Committee for the Environment - Inquiry into Climate Change Submissions

Climate Change Coalition Northern Ireland response to Environment Committee Inquiry into Climate Change

20 February 2009

1. Summary of Points

1.1 The Climate Change Coalition (NI) comprises a wide range of environment and development groups who all wish to see Northern Ireland play its full role in combating global climate change.

1.2 The Coalition believes that written submissions should be considered as initial thoughts which can be added to and developed throughout the inquiry.

1.3 The Northern Ireland Assembly should ensure that its voice is heard at the national and international level. It should categorically state its support for an international climate change agreement to limit global warming to no more than 2° Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures (most scientists accept that ‘dangerous climate change’ is much more likely above this temperature increase).

1.4 The Assembly has accepted that the provisions of the UK Climate Act will be extended to Northern Ireland. However, the UK Act does not set specific emission reduction targets for the devolved administrations.

1.5 The Executive and Assembly should urgently make commitments to introduce a Northern Ireland Climate Change Act setting a legally binding regional target to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. This is the minimum requirement that will be necessary to play our part in the global attempt to avoid dangerous climate change.

1.6 To ensure we achieve an immediate and sustained decline in Northern Ireland’s greenhouse gas the Executive should set an “intermediate” target for emissions in 2020, a series of legally binding 5 year “carbon budgets” and an annual carbon reduction target at an average of at least 3% per annum.

1.7 The Committee on Climate Change’s role in Northern Ireland should be enhanced to facilitate the setting and monitoring of Northern Ireland specific budgets and action plans.

1.8 All plans, programmes and policies should be assessed to determine their contribution to or impact on achieving carbon budgets.

1.9 Each government department should investigate the opportunities and obstacles to carbon reductions within their competency areas.

1.10 The Public Sector procurement budget should be used as a tool to deliver significant emissions reductions.

1.11 The Executive and Assembly should invest in emissions reduction and low carbon infrastructure now; the Stern Review concludes this is the economically prudent path to follow.

1.12 The legal responsibility to deliver the targets set in a Northern Ireland Climate Change Act and through the carbon budgets should fall collectively on the Executive.

1.13 Specific responsibilities to deliver the targets set in the Climate Act and in the carbon budgets should be identified in public service agreements for each Northern Ireland department.

1.14 A public service agreement should be drafted for the Department of the Environment which would include a commitment to provide information and support to the other departments to help deliver the targets set in a Northern Ireland Climate Change Act and in the carbon budgets.

1.15 The Environment Committee should share responsibility for scrutinising progress towards achieving the targets in the Act and within budgets with all other departments.

1.16 The ability of the Committees and the Assembly as a whole to scrutinise progress will be greatly enhanced by ensuring the Committee on Climate Change reports to the Executive and the Assembly and that the Executive responds to their reports in the Assembly.

1.17 The Environment Committee should recommend that the Executive and Assembly should urgently make commitments to introduce a Northern Ireland Climate Change Act with a legally binding regional target to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050.

2. Climate Change Coalition Northern Ireland Overview

The Climate Change Coalition (NI) comprises a wide range of environment and development groups who all wish to see Northern Ireland play its full role in combating global climate change.

The goals of the Coalition are to raise awareness of climate change and to change behaviour and public policies to deliver local and global benefits. The coalition recognises that the behaviour of people in Northern Ireland is, through climate change, having disproportionate negative impacts on those living in many parts of the developing world. By working together we hope that we can help people here recognise that individual and political action in Northern Ireland can make a difference both here and internationally.

Vision

A world in which human-induced climate change is contained at a level that will allow all of humanity to prosper, by means that enables social, environmental and economic justice for all.

Mission Statement

The Coalition will publicise the need for individual action to combat climate change and will promote policy changes that will encourage and facilitate individual, governmental and corporate action to stop human-induced climate change having terrifying consequences.

Manifesto

Without urgent action, climate change is very likely to devastate life on earth as we know it. Hundreds of millions of people, particularly the world’s poorest and most vulnerable, will be put at severe risk of drought, floods, starvation and disease. Species and habitats are also at risk with scientists warning that by the middle of the century significant numbers of species could face extinction.

