuel efficiency and emissions will take place as greater numbers of ‘new generation’ aircraft such as the Airbus A220-100 are introduced to the fleet. Moreover, the airport is predicted to accommodate an approximate 69% increase in passengers by 2035 (i.e. from 6.5 to 11 million passengers per annum) coupled with only a 36% increase in flights (i.e. from the 111,000 ATMs to 151,000 ATMs) and with only limited additional infrastructure. As such, provisional analysis would suggest that carbon emissions per passenger will decrease even further over the Master Plan period. 2.29 Should a detailed proposal come forward in the future, the airport would need to assess the total GHG emissions of that proposal as part of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)”.
This issue will continue to be scrutinised as London City Airport continues with its planning application.
London’s electric bus fleet becomes the largest in Europe
5 September 2019: A Transport for London (TfL) press release announced today that “routes 43 and 134 will become the UK’s first bus routes to use only electric double-deck buses this autumn” and that London now has “more than 200 electric buses, making it Europe’s largest electric bus fleet, and this will grow significantly next year as Transport for London (TfL) has awarded contracts to operators for a further 78 electric double-deck buses”. The majority of electric buses presently on London’s streets are single-deck buses, but following a pilot programme testing out new electric double deck buses (see here, here and here) these are now coming on.
This news suggests that some 300 or so electric buses will be operating in the capital in 2020 – out of a total of 9,000 London buses currently in operation (a detailed breakdown of which is provided below).
The Mayor has committed to making all buses within the M25 zero emission by 2037 (as set out in the Mayor’s Transport Strategy – see timetable below) at the very latest, and this press release sets out that the Mayor has asked TfL to look at the feasibility of bringing this date forward. Further information on the Mayor’s ‘Cleaner Bus’ programme is available here.
Economist City Liveability Index
5 September 2019: The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has published the latest version of their annual city “liveability” index, highlighting their analysis of the best (and worst) cities in the world in live in. It is interesting to note the extent that the impact of climate change is considered, with the report stating that: ” A slew of cities in emerging markets that are among the most exposed to the effects of climate change have seen their scores downgraded. These include New Delhi in India, which suffers from appalling air quality, Cairo in Egypt (where air quality is also a major issue) and Dhaka in Bangladesh. A lack of a concerted global effort to tackle climate change risks further downward revisions in these scores, threatening to offset improvements in the other categories, such as education and infrastructure, which remain on a broadly upward trend.” Continue reading…