What’s going on, locally and nationally; here we provide recent news and updates, often with our Dorking Climate Emergency (DCE) ‘take’ on it all.
Feel free to send us contributions and thoughts, and join in the debate.
DECEMBER 2020 / JANUARY 2021
AIR POLLUTION:
Read: Oxford approves UK’s first local air quality targets – Company Saving Expert
What we say:
If Oxford can do it … their targets are better than the government’s. Oxford, Bristol and Brighton are some of the more progressive councils. Why can’t we in Surrey take a lead?
CARBON:
Read: Sixth Carbon Budget – Climate Change Committee (theccc.org.uk) :
What we say:
Read the executive summary. This is a step in the right direction. However:
- ‘Territorial emissions’: A huge amount of the UK’s emissions are due to consumption of imported products and services and from flying. These are excluded from the carbon budget. Net-zero carbon is therefore not really net-zero.
- ‘Energy crops’: This means burning wood and woody materials, or turning them into oils and releasing those combustion emissions into the atmosphere. Generally DCE is not supportive of energy crops except on small local residual waste basis.
- ‘Hydrogen’: a lot of reliance is being placed on hydrogen for the future. Hydrogen can be created by reforming fossil fuels. This is not the answer. Only green hydrogen should be used.
- ‘Electric vehicles’: there is a huge embedded carbon footprint in the manufacturer of electric vehicles. Their lifetime carbon is only around a 50% reduction in carbon compared to conventional vehicles. Yet the CCC appears to ignore the embedded carbon as it is not treated as ‘territorial emissions’.
- ‘Capturing carbon’: there is no proven way to capture carbon and safety geologically store the carbon at scale nor economically. Often carbon capture is being promoted because it allows injection into oil/gas wells to increase their production. A lot of reliance is being placed on capturing carbon. This is not the answer. We want much more focus on reducing energy use and increasing thermal efficiency of the building stock.
SUPPLY CHAIN EMISSIONS:
The average company’s supply chain emissions are estimated to be around five-and-a-half times greater than those generated by their direct operations.
What we say:
- The tide is turning and soon more and more customers are going to vote with their money
- Globalised supply chains are out of control. The unsustainability of ‘exporting our emissions’ to another poorer country is a wake-up call.
- Consumption based emissions are going to rocket up the agenda in the next few years.