01 Mar Support local community solutions to reach net zero targets
A Cross-Party group is encouraging the implementation of new community-focused policies to enable the UK to reach its net-zero targets. MPs and other representatives believe the UK must adopt innovative, community-based solutions to tackle its environmental and energy problems if it intends to reach the nation’s net-zero targets.
A report by the all-party group on a proposed new green deal argues for the creation of structured, top-down policies on green issues, including local power generation, food and transport measures. Various recommendations include introducing a mortgage penalty for landlords letting poorly energy-efficient properties and launching real community decision-making, especially for power schemes.
Using the project in Gwynedd, North Wales, where locals purchase electricity from a community hydro facility below grid prices, with additional discounts for off-peak consumption, the group recommends changes to measures to adopt and incentivise similar schemes. As a part of the energy club, properties pay as little as 8p per kW/h overnight, with bills staying lower than grid prices if they don’t collectively use more energy than the local facility produces, with savings from the power generated close by.
One of the recommendations from the report is for a ‘right of local supply’, as displayed in other European nations, which incentivises systems by improving grid access and offering power to local people. The report believes these changes are critical if the UK is to achieve its net zero targets, particularly reducing carbon emissions by 68% below 1990 levels by 2030.
The report produced by government representatives, academics and energy experts calls for ambitious centralised targets and incentives, highlighting measures such as those in France requesting new properties to have solar roofs and in the Netherlands where new developments are prevented from being connected to the gas grid.
Furthermore, the report states that the 2030 target should be a binding requirement for all projects planned by public sector companies and agencies. Among initiatives to enhance domestic energy efficiency, the report states any buy-to-let rental properties with an EPC rating below C should face a 1% levy on mortgage interest, which is refunded if the band is achieved within 3 years.
Another proposed measure for localism would be a 50% reduction in business rates for food outlets that can prove that over half of their produce is grown within 50 miles. A further call for devolved control is in the transport sector, with the report urging local authorities to have the power to offer integrated public transit services, with funding for free or low-cost fares and money for plans, similar to those in Barcelona, where people selling their vehicles have 3 years of free local travel.
The report also calls on introducing a levy on workplace parking, similar to Nottingham, which supports the city’s tram network. Caroline Lucas, the Green MP and co-chair of the group explain that every property can be its power station, but right now, we require the national government to support communities with the finance, resources and necessary framework to scale up and progress.
Labour MP Clive Lewis and the other chair of the group believe that the greenest areas of the economic transition required by the climate emergency are often found in locally-operated initiatives nationwide. Lewis believes the central government needs to support local projects by equitably distributing resources and decentralising the decision-making process.
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