Briefing to Teignbridge Council

Action on Climate in Teignbridge

ACT was formed in July 2019 following a public consultation/event (200 attendees).  We are a not-for profit CIC raising funds from private/public donations and grants (turnover ~£10k).  A steering group is responsible for delivering our mission through the various in-house and external groups we collaborate with:

“To provide independent encouragement and support for Teignbridge District Council, town and parish councils, community groups, businesses, organisations and residents in the district to act together on [mitigating climate change and ecological collapse]”. See full text here.

The following is a list of the type of activities ACT undertakes with some examples.

Engagement with councils

• Published and presented a Resource Pack for Town & Parish Councils.  Worked direct with 21 local Teignbridge councils and with TDC.
• Engaged with TDC Planning re implementation of exiting local plan (LP) policies and development of future LP policies.
• Provided ad-hoc support to TDC officers and councillors on a variety of projects/initiatives: ecology; carbon footprint calculations; estate energy assessment; user-friendly carbon calculator; residents’ drop-ins.
• Participated in regular liaison meetings with TDC, these are expected to evolve into a more project-based structure.
• Responded in detail to all TDC consultations relating to climate and ecology mitigation.
• Provided responses to many planning applications re non-adherence to TDC/national policies.

Wildlife Warden scheme

• Award-winning scheme. Trained over 100 volunteers covering almost all Teignbridge areas.
• WW volunteers undertake projects in their areas: surveys; planting/restoration; events; community gardens and orchards; rewilding; citizen science and monitoring projects; responding to consultations and planning applications.
• WW volunteers are backed and supported by a paid scheme coordinator and ACT resources.

Carbon Cutter scheme

• Recently launched scheme.  Trained 22 volunteer across Teignbridge.
• CC volunteers undertake community projects to help them engage with their energy use and associated carbon emissions.  This can be through: gatherings with neighbours/friends/family; having a presence at local events; providing carbon cafes; giving talks/presentations; supporting local groups/organisations.
• CC volunteers are backed and supported by a paid scheme coordinator and ACT resources.

Engagement with the public

• Organised several ACT public events direct, e.g. Ashburton & Dawlish presentations to local councils; Energy Road Show; members’ gathering; EV event.
• Presence/stalls at a number of annual events, e.g. Dawlish GBGW; Newton Abbot Fayre; Dawlish Retrofit; Ogwell Energy Saving; Totnes Energy Wise; Dawlish Turn The Tide.

On-line and traditional media

• Manage a Facebook page and developed own website(s) as a depository of information/resources.
• Submit/publish regular articles and letters in the MDA.

ACT resources and support

• Developed a host of on-line tools and resources as well as props, stall materials, posters and games, e.g. CFT and associated factors/action lookup; GIS maps for Local Plan and other data relating to WW & CC schemes; planning application notification tool.
• Provide regular opportunities for ACT members to participate in subject-specific discussions and initiatives.  These cover: Carbon Cutters; Ecology; Economy; Energy & Built Environment; Food, Farming, Forestry & Fisheries; Public Engagement; Transport; Wildlife Wardens.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions are the cause of climate change.  It is the amount of these in the atmosphere, measured in parts per million (ppm), that have a direct link to man-made temperature rise.  Net-Zero is a dangerous diversion as it ignores how much ghg we emit in the intervening period, this is the Carbon Budget.

In order to for “Teignbridge District Council to achieve its Part 1 and 2 Carbon Reduction Plans and to ensure Teignbridge is on a path to achieve no more than 1.5C of warming”, we need to measure and manage our ghg emissions.

The following actual/target annual carbon footprints provide a measure of progress to date for in-house TDC, Teignbridge as a whole and new housing developments.  All ghg emissions are consumption based CO2equivalent (CO2e) in units of kilo-tonne (kt) or Mega-tonne (Mt).

Historic emissions up to 2021 are government or TDC sourced.  Planned/projected emissions for 2021 onwards are TDC sourced or based on the UK’s legally binding Carbon Budgets.  Note that these legal UK budgets only assume a 50% likelihood of remaining below the 1.5^OC atmospheric temperature rise.  We have included the IPCC Paris-agreement compliant carbon budgets which require a 67% likelihood of remaining below 1.5^OC as a comparison.

Teignbridge

Teignbridge consumption emissions 2019-21 have been calculated from DEFRA published UK consumption emissions.  These are allocated pro-rata in line with population.  This together with the projected legal annual carbon budgets are shown below.

TDC

Consumption emissions arising from TDC’s operations for 2019-21 and proposed/planned annual emissions based on TDC Carbon Plan part 1 are shown here:

New Housing

Based on RICS, a new build house has embodied emissions of between 435 and 585 kg CO2e/m2 An average new build house has a floor area of 76m² (Savils 2015) ., so it would have embedded emissions of about 38 t CO2e each.

Each additional household will add a further 14.5 t CO2e / year from those who live in it (assuming the Newton Abbot average household consumption emissions from the Impact tool)

The consumption based ghg emissions from housing developed in 2019-21 and a 720 houses per year projection is shown below.  We believe this burden on the remaining carbon budget can be mitigated within current UK building regulations, please refer to ACT’s response to the LP consultation on this.