A Climate Change Strategy for Bury

A Summary of the Strategy

Certain naturally occurring gases in the earth's atmosphere – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapour trap the sun's heat within the atmosphere in the same way as glass traps heat in a greenhouse. Without this natural "Greenhouse Effect " the average temperature at the surface of the earth would be about 30 °C cooler and life as we know it would be unable to exist. Human activity including the burning of fossil fuels - coal, gas and petroleum fuels- increased cattle rearing, modern agricultural practices and the destruction of forests and peat bogs are all increasing emissions of
greenhouse gases.

The world's scientific experts are now generally agreed and have predicted that this increase in greenhouse gases will result in an increase in the world's average temperature, which in turn could lead to disruption and suffering on a global scale.

Tackling Climate Change

The international response to climate change issues has been developed in earnest since 1988, though many studies have been carried out since the late 1970's. In 1988 the United Nations established an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to carry out research into climate change and to produce assessments of its impact. The first IPCC report was published in 1990 and led to the development of a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). 155 governments around the world signed this Convention, including the UK. It places an emphasis on developed countries, in the first instance, to adopt policies and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to report on the policies and measures adopted. At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 the UK and other developed countries agreed a voluntary target of taking measures to return their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2000. At Kyoto in Japan in December 1997 developed countries for the first time agreed to legally binding targets to reduce emissions. The European Community agreed to reduce its emissions of a basket of six greenhouse gases by 8%below 1990 levels over the period 2008-2012. This target was subsequently shared out between the member states. The UK has agreed to a reduction target of 12.5% as part of this agreement.

In addition to the work to establish international targets, other international bodies such as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) have been busy trying to ensure that action is being taken to record emissions, and to reduce them. ICLEI launched a campaign in 1993 known as the 'Cities for Climate Protection TM' Campaign (CCP). This global campaign has 4 main objectives including recruitment of local authorities prepared to take action, supporting them and establishing much needed structures to coordinate the work. This campaign has been launched in the UK as a Pilot (Council's for Climate Protection) study and Bury Council is one of the Pilot authorities.

The UK Government is seen as an international leader in the European Union on the climate change issue. It has formulated a national strategy to meet the targets agreed under the Kyoto Protocol.

The government has also set its own more difficult domestic target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% on 1990 levels by 2010, recognising that even more needs to be done. The government has made it clear that local authorities have a leading role to play in providing community leadership, setting a good example to others and facilitating action by all parties. They have published a large number of documents and supported considerable research into the issue.

The message from the UK government is not whether climate change is happening, but what we must do as a matter of urgency to prevent even greater change.

Councils for Climate Protection Campaign

The Councils for Climate Protection (CCP) campaign is part of an international programme which assists local authorities to measure and plan reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from their own operations and from the whole of their local community. In the UK the CCP campaign is being run by the Improvement and Development Agency, with central government support.

CCP revolves around the completion of five milestones which includes: compiling an inventory and forecast of greenhouse gas emissions; establishing reduction targets; preparing a strategy; implementing local action plans and monitoring and reporting on a regular basis.

Bury MBC has completed the first 3 of the 5 key milestones of the CCP campaign. It is committed to implementation of this Strategy and reporting on progress to fulfil the other 2 milestones. The key milestones are outlined in Chapter 2 in the section on the CCP campaign.

Emissions profile and reduction targets

The emissions profile has been calculated using the ICLEI Greenhouse Gas Emissions Software, a computer program designed by Torrie Smith Associates specifically for use by local authorities to analyse their emissions profile as well as support quantification of emissions reductions.

The software facilitates analysis of data based on the end use of processes that lead to these emissions, rather than source of the emissions. Calculations have been made on Borough-wide emissions attributed to the following sectors:

The results of the inventory of Community emissions indicate that 1,319,403 tonnes of
eCO2 were being produced per year. The greatest proportions relate to Residential (32%), Industrial (27%) and Transportation (26%).

Key findings

The key findings in relation to greenhouse gas emissions throughout the whole of the
Bury area are as follows:

Since 1990 greenhouse gas emissions have reduced by 24%.
Despite an expected increase of 8% under normal conditions, target reductions have been identified which are expected to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by a further 8% by 2010.

These figures clearly demonstrate that throughout the Borough, the reductions achieved are in excess of national and international targets and will meet the Friends of the Earth Climate Resolution target of a 30% reduction on 1990 levels by 2005 or at least by 2010.

The results of the inventory of Council emissions indicate that 33,432 tonnes of eCO2 were being produced per year. The greatest proportion relates to Council Buildings.

The key findings in relation to corporate emissions of greenhouse gases are as follows:

Since 1990 greenhouse gas emissions have reduced by 29%.
Despite a small predicted increase under normal conditions, target reductions have
been identified which will reduce emissions by a further 28% by 2010.

Bury MBC therefore commits to work towards achieving a reduction in corporate greenhouse gas emissions of a further 28% by 2010. This will achieve an overall
reduction on 1990 emission levels of around 50% by 2010.