High emitting countries, with their responsibility for historic emissions, must reduce their greenhouse gas output as well as helping poorer countries adapt to existing climate change. But because all countries share the obligation to ensure that damaging global warming is permanently avoided, each must commit to policies to guarantee that global greenhouse gas emissions decline beyond 2015.

The Coalition believes that there are strong moral, economic, social and environmental imperatives for Northern Ireland to contribute its fair share of global emissions cuts in order to combat global climate change.

The Northern Ireland Assembly’s priority should be to:

1. Introduce a Northern Ireland Climate Change Act with a legally binding regional target to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. This is the minimum requirement that will be necessary to play our part in the global attempt to avoid dangerous climate change. An annual Northern Ireland Carbon Budget should be set to ensure we achieve an immediate and sustained decline in Northern Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions by an average of at least 3% per annum.

The Assembly should also:

2. Support the International Negotiation Process for global warming to peak at no more than 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels – there is international consensus that this is the threshold beyond which we risk catastrophic climatic change. This will mean global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2015 and then decline thereafter.

3. Assist the Poorest Countries and Biodiversity (in Northern Ireland and around the world) to Adapt to the Unavoidable Effects of Climate Change by urging the UK, Ireland and the EU to support and strengthen the UN’s international adaptation fund helping developing countries to protect themselves against climate change happening now. They should also transfer low/zero carbon technology to developing economies to allow for sustainable growth and support programmes helping biodiversity locally and across the world adapt to climate change.

The Climate Change Coalition (NI) will strive to generate public support for personal and political action pursuant to the above objectives. Within this shared framework members will promote their own approaches to aspects of the challenge ahead.

CCC (NI) Members -

ARENA Network
Baglady Productions
British Council (Northern Ireland)
Centre for Global Education
Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
Christian Aid
Concern
Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland
Friends of the Earth
Green Action
NICVA
Northern Ireland Environment Link
Oxfam Ireland
RSPB
Sustainable NI 
Sustrans 
Tearfund 
The National Trust 
TIDY NI 
Tools for Solidarity
Trocaire 
Ulster Wildlife Trust 
WWF Northern Ireland

3. Introduction

3.1 The Climate Change Coalition Northern Ireland welcomes the Environment Committee’s decision to conduct an Inquiry into Climate Change. Climate change is an issue that must be addressed urgently at the local, regional, national and international levels.

3.2 The Committee is right to focus its Inquiry at identifying how Northern Ireland can play its part in tackling climate change. The scientific and economic rationales for addressing human impact on climate change is well established and widely accepted.

3.3 The people of Northern Ireland are asking for leadership from the Assembly. A survey conducted in 2008 by Sustainable Northern Ireland revealed that, “92% of respondents were willing to make changes to their lifestyles, especially if encouraged to do so by strong government leadership.” The Committee should provide this leadership.

3.4 There is a great deal of expertise on climate change available in Northern Ireland and many groups are willing to play their part in facilitating moves towards a low carbon economy. The Committee should engage widely and openly.

3.5 The call for submissions allowed interested parties only a short response time. The Coalition understands the urgency for action and commend the Committee in its efforts to publish its findings quickly. Therefore, the Coalition believes that written submissions should be considered as initial thoughts which can be added to and developed throughout the inquiry.

3.6 The Coalition would welcome the opportunity to make an oral presentation to the Committee Inquiry.

4. Response to the Terms of Reference

a. To identify initial commitments for Northern Ireland that will ensure it plays a fair and proportionate role as part of the UK in meeting climate change targets.

4.1 Climate change must be addressed urgently at the local, regional, national and international levels.

4.2 The Assembly should ensure that its voice is heard at the national and international level. It should categorically state its support for an international climate change agreement to limit global warming to no more than 2° Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures (most scientists accept that ‘dangerous climate change’ is much more likely above this temperature increase).

4.3 To limit global temperature rise to no more than 2ºC the IPCC suggests that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels should be limited to a maximum of 450 parts per million.

