Policy and Planning
Policy and legislation at EU and UK level have evolved dramatically over recent years, reflecting the challenges posed by climate change and social pressures for sustainable development. The EU's March 2007 policy announcement, which set EU-wide targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent and sourcing a fifth of Europe's energy from renewable sources by 2020, is particularly significant. Also, in January 2008 the European Commission published a comprehensive package of proposals for low carbon energy policy, renewable energy, carbon capture and storage, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and burden sharing between member states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The UK Climate Change Act of 2008 sets out the requirement to reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent from 1990 levels by 2050. Legislation governing development (planning and building regulations) is now playing an increasingly important part in bringing about such reductions. The relatively recent changes to the English planning system, resulting from the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, have led to the drafting of new plans in all local planning authorities. This process presents a unique opportunity for introducing sustainable energy requirements as part of these policies.
Together, planning and building control are now driving sustainable energy use in new developments. Key guidance in this area is provided by PPS22 (Renewable Energy) and a recent climate change supplement to PPS1 (‘the Climate Change PPS'), which together define a strong framework for sustainable energy planning. The policy statement Building a Greener Future (July 2007) requires new residential developments to be ‘zero carbon' by 2016 The policy is supported by the Code for Sustainable homes which includes reduced carbon emissions from current Part L of the building regulations as a mandatory requirement for meeting code levels. The Government has announced a similar policy for non-residential buildings to be zero carbon by 2019.
Regen SW has developed a toolkit that provides a useful overview of the planning system. It can be downloaded from:
Sustainable energy planning tool for new developments (PDF 1.6 MB)
National Policy and Legislation
Regional Policy and Legislation
Renewable Electricity, Heat and On-site Generation Targets for 2020
