Lessons to be learnt from COP26

COP26, the global Conference of the Parties on climate change, closed on November 12. One could argue that the resulting Glasgow Climate Pact was a diplomatic success. To get nearly 200 countries to agree on a consensus that specifically targets coal and fossil fuels and increases emissions cuts is a massive step forward, particularly in light of unequal economic recovery.

However, despite the progress made, forecasts from the widely respected and independent organisation who run the global Climate Action Tracker are that, even if all governments met their 2030 targets for emission reductions, we would still have 2.4ºC of warming by 2100.

Based on the actual policies being implemented, which are expected to fall short against targets, the rise will be 2.7ºC, almost double the 1.5ºC which the same countries pledged to achieve in the 2015 Paris agreement.

A rise of 2.7ºC will see some countries and regions completely disappearing off the map due to rising sea levels.

We have a similar gap between promises and plans in Wokingham Borough.

The most glaring issue is an assumption that approximately half of the borough’s carbon emissions will simply disappear without the Council having to take any action.

In putting together their plan, the Conservative administration have projected that national actions will continue to reduce local emissions at the historical rate achieved between 2012 and 2017, ignoring the fact that these reductions were largely a consequence of the decarbonisation of the electricity grid and that government is now projecting a much lower level of reductions in future years.

This conveniently sets the target for the local reductions to achieve net-zero emissions much lower, with the likely consequence that, even if we deliver the full plan the Conservatives aspire to, we would still be far from the carbon neutral target.

We do expect to see some reductions as a result of national actions, but only if the Council plays its part in facilitating these.

For example, national projections for more cycling and increased electric vehicles won’t happen locally unless we build the safe cycle lanes and electric vehicle charging points.

Yet all the references to these in the Council’s plan assume they will deliver benefits above and beyond the national projections.

As such, many of the carbon savings associated with actions in the council’s action plan are double counting and an illusion is being created that we can readily get very close to net-zero by 2030, when a sober and critical analysis tells a very different picture. Reaching Net-Zero is a massive challenge, and residents deserve a more honest appraisal, not a set of fast and loose assumptions to create the illusion of progress.

As for the detail, I want to highlight three areas. The council’s plan points out that the largest source of carbon emissions in the borough is from residential buildings, and the majority of that (69% to be precise) is from domestic gas usage. Yet there is not a single action associated with tackling the emissions from domestic gas usage beyond some meagre attempt at insulating a small proportion of homes. In fact, the action is so meagre, it’s less ambitious than the government’s targets.

Then there’s another elephant in the room.

At least £17million of the council’s climate emergency budget, from council taxpayers’ monthly payments, is being spent on making it easier to drive, under the superficially attractive banner of ‘reducing congestion’. Yet the council’s own plan intends to reduce car traffic by 40% by 2030, which one would expect will resolve congestion without the need for further investment.

Why not spend this money on the things that will enable that reduction, rather than things that will induce people to drive more, with most likely the opposite effect?

And, lastly, the plan includes the carbon accounting trick beloved of those who wish for an easy solution, to ‘offset’ our emissions by generating new green electricity locally using our own solar farms. We have no issue with a local contribution to greener energy supply, but it is wrong to pretend that this in anyway cancels out continuing carbon dioxide emissions from other sources as is being claimed.

We know that the climate emergency action plan is evolving, that the task at hand is tough and that (by the Council’s own admission) we need everyone to contribute their ideas and efforts. However, the chance to shape this plan in a cross-party fashion and work together for the benefit of our community was dropped at the first chance by the Conservatives.

Elected representatives who are not Conservatives have been left on the outside of this critical issue, unable to contribute and looking in in despair while the council ‘greenwashes’ itself and misleads the electorate, either through incompetence or for short-term gain.

Liberal Democrats will keep trying to influence the Council’s planning on this critical issue, and we will keep campaigning to restore the honesty and integrity we believed was there where the climate emergency was declared unanimously by the full Council.