Recent reports on the potential effect of climate change on London are hard hitting, with talk of rising sea levels, oppressive daily temperatures and lack of water. By 2050, overcoming water shortage has been forecasted in one recent report, to cost as much as £500 million per year. This is made more pressing by research suggesting there is little being done to alleviate the potential crisis.
In light of The London Climate Resilience Review’s interim report, the Olympus Power team have looked more closely at the effects of climate change right across the UK. We have taken examples from the north, south, east and west of the country. At each point we looked at potential harm which has been identified and measures either being considered or in the process of being adopted to lessen the predicted damage.
North
First, to the furthest north. The Shetland Isles seem to have the most proactive response of all the places examined. The islands declared a global climate emergency in 2020, creating their own Climate Change Policy, recognising a need for action and setting goals.
The impacts from climate change on the Shetland Islands were forecast as: (i) more extreme weather events, (ii) higher risk of flooding, (iii) increased sea temperatures and (iv) rising sea levels washing away low-lying land, buildings and roads. (Some of the islands’ archaeological sites have already been damaged as sea level has risen and more are under threat.) Loss of the gulf stream could lead to longer and wetter winters.
Action has already been taken in response to these concerns. Shetland has a high carbon footprint with heavy reliance in rural areas on fossil-fuelled transport, including air and ferry services. Another factor here is that on the islands, where the main employer is North Sea Oil, domestic heating is generally fuelled by oil fired boilers with 80% of their electricity generated by an oil-fired power station.
Lowering demand for domestic heating is seen to be fundamental. Insulation in old and new buildings is promoted, and homeowners are installing heat pumps. Despite the lower returns from solar at this latitude, some photovoltaics are being installed. Wind energy is abundant in the Shetlands with a wind farm already in place, that reportedly generates more electricity for its size than anywhere in the world. Two more wind farms are planned which have the potential to generate more power than Shetland can use, so most of it would be exported to the mainland via underwater cables. These plans are however coming up against concerns that the installation of the windmills’ foundations will damage peat bogs, releasing carbon dioxide.
In addition to large-scale wind farms, there are a significant number of small aerogenerators harnessing wind power on single domestic or commercial properties, generating smaller amounts of power. A small green hydrogen plant (where hydrogen is created using renewable energy) is already producing electricity, with the potential for scaling-up to fuel buses, and possibly aircraft and ferries too. Another option under review is replacing ferries with undersea tunnels like the one constructed (and continuing to be developed) to link parts of the Faroe Islands.
A tidal power station has also been developed with the power generated being fed into the grid.
The Shetland Islands Council have received strong support from islanders for climate change initiatives and in the most recent development, the owner of the Shetland’s Sullom Voe Oil Terminal is planning to repurpose spent oil fields, ‘Magnus’ and ‘Thistle’, to store up to 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum.
South
Cornwall Council declared a Climate Emergency in 2019, and an ecological emergency in 2022. An ambitious Climate Emergency Development Plan Document was adopted in February 2023 with an action plan to reach carbon zero by 2030. The Council estimates sixty percent of the county’s carbon emissions stem from built development and transportation.
Nearly 3,000 new homes are built in Cornwall every year, so building these new homes to run with a high energy efficiency is seen as vital, with new planning consents requiring that buildings have high levels of insulation and renewable power sources.
Cornwall has more coastline than any other county, with flooding and sea level rises being a major threat to homes, villages, towns and roads in low lying areas.
The Council has also initiated an innovative scheme called the Forest for Cornwall, aiming to cover 8,000 hectares of Cornwall with trees by 2030 (an increase of 2%). This is not a new forest, but individual schemes that encourage and fund new planting and protect existing trees, woodland and hedgerows- planting trees wherever possible all over the county. It has been calculated (using the Woodland Carbon Code) that the trees could capture 38,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.
The UK’s first wind farm was built in Cornwall in 1991, with more turbines erected every year since. Wind farms have met with some objections over their appearance in the landscape and the noise they make as the blades rotate. But five new floating wind turbine sites have been identified off the coasts of Cornwall and Wales which could deliver enough power for 4 million homes.
East
Ness Point is the most Easterly point of the British Isles with Lowestoft the most Easterly town. Like so many other local authorities in the UK, Lowestoft Town Council declared a Climate Emergency in 2019. In 2020 they committed to reaching net zero by 2030, and formed a dedicated committee to consider climate and environmental emergency.
In October last year, the Suffolk Climate Emergency plan was updated with an onus on new development being sustainable. It backs the retrofitting of existing homes with greener energy options, focussing on cutting carbon emissions and generating clean power.
West
Derry in Northern Ireland is the most westerly UK town. In 2020, Derry City and Strabane District Council announced their Climate Change Adaptation Plan, becoming the first District Council in Northern Ireland to do so. This is a comprehensive study of the effects of climate changes to date with forecasts of what could happen.
The document highlights, as well as other extreme weather events, the extensive and destructive flooding of the county in 2017. The plan sets a target of net zero by 2045, via a two-pronged approach of adaption and mitigation. This plan identifies a list of risks from climate change but doesn’t have a similarly comprehensive list of actions to deal with the identified problems that are likely to arise.
Public sector and commercial response
We conclude that there is a widespread recognition of the climate emergency. Substantial research is being undertaken into potential risks but maybe, as suggested in the report from The London Climate Resilience Review, there is more rhetoric and bureaucracy than actual action planning.
From the top down; from global COP agreements to national climate bodies, to county plans, to town planning there is a willingness to take action and make the infrastructure changes necessary. But to really make a difference we need top down leadership to drive responsibility for reducing carbon emissions – and not just via public bodies and local government, but we predict commercial, market-driven actions as well.
Join the power revolution – legislative and market changes will be coming in response to the risks posed by climate damage that are recognised across the UK. It is clear that energy will be central to future concerns. Ask the Olympus Power team what you can do today to take control of your own energy generation, use and storage.