Monthly Archives: April 2020

London: Achieving Net Zero

April 2020: Think tank Future of London recently hosted a useful online seminar for their ‘Achieving Net Zero‘ project, involving public sector and built environment professionals looking at the challenges faced in decarbonising London’s building stock.

The session included speakers from the London boroughs of Camden, Lambeth and Hounslow providing updates on their climate emergency plans – as well as contributions from LandSec, Arup and Montagu Evans amongst others. The agenda for the meeting is available to download here – and the webinar has been posted in full online and can be seen here.

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Businesses must take bigger strides towards net zero carbon

14 April 2020: Welcome to see the following blog published on the website of London business trade association, London First, by Robert Spencer, Head of Sustainable Development at AECOM. The article highlights the challenges of decarbonising to Net Zero London’s built environment – including at looking at area-wide opportunities through deploying technologies such as heat networks. “A recent example of a heat network in action is on AECOM’s 339 Edgware Road project in London [sic – should be 399]. This is a mixed-use development encompassing 183 residential units, a Morrison’s supermarket and Oriental and Far Eastern retail malls and food courts.”

Some background to the energy strategy employed at this project is provided on the planning report from Brent Council here and the GLA’s planning report here.

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Nearly half of UK’s carbon footprint down to emissions from abroad

16 April 2020: Further research around the issue of greenhouse emissions associated with goods and services we use – something the GLA has recently looked into. A WWF study report’s that nearly half of the UK’s carbon footprint comes from emissions released overseas to satisfy UK-based consumption. Carbon Footprint: Exploring the UK’s contribution to climate change, highlights the importance of addressing carbon intensive imports such as animal feed and fossil fuels, which fuel our cars and heat our homes Download there study here.

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COVID-19 provides lessons on climate adaptation for cities

9 April 2020: Link to an article on phys.org – one of a number which are bringing together some of the parallels between the impacts cities are facing as a result of the coronavirus crisis and likely challenges these urban communities will encounter due to increasing temperatures as a result of global climate change. This piece, by environmental lawyer Amy Turner (also senior fellow at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law) includes some useful links to other thought pieces and research work in this area.

“I hesitate to draw early conclusions about the connection between global emissions, climate impacts and our current pandemic conditions. However, this is a moment of opportunity to marry the best of city climate policy and virus response. While big policy conclusions, connections and questions will continue to be debated, right now there are important observations to be made and potential lessons learned for city policymakers about overlapping approaches from past emissions reduction policies, current COVID-19 policy and future climate policy after the virus has subsided. This post explores some of these intersecting policy areas.”

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Exploring acceptance of decentralised energy storage at household and neighbourhood scales: A UK survey

April 2020: Paper published in Energy Policy Volume 138, March 2020. Highlights of this study are that:

  • Level of awareness of community and in-home energy storage is very low.
  • Attitudes towards and acceptance of energy storage are significantly related to affect.
  • Financial cost is viewed as a major barrier to household adoption of batteries.
  • Public authorities are perceived as key trusted actors for delivering energy storage.
  • Community Energy Storage (CES) is better accepted if benefits accrue to the same community.

Open access paper available here.

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Transnational municipal networks and climate change adaptation

April 2020: Paper published in the Journal of Cleaner Production
Volume 257, 1 June 2020. “Cities have increasingly recognised the risks posed by climate change and the need to adapt. To support climate action, cities have formed cooperative networks such as the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the Global Covenant of Mayors and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. However, a lack of scientific evidence exists when it comes to the actual impact of network participation, especially in the context of adaptation. This study is the first to test statistically the association between network membership and progress in adaptation planning in 377 cities globally. The results show that network members are more likely to have started the adaptation process than other cities, and that being a member of multiple networks is associated with higher levels of adaptation planning. Moreover, cities in wealthier countries are more likely to be more advanced in adaptation planning than others. We consider the possible explanations for these results based on the previous literature and information gathered from the networks. The main implications of our study are that network organisations should consider how to encourage the adaptation process among their members and the increased involvement of cities from lower-income countries.” Open access paper available here.

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A framework for understanding local government sustainable energy capacity applied in England

April 2020: Academic research paper published in Energy Research & Social Science Volume 62, April 2020 looking at a critical issue of the lack of capacity within local authorities to engage on energy and climate issues.

“Analyses of local climate change governance and sustainable energy transitions have tended to focus on understanding broader governance networks, within which local governments are important actors. Such approaches often make appeals to (lack of) capacity when seeking to understand the many limits to local sustainability programmes, however local government capacity is rarely given a primary analytical focus. We offer a definition of local government sustainable energy capacity, organise it into six types, and explore it in relation to contextual factors across scales: political institutions; energy and climate change policies and material aspects of energy systems. This heuristic framework is applied to case studies of eight local and combined authorities in England, a country with particularly centralised political institutions and energy systems. We conclude that capacity is a useful lens through which to explore the extent to which, and importantly how, local governments can become active sustainability actors. We also find that the development of knowledge capacity is becoming increasingly important; that there is some evidence of political re-scaling in energy; and identify some ways in which material aspects of energy systems have significant implications for local government sustainable energy capacity. Open access article here.