4.4 As carbon dioxide persists in the atmosphere for many years, the real determinant of the severity of climate change is not emissions in 2050, but total cumulative emissions by 2050. The Tyndall Centre has estimated that global carbon emissions need to peak by 2015 and then decrease by up to 6.5% each year if atmospheric CO 2 levels are to stabilise at 450ppm.

4.5 Industrialised countries have an historical responsibility for causing climate change and as a matter of fairness and justice should bear the leading responsibility for tackling the problem, both by reducing their emissions and by assisting developing countries to adapt to the changes that are already occurring. 

4.6 New multinational climate agreements being developed by the United Nations (the post Kyoto climate agreement should be finalised in Copenhagen in December 2009) and the European Union (the Energy and Climate Package was endorsed by the European Parliament in December 2008) will require the United Kingdom and ultimately Northern Ireland to significantly reduce emissions. Attempts to delay action on climate change will only make achieving the new responsibilities more difficult and costly.

4.7 The Committee on Climate Change recommended, and the UK Government has accepted that a reduction of 80% by 2050 - based on 1990 emissions levels - would be an "appropriate" UK contribution to global aims to cut emissions by 50%.

4.8 The Assembly has accepted that the provisions of the UK Climate Act will be extended to Northern Ireland. However, the UK Act does not set specific emission reduction targets for the devolved administrations.

4.9 Northern Ireland’s per capita emissions of 12.83 tonnes per annum compares badly with the UK average of 10.48 tonnes, the global average of 4 tonnes and the global fair share of 1.65 tonnes.

4.10 The Executive and Assembly should urgently make commitments to introduce a Northern Ireland Climate Change Act with a legally binding regional target to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. This is the minimum requirement that will be necessary to play our part in the global attempt to avoid dangerous climate change.

4.11 To ensure we achieve an immediate and sustained decline in Northern Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions the Executive should set an “intermediate” target for emissions in 2020, a series of legally binding 5 year “carbon budgets” and an annual carbon reduction target at an average of at least 3% per annum. Combining indicative annual milestones with the legal framework of the budget periods should offer flexibility but without compromising longer-term targets..

4.12 The Committee on Climate Change’s role in Northern Ireland should be enhanced to facilitate the setting and monitoring of Northern Ireland specific budgets and action plans. The Committee on Climate Change’s reports on progress and action plans should be delivered to the Assembly and responded to by the Executive.

4.13 The Committee on Climate Change should help ensure co-ordination of emissions reduction efforts across the UK. Carbon emissions in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are closely interlinked. Therefore, provisions to enable joint achievement of emissions reduction goals should be made.

4.14 All plans, programmes and policies should be assessed (Climate Impact Assessments) to determine their contribution to or impact on achieving carbon budgets.

4.15 Adaptation is intrinsically linked to mitigation, and it is essential that both be addressed as a matter of urgency. The Northern Ireland Assembly should introduce cross-departmental policies and measures which will allow people, infrastructure, biodiversity and natural systems to adapt to changing climatic conditions.

b. To consider the necessary actions and a route map for each significant sector in Northern Ireland (energy, transport, agriculture and land use, business, domestic, public sector etc)

4.16 The Committee on Climate Change’s statutory duty to Northern Ireland includes:

To provide advice on the sectors of the economy in which there are particular opportunities for contributions to be made towards meeting the budgets through reductions in emissions.

4.17 The Committee on Climate Change’s first report was released in December 2008. It includes an analysis of what opportunities exist for making emission reductions in Northern Ireland. It states Northern Ireland could contribute emissions reductions of over 2MtCO 2e (Million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) in 2020:

• Emissions from buildings and industry could be reduced by up to 1 MTCO 2 in 2020 by using energy more efficiently;
• More efficient vehicles and new transport fuels could deliver reductions of up to 1 MTCO 2 in 2020;
• Emissions from agriculture, land use and forestry and waste management sectors could be reduced by up to 0.5 MtCO 2e in 2020 .

4.18 The actions outlined above do not go far enough to keep Northern Ireland on target to achieve an 80% emissions reduction target. The Committee on Climate Change’s role in Northern Ireland should be enhanced to facilitate the setting of Northern Ireland specific budgets and action plans.

