Target is woefully inadequate if the uk is to meet its international obligations

Commenting on Leicester Council’s draft planning guidance for the Office Core, adjacent to Leicester Rail Station, Leicester Green Party spokesperson Bob Ball said:

“The proposed energy measures for a 10 percent minimum of energy from on-site renewable energy regeneration is unacceptable if we are to cut greenhouse gases sufficiently to meet the international obligations that the UK is signed up to. The buildings will have a life is in excess of 30 years so we need to set targets for the building life, or until major refurbishment.” (1) (2)

Call for buildings to a zero carbon dioxide emissions standard

Bob Ball continued, “Council planners and the developers should provide buildings designed to low energy standards that meet a zero carbon dioxide emissions standard. The low energy technology is there, so why not use it?

“Even so, where energy demand cannot be reduced, the principal source should be renewable energy, such as solar water systems, photovoltaic systems and biomass combined heat and power. Ideally there should be 100 percent on-site renewable energy regeneration, but if that is not feasible other off-site sources should be used, such as wind power.

Bob Ball concluded, "However, we cannot entirely blame the City Council, because they follow Government targets, which are to generate only ten percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2010.”

Notes

(1) Leicester City Council’s Draft Supplementary Planning Guidance Office Core (New Business Quarter) August 20004

(2) Green Party comments on Draft Supplementary Planning Guidance Office Core sent to City Council on 30/9/2004

(3) The Kyoto Protocol will at best cut CO2 emissions by 5 percent by 2012, even if brought into force and fully implemented.
Reference “Melting ice ‘will’ swamp capitals”, Independent, 7/12/2003.
On the other hand, the Green Party calls for a 90 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 or sooner.

(4) To help stop climate change, the Green Party wants a Green Industrial Revolution to revitalise local economies. Zero Waste by 2020, nothing landfilled or incinerated, everything recycled and repaired. Massive investment in renewables, with two million solar roofs by 2010 and also two million small-scale wind systems by 2010. A Green industrial revolution could generate 200,000 jobs in the green energy sector and another 200,000 in green waste management, many of them in the East Midlands.

(5) Recently the UK Government acknowledged an urgent need to fight global warming. The polar icecaps are gradually melting; eventually sea levels could rise up to 30 feet, submerging parts of the UK and many other countries across the world.
Reference “Melting ice ‘will’ swamp capitals”, Independent, 7/12/2003
Around one in four species could be extinct by 2050.
Reference BBC News, Wednesday, 7/1/2004.
Climate change may be to blame for some 150,000 deaths each year, according to the UN Agency on 11/12/04.
Reference AP 12/12/2003.

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