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Opportunities and threats for pollinator conservation in global towns and cities

April 2020: With increasing concerns over a decrease in the number of pollinating insects (see BBC article here), and at least one London local authority looking at developing a ‘pollinator action plan’ (Waltham Forest – see outline and recent consultation paper here), this academic research, published in Current Opinion in Insect Science Volume 38, April 2020,paper provides some useful findings. Open access paper here.

“Urban expansion is considered to be one of the main threats to global biodiversity yet some pollinator groups, particularly bees, can do well in urban areas. Recent studies indicate that both local and landscape-level drivers can influence urban pollinator communities, with local floral resources and the amount of impervious cover in the landscape affecting pollinator abundance, richness and community composition. Urban intensification, chemicals, climate change and increased honey bee colony densities all negatively affect urban pollinators. Maintaining good areas of habitat for pollinators, such as those found in allotments (community gardens) and domestic gardens, and improving management approaches in urban greenspace and highly urbanised areas (e.g. by increasing floral resources and nesting sites) will benefit pollinator conservation.”

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100% of Hackney Council electricity now supplied by renewables

2 April 2020: Following on from plans set out in July 2019, and a climate emergency declaration made in June 2019, Hackney have now announced the council will be sourcing all of its electricity supplies from renewable generation. Hackney’s press release sets out that its annual £6.5m electricity bill will now go to “electricity sourced from wind and solar power”.

The Council’s strategy is to shift its energy supplies to fully renewable sources, initially via green tariffs linked to Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) – which today’s announcement relates to – with an ambition to move to supporting the development of new/additional renewable energy supplies by the council entering into longer term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) (ie rather than sourcing green electricity from the power market, directly investing in new renewable generation through a long-term contract).

A July 2019 article by the Hackney Gazette sets out that: “Cllr Jon Burke (Lab, Woodberry Down), cabinet member for energy, laid out further ambitions to decarbonise the council’s gas demand on top of its electricity. He is also aiming to secure a contract to purchase renewable energy directly, going beyond the current arrangement which sees Hackney’s energy come with certification guaranteeing it as renewable.

“Cllr Burke said: “Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin certificates (REGOs) are a major step forward for the council in delivering our 2018 manifesto commitment to transform the way we purchase wholesale energy to increase the generation of renewable energy beyond Hackney’s borders by using our corporate spending on gas and electricity to increase investment in sources of clean energy. However, we want to go a step further by securing a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with a specific generation facility.”

A Hackney Council procurement meeting in September 2019 included a paper which provides some further details on the contract:

  • As part of the Mayor and Council’s commitment to rapidly decarbonising the full functions of the local authority, the Council switched to a minimum of 50% renewable electricity on 1 April 2019. This next step will see the Council secure 100% renewable electricity through the purchase of Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin Certificates (REGO).
  • The natural next step in the process beyond 1 April 2020 will be to explore the potential for a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with a specific generation facility. …Securing such an agreement…would demonstrate in a very visible way to the residents of Hackney that our corporate spending on renewables is contributing to the delivery of new sources of clean energy, rather than merely sending a signal to the market that more renewable energy is required, which is the role that the purchase of REGO certificates performs.

Suppliers awarded have not been announced – but an October 2019 procurement paper sets out the sums awarded (point 7).

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Energy efficiency boost for London homes

1 April 2020: Further information has become available on the Mayor’s latest iteration of his homes energy efficiency retrofit programme. Previously known as RE:NEW, the Mayor announced back in February, via the following press release, the new Retrofit Accelerator for Homes programme stating that it will be “the first initiative of its kind in the UK – will provide much-needed support for the under-resourced public sector to retrofit homes with urgent upgrades and improvements such as better insulation, low-carbon heat and alternative power sources.”

The GLA webpage for the programme sets out that the programme will:

  • Help London boroughs and housing associations to develop energy efficiency projects at scale with technical and commercial solutions.
  • Get started on 1,600 whole-house retrofits in Greater London over the next three years.
  • Create a market for the low carbon and environmental goods and services sector, creating new, high-skilled jobs.
  • Save over 4,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
  • Unlock funding and low-cost finance for energy efficiency projects.
  • Tackle fuel poverty by making homes warmer and more affordable.

The Mayor responded to a recent question stating that the “primary objective of the Retrofit Accelerator – Homes programme is to reduce carbon emissions. But its target audience (social housing) and approach to improving the performance of dwellings (deep, whole-house retrofit) means that many Londoners vulnerable to fuel poverty and living in some of the least energy efficient properties will benefit.”

A further question set out some further information on the targets for the programme: “My Retrofit Accelerator – Homes programme has a target of 1,678 homes being either fully retrofitted, in the process of being retrofitted or in contract to be retrofitted by August 2022. Of those, at least 50 homes need to have ‘deep retrofits’ completed and monitored during this period. Deep retrofits’ will take a whole house approach and reduce the carbon each home is responsible for by an average of 60 per cent and in many cases to near net-zero energy. For comparison these homes should save 2.5 times as much carbon per home than was achieved on average under the previous RE:NEW programme.” Some further info here

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