Authored by 234 scientists in 66 countries, the study speaks of devastating impacts on our environment if we fail to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Many world leaders, Prime Minster Boris Johnson among them, used the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in November 2021 to acknowledge that it’s now or never in terms of reducing our carbon emissions.
Guy Hannell of Morgan Sindall Construction feels the message is at last getting through in the places where most of the carbon is produced. “Two or three years ago, there was more of a debate about whether climate change was even a threat,” he told the panel.
“There were major economies that refused to accept it. Now that this debate seems to have been won, which is progress and the global targets in terms of controlling emissions seem to be accepted and established. We're moving into a phase of what it means locally to deliver that change.”
William Cornall of Maidstone Council agreed but said the big challenges are still to come. “Obviously, the awareness is coming up massively. So there's now a lot of expectation in the policies that councils produce. The challenge is avoiding pulling in different directions - achieving growth, in every sense, houses, jobs, and so on, while still hitting low carbon targets. I wouldn't say huge progress is being made.” He saw little happening to change underlying consumer consumption and is yet to be convinced sufficient political will exists to deliver the green revolution the government talks of. “Politicians are always on a knife edge in terms of public opinion. So they're cautious. But awareness is creating pressure, which ultimately might change the way we behave.”
Hayley Porter-Aslet of Kgen was more optimistic: “I do have a sense that we are approaching a tipping point. We work with a lot of councils that are trying to innovate. They haven't got a lot of money in the budget necessarily, which does put a massive pressure on how you change things. So they're looking at their estate, how can they rationalise it? They are asking how can they work with developers, contractors to come up with really good solutions?” She highlighted the importance of public opinion at local level – opposition, for example, to a renewal energy scheme could scupper it. “It does sometimes come back to appetite within any given council. If you've got members blocking a proposal it's really difficult to get schemes through. It’s different in a district like Folkestone, where they have got a lot of green members. In that scenario, carbon neutral is top of the agenda.”
Construction is due to begin in the summer of 2022 on Cleve Hill, one of the UK’s largest solar farms, on a site between Faversham and Whitstable. It will have a capacity exceeding 50 megawatts, which means the project is classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. Cleve Hill will generate renewable power through photovoltaic panels, providing clean energy to around 91,000 UK homes.
He also referenced the planning consent granted for Ryse Hydrogen to build a hydrogen plant in Herne Bay. The hydrogen produced will be 100% green, as it will be connected to and generated using renewable electricity from the nearby offshore wind farm, with hydrogen producing no carbon emissions when burnt. The hydrogen could also be used to replace diesel in other heavy vehicles, and longer-term to replace the burning of natural gas for the heating of homes and offices.
It’s about making sure that local communities are really involved from day one. There are opportunities for the community – a financial stake and an environmental benefit, along with better local amenities and improved biodiversity. Developers failing to do these things properly will get a much bigger challenge now, as the groundswell of opinion has shifted.”
