I remember watching Don’t Look Up on new year’s day 2022. Not the best film ever but certainly an apt analogy when It comes to the climate crisis. I can’t believe that was two years ago. Where does the time go?
I’m going to briefly look up again. Last year was the second warmest ever in the UK and the period since July 2023 has been the wettest in 130 years.
And there’s certainly been some domestic political heat around climate issues. I’m thinking back to my 5 August 2023 blog post Does The Government Have An Environmental Strategy Or Is It More Of A Tactic?
Today’s post was simply going to point to guidance published jointly by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, the Department for Energy Security and DLUHC: Adapting historic homes for energy efficiency: a review of the barriers (3 January 2024) – and I’ll come to that.
But then news came through yesterday afternoon of Conservative MP Chris Skidmore’s resignation of the party whip (5 January 2024).
I had praised Skidmore’s independent review last year of the Government’s net zero plans in my 21 January 2023 blog post Mission Zero Needs Planning. He knows what he’s talking about on the subject.
Here is his resignation statement in full:
“Next week the government will be introducing the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill in the House of Commons.
This bill would in effect allow more frequent new oil and gas licences and the increased production of new fossil fuels in the North Sea. It is a bill that I have already stated my opposition to, by not voting in the King’s Speech debate in protest at the bill’s inclusion in the government’s legislative programme.
As the former Energy Minister who signed the UK’s net zero commitment by 2050 into law, I cannot vote for a bill that clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas. While no one is denying that there is a role for existing oil and gas in the transition to net zero, the International Energy Agency, the UNCCC and the Committee on Climate Change have all stated that there must be no new additional oil and gas production on top of what has already been committed, if we are to both reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 and keep the chance of limiting temperature rises to 1.5 degrees.
Decisions taken at COP28 last month also set in motion the global transition away from fossil fuels. As the exponential growth of renewable and clean power continues, as we seek to reduce our energy demand for fossil fuels through the adoption of better energy efficiency in buildings and industry, as the adoption of electricity replaces fossil fuels, there is no case to be made for increasing fossil fuel production at a time when investment should be made elsewhere, in the industries and businesses of the future, and not of the past.
As fossil fuels become more obsolete, expanding new oil and gas licences or opening new oil fields will only create stranded assets of the future, harming local and regional communities that should instead be supported to transition their skills and expertise to renewable and clean energy.
The Net Zero Review I published a year ago next week, Mission Zero, set out how net zero can be the economic opportunity of this decade, if not our generation, bringing with it hundreds of thousands of new jobs, new growth, new regeneration and inward investment worth hundreds of billions of pounds. To achieve this however requires long term commitment to the energy transition, and a clear and consistent message to business and industry that the UK is committed to climate action as a global leader, as it has been for the past two decades.
The bill that will be debated next week achieves nothing apart from to send a global signal that the UK is rowing ever further back from its climate commitments. We cannot expect other countries to phase out their fossil fuels when at the same time we continue to issue new licences or to open new oil fields. It is a tragedy that the UK has been allowed to lose its climate leadership, at a time when our businesses, industries, universities and civil society organisations are providing first class leadership and expertise to so many across the world, inspiring change for the better.
I cannot vote for the bill next week. The future will judge harshly those that do. At a time when we should be committing to more climate action, we simply do not have any more time to waste promoting the future production of fossil fuels that is the ultimate cause of the environmental crisis that we are facing.
But I can also no longer condone nor continue to support a government that is committed to a course of action that I know is wrong and will cause future harm. To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained. I am therefore resigning my party whip and instead intend to be free from any party-political allegiance.
I am deeply grateful for the privilege I have had to serve in government across several departments, including as Energy Minister attending Cabinet, and to have been appointed as the Independent Chair of the Net Zero Review. It is nearly fourteen years since I was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Kingswood, and I am especially grateful to my constituents for placing their repeated trust and faith in me. First and foremost, my duty has been to serve them, as their elected representative.