4.19 Each government department should investigate the opportunities for and obstacles to carbon reductions within their areas of responsibility.

4.20 The Public Sector procurement budget should be used as a tool to deliver significant emissions reductions.

4.21 Improved energy efficiency and rapid deployment of renewable energy are mentioned by the Carbon Trust, Stern, WWF, RSPB, etc as key areas to target early in the decarbonisation plans.

4.22 Appendix 1 contains a list of suggested actions the Climate Change Coalition Northern Ireland presented to Stormont Committees during 2008. The Coalition understands the requirement for cross-cutting actions and for each department and sector in Northern Ireland to be involved in emissions reductions.

c. To identify the costs associated with meeting these obligations and compare them with the costs that will be incurred if they are not achieved.

4.23 The Stern Review calculated that the dangers of unabated climate change would be equivalent to at least 5% of GDP each year. However, when more recent scientific evidence is included in the models, the Review estimates that the dangers could be equivalent to 20% of GDP or more. In contrast, the costs of action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change can be limited to around 1% of global GDP each year. The central message is that reducing emissions today will make us better off in the future: one model predicts benefits of up to $2.5 trillion each year if the world shifts to a low carbon path.

4.24 The significant emissions reductions proposed for the UK in the Committee on Climate Change’s first report can be achieved without harming the economy and at a cost less than 1% of GDP in 2020. In other words, an economy that might grow by 30% in the period to 2020, would instead grow by 29%. The Committee on Climate Change advises that this is a price worth paying, given the long-term costs of inaction on climate change.

4.25 The renewable sector in Germany supports 170,000 people and existing German government support measures promoting renewable energy could create 130,000 new jobs by 2020 according to the German environment ministry.

4.26 The Prime Minister stated that the overall added value of the low carbon energy sector by 2050 could be as high as $3 trillion per year worldwide and that it could employ more than 25 million people.

4.27 The Carbon Trust estimates that more than 70,000 jobs could be created in the UK by investing in and developing offshore wind technology.

4.28 Government should see investment in a low carbon future as a way to stimulate the local economy (as President Obama has in the USA). The move to renewable fuels may help develop industries that will provide economic opportunities and jobs. Given the huge potential that exists around our shores for wind power there are sound economic and environmental reasons for ensuring that a significant proportion of these jobs are developed in Northern Ireland.

4.29 Action Renewables estimate that almost 6,000 short term and 400 long term jobs could be sustained in Northern Ireland, exclusively by developing renewable energy within the region.

4.30 The Coalition believes that there are strong moral imperatives for Northern Ireland to contribute its fair share of global emissions cuts in order to combat global climate change. Hundreds of millions of people across the globe could lose their lives and livelihoods, up to a third of land-based species may become extinct, immense political instability will occur as people migrate to avoid droughts and floods and compete for scarce resources, and great economic damage will be caused by increasingly extreme weather.

4.31 Climate change is one of the biggest threats to development : it could undo decades of progress in fighting poverty and compromise the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which aim to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development by 2015.

4.32 The SNIFFER report on the impacts of climate change on Northern Ireland identified a number of direct effects, mostly negative, on human health, the economy, natural habitats and water resources, for example, the extent of flood risk to existing settlements remains unquantified compared with the situation in Great Britain.

4.33 Northern Ireland ’s Chief Medical Officer Michael McBride has said,

“Current predictions on climate change suggest greater long-term impacts on health than any current public health priority. To preserve health in a changing climate, we need to modify and strengthen the systems we have to adapt to the likely future impacts of global warming. We must tackle this issue on all fronts, reducing our contribution to the problem and responding to the effects of climate change is a shared international responsibility.”

d. To identify a formal cost effective mechanism for assessing the potential impact of new policies on climate change / CO 2 emissions. (Akin to Regulatory Impact Assessments/Rural Proofing)

4.34 The Coalition believes that long term plans, supported by a strong legislative framework, are the best way to promote efficiency and innovation in policy and technology design and thus the best mechanism to minimise costs.

