Committee for the Environment - Inquiry into Climate Change Submissions

Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) - Evidence to the Environment Committee Inquiry into Climate Change

NICVA

As the umbrella representative organisation for the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) has over 1,000 members. Full members, of which there are 914, are independent voluntary and community organisations. NICVA also has 87 subscribers to NICVA services. These include all District Councils in Northern Ireland and some statutory bodies which have an interest in or relationship with the voluntary and community sector.

NICVA is an independent body with charitable status and is a company limited by guarantee. The organisation is owned by its members who elect the board of trustees or Executive Committee. NICVA offers comprehensive advice to member organisations on charity law, funding, finance, personnel and policy matters. With a dedicated communications team, NICVA works to ensure the sector is represented at every level, and that the voice of the sector is facilitated through the media and into the corridors of power.

NICVA works in partnership with other organisations on the issue of climate change, being a member of the NI Climate Change Coalition and the NI Climate Change Impacts Partnership. We note that in 2008 a survey conducted by Sustainable Northern Ireland found that, “92% of respondents were willing to make changes to their lifestyles, especially if encouraged to do so by strong government leadership.” We call upon the Committee, the Executive and the rest of the Assembly to provide this leadership.

1. Initial commitments for Northern Ireland

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. Northern Ireland’s initial commitments should include local, legally binding targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050, in keeping with the UK legislation. These targets should be contained in a Northern Ireland Act and the Assembly and Executive should clearly state support for an international climate change agreement to limit global warming to no more than 2° Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures, as the scientific consensus recommends.

1.1 The Assembly and Executive should be considering both mitigation (reducing carbon emissions and the slowing of the rate of climate change) and adaptation (preparing for the effects of the changes already happening and those confidently predicted by the available science). Work done on behalf of DOE by the Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research in 2007 has identified a number of adaptation responses which Northern Ireland should be preparing. These are in the areas of biodiversity and habitats, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, water resources, coastal and flood risk management, buildings, construction and planning, business, insurance, transport, energy and health. All public sector procurement, especially the Strategic Investment Strategy should have robust adaptation components built in.

1.2 The Assembly and Executive must ensure that short-term adaptation actions do not run contrary to longer-term mitigation goals.

2. Necessary actions and a route map

In order to reach the long-term targets, intermediary benchmarking targets should be set. In keeping with the existing target in the Programme for Government, the Executive should set an “intermediate” target for emissions in 2020, a series of legally binding five year “carbon budgets” and an annual carbon reduction target at an average of at least 3% per annum. Immediate action is required; it is not sufficient to set long-term targets and act at the last minute as this implies more damaging carbon emissions in the short term and only exacerbates the overall problem. Current estimates are that emissions should peak no later than 2015. A short-term route map could be provided by the action plans to accompany the Sustainable Development Strategy. These plans should be focused on achieving the targets set out in a Northern Ireland Bill. The Committee on Climate Change should be involved in setting benchmarks and targets for Northern Ireland.

3. Costs

The Stern Review calculated that the dangers of unchecked climate change would be equivalent to at least 5% of GDP each year possibly rising to 20% of GDP or more. By 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.

3.1 There are also potential benefits to the NI economy in embracing green jobs and technologies, especially in an economic downturn. As NICVA highlighted in its response to the last Programme for Government, the renewables sector in Germany supports 170,000 people and existing German government support measures promoting renewable energy could create 130,000 new jobs by 2020. The Carbon Trust estimates that more than 70,000 jobs could be created in the UK by investing in and developing offshore wind technology and 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. A Public Service Agreement for the Climate Change Unit

The Climate Change Unit in DOE should act as a centre of expertise across government. Its function should be 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.

5. Secondary legislation

The Northern Ireland Executive should introduce its own primary legislation in the form of 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. Secondary legislation might usefully include a tax on plastic bags as has been introduced in other jurisdictions.

6. More effective scrutiny

The Environment Committee should work jointly with other committees to ensure effective scrutiny on climate change actions across all Departments. This scrutiny role could be enhanced by ensuring that the Committee on Climate Change reports to the Executive and the Assembly and that the Executive response to the reports is made in the Assembly.

For further information please contact Frances McCandless, Director of Policy - frances.mccandless@nicva.org