It is with that duty to them in mind as their representative that my personal decision today means, as I have long argued, that they deserve the right to elect a new Member of Parliament. I therefore will be standing down from Parliament as soon as possible.
It has been a remarkable and wonderful opportunity to serve as a Member of Parliament for nearly fourteen years, but I now intend to focus all my energy and attention on delivering net zero and the energy transition.”
A pretty devastating critique.
Against that broader background, it’s difficult to do anything with the Adapting historic homes for energy efficiency: a review of the barriers guidance document (3 January 2024) than damn it with faint praise.
As stated in the document’s introduction:
“Alongside the need to protect and conserve, historic homes have an important contribution to make in meeting our Net Zero objectives, both in terms of their contribution to the broader UK energy efficiency and low carbon heat agenda, and in the carbon which is saved through their continued use and reuse. Historic properties make up a significant proportion of the UK’s building stock, with 5.9 million buildings constructed before 1919. Historic properties can and should be part of the solution, and this report is intended to maximise their potential in supporting our progress towards Net Zero.
Through this review, we have gained a better understanding of the practical barriers that owners of listed buildings and homes in conservation areas face when they want to install energy efficiency or low-carbon heating measures in their properties.”
The document follows a commitment in the Government’s April 2022 British Energy Security Strategy. It contains sections on the role of the planning system; issues with local authority skills, training and capacity; guidance available for homeowners and occupiers; construction industry sills, training and capacity, and affordability and financial incentives. It concludes with a summary of the 55 actions and future commitments arising. The seven under the heading “planning” are as follows:
- Delivery of planning reform through the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act so that it supports good design and environmental outcomes better, is less complex, and easier to engage with
- Implementation of the newly updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), including a new policy to support energy efficiency improvements to existing buildings
- Consult on changes to permitted development rights for heat pumps in England
- Consultation on National Development Management Policies including specifically on improvements to historic buildings
- Consult on the opportunities for greater use of Listed Building Consent Orders (LBCOs) to support energy efficiency improvements to listed buildings
- Support Local Planning Authorities that wish to develop exemplar Local Listed Building Consent Orders (Historic England)
- Publish a Historic England Advice Note (HEAN) on Climate Change and Historic Building Adaptation to help decision-makers deliver climate action while protecting heritage (Historic England)
The announcements as to national development management policies and also local listed building consent orders are potentially interesting. This is what the document itself says:
“First, as part of the implementation of National Development Management Policies following Royal Assent of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act, DLUHC will create new National Development Management Policies (NDMPs), including a policy specifically for improvements to historic buildings. This policy will be integrated into the wider suite of heritage National Development Management Policies which will replace current policy affecting decision making in chapter 16 of the National Planning Policy Framework. In doing so, this will help to ensure greater certainty and consistency about decisions on applications for energy efficiency improvements affecting listed buildings and buildings in conservation areas across England. The government will consult on this new policy as part of its development of National Development Management Policies.
Second, the review has demonstrated there is a significant appetite for increasing the use of Local Listed Building Consent Orders to provide upfront listed building consent for certain common energy efficiency improvements on listed buildings so owners can make these improvements without the need to apply for consent. There is not, however, a clear consensus from stakeholders about how and when Local Listed Building Consent Orders should be used to support these energy efficiency improvements. In particular, it will be important that these orders do not permit energy efficiency measures which harm the significance of listed buildings.
As a first step, DLUHC will consult on the opportunities for using Local Listed Building Consent Orders to support energy efficiency improvements on listed buildings. The consultation will specifically ask about:
- the role for Local Listed Building Consent Orders prepared by local planning authorities; and
- the potential for a Listed Building Consent Order made by the Secretary of State which would grant listed building consent for certain improvements across England.”
Here’s to much more of this, in particular to closer working between DLUHC and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and in particular to politicians such as Mr Skidmore actually prepared to look up.
Simon Ricketts, 6 January 2024
Personal views, et cetera
Pic by Christian Wiediger via Unspash
SIMONICITY 