4.35 The Committee on Climate Change’s role in Northern Ireland should be enhanced to facilitate the setting of Northern Ireland specific budgets and action plans: sharing this resource with the rest of the UK should help minimise costs.

4.36 All plans, programmes and policies should be assessed using Climate Impact Assessments to determine their contribution to or impact on achieving carbon budgets. The process should be akin to equality screening and should be initiated at the start of policy design to maximise outcomes and minimise costs.

e. To make recommendations for appropriate targets/actions that could be included in the new Northern Ireland Sustainable Development Implementation Plan.

4.37 The key climate targets that the SD Strategy should deliver are those identified in a Northern Ireland Climate Act. As stated earlier:

The Act must set a legally binding regional target to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. This is the minimum requirement that will be necessary to play our part in the global attempt to avoid dangerous climate change. To ensure we achieve an immediate and sustained decline in Northern Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions the Executive should set an “intermediate” target for emissions in 2020, a series of legally binding 5 year “carbon budgets” and an annual carbon reduction target at an average of at least 3% per annum.

4.38 The SD Strategy should also help deliver the recommendations on how to achieve emissions reductions put forward by the Committee on Climate Change.

4.39 The SD Strategy could play an important role in helping to inform and empower individuals to take action to tackle climate change.

f. To make recommendations on a public service agreement for the DOE Climate Change Unit’s commitments in the second Programme for Government that will ensure Northern Ireland will meet its climate change obligations.

4.40 The Executive and Assembly should urgently make commitments to introduce a Northern Ireland Climate Change Actwith a legally binding regional target to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. This is the minimum requirement that will be necessary to play our part in the global attempt to avoid dangerous climate change.

4.41 To ensure we achieve an immediate and sustained decline in Northern Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions the Executive should set an “intermediate” target for emissions in 2020, a series of legally binding 5 year “carbon budgets” and an annual carbon reduction target at an average of at least 3% per annum.

4.42 The legal responsibility to deliver the targets set in a Northern Ireland Climate Change Act and through the carbon budgets should fall collectively on the Executive.

4.43 Specific responsibilities to deliver the targets set in the Climate Act and in the carbon budgets should be identified in public service agreements for each Northern Ireland department.

4.44 A public service agreement should be drafted for the Department of the Environment which would include a commitment to provide information and support to the other departments to help deliver the targets set in a Northern Ireland Climate Change Act and in the carbon budgets.

g. To consider what secondary legislation raising powers within the UK Climate Change Act would contribute to Northern Ireland’s commitment to the UK Climate Change Bill.

4.45 The Coalition believes Northern Ireland should introduce its own primary legislation.

4.46 The Executive and Assembly should urgently make commitments to introduce a Northern Ireland Climate Change Act with a legally binding regional target to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050.

4.47 To ensure we achieve an immediate and sustained decline in Northern Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions the Executive should set an “intermediate” target for emissions in 2020, a series of legally binding 5 year “carbon budgets” and an annual carbon reduction target at an average of at least 3% per annum.

h. To express views on if and how the Assembly might conduct more effective scrutiny of climate change responsibilities across all relevant departments.

4.48 The Environment Committee should share responsibility to scrutinise progress towards achieving the targets in the Act and within budgets with all other departments.

4.49 The ability of the Committees and the Assembly as a whole to scrutinise progress will be greatly enhanced by ensuring the Committee on Climate Change report to the Executive and the Assembly and that the Executive respond to their reports in the Assembly.

i. To produce a report on the findings and recommendations of the inquiry by September 2009.

4.50 The Environment Committee should recommend that the Executive and Assembly should urgently make commitments to introduce a Northern Ireland Climate Change Act with a legally binding regional target to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. This is the minimum requirement that will be necessary to play our part in the global attempt to avoid dangerous climate change.

4.51 To ensure we achieve an immediate and sustained decline in Northern Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions the Executive should set an “intermediate” target for emissions in 2020, a series of legally binding 5 year “carbon budgets” and an annual carbon reduction target at an average of at least 3% per annum.

5. Appendix

The Climate Change Coalition has made representations to eight of Stormont’s Statutory Committees. The following details a range of actions that will help reduce emissions