Northern Ireland Cycling Forum Board contribution on Inquiry into Climate Change

Preamble

The independent members of the Northern Ireland Cycling Forum Board welcome the opportunity to contribute to the Environment Committee’s Inquiry.

The NI Cycling Forum Board oversees the implementation of the NI Cycling Strategy. Membership of the Forum comprises staff from the Department of Regional Development, Government Agencies, Local Councils and non-governmental cycling organizations, Sustrans, CTC and the NI Cycling Initiative.

The Forum’s independent members hold posts on the Forum on a voluntary, unpaid basis.

The short response time to the consultation constrained our ability to produce an in depth comprehensive response however we would welcome an invitation to present further to the committee if the committee considers it advantageous

Terms of Reference for the Inquiry

• To identify initial commitments for Northern Ireland that will ensure it plays a fair and proportionate role as part of the UK in meeting climate change targets.

The UK government has, by way of the Climate Change Act, made a commitment to the reduction of net UK carbon emissions of at least 80% by 2050 on a 1990 baseline. To meet this ambitious target it is vital that all countries of the UK fully contribute with efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Current transport activities and policies within NI are not enabling reductions in carbon emissions and on current trends will result in an increase in emissions from the sector by 2050. To compound problems NI road surface transport system is nearly 100% dependent on imported fossil fuel, and as a result a significant amount of NI’s annual wealth is consumed by payment for fossil fuel. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution concluded that the only fair, acceptable and workable method of implementing carbon reduction was to allocate carbon emission quotas to nations on a per capita basis upon which each would be expected to converge towards over 50 to 100 years

It is vital that there is a committment to reduce net carbon emissions from Northern Ireland’s transport system by improving alternatives to the car travel and by providing sufficient investment to make low carbon travel a reality for people.

• To consider the necessary actions and a route map for each significant sector in Northern Ireland (energy, transport, agriculture and land use, business, domestic, public sector etc)

Specific areas of action should include:

Reducing work-related and shopping car travel. Making big cuts in car commuting and shopping car travel would have a big impact. Commuting, business and shopping related travel accounts for over 44% of all adult journeys in NI(1). People are taking long journeys by themselves – 91% of car commuting and 87% of business car trips are single occupancy journeys(2). Travel plans should be promoted to businesses to promote alternatives to car travel and shared car travel.

Reducing journey lengths and transfer short car journeys to walking and cycling. People are travelling longer distances to get to essential services or their places of work. Car journeys less than five miles account for 20% of UK passenger transport CO2 – shifting some of these to walking and cycling will help cut congestion and obesity and improve health too. In NI 63% of all journeys are less than 5 miles(3) (a 30 minute bike ride). 97% of rural dwellers in NI live within 5 miles of a rural settlement(4)

• By introducing a ‘Carbon Reduction Fund’ for transport open to Districts, transport operators, charities and other organisations the essential capital and revenue funding for initiatives to improve walking and cycling would be reality.
• Increasing public transport trips to enable people to have a real travel choice. Key to improving the public transport offer is the necessity of providing more bus and train services in addition to delivering on small scale upgrades to services and infrastructure and for them to be integrated. The introduction of door-to-door ticketing would make door to door journeys attractive to car users.
• Reducing the transport carbon impact of rural homes by introducing a carbon tax on nonagricultural single rural dwellings. This would reflect the extra carbon cost associated with their dependence on private motorised transport and a carbon tax levied through the rating system on parking spaces at shopping centres and other car dependent attractors

The recent economic report into carbon reduction by Lord Turner(5) suggests

“Lifestyle-change (e.g. substituting cycling for driving on short trips) will reduce energy consumption/production, with households reallocating expenditure towards less energy intensive goods and services. This will have no significant impact on GDP”

The Campaign for Better Transport recently published a report(6) which shows how to reduce carbon emissions from transport through a comprehensive package of transport policies mostly extensions of current practices building on past successes.

• To identify the costs associated with meeting these obligations and compare them with the costs that will be incurred if they are not achieved.

We look to informed expert knowledge for carbon cost mechanisms and the implication of the cost arising from climate change. Transport externalities excluding carbon and air quality already cost NI society nearly one billion pounds per annum through obesity and road traffic collisions(7) Lord Turners report suggest carbon budgeting around 1% GDP

The Carbon Trust(8) estimates annual cost of carbon reduction in NI through to 2030 between £25 million and £55 million - less than half the annual cost of the NI Assembly

• To identify a formal cost effective mechanism for assessing the potential impact of new policies on climate change / CO 2 emissions. (Akin to Regulatory Impact Assessments/Rural Proofing)

We look to informed expert knowledge on these issues and note that the Energy Saving Trust show rural households emit more GHGs(9) than urban households.

Will the principle polluter pays hold true?

• To make recommendations for appropriate targets/actions that could be included in the new Northern Ireland Sustainable Development Implementation Plan.

We suggest targets could include the number of children cycling and walking to school. The reduction of car parking spaces provided free to the NI Civil Service and the dependence of the Health Service on private motorised transport. Reducing the annual distance traveled in NI by private motor car. Increase in public transport patronage

• To make recommendations on a public service agreement for the DOE Climate Change Unit’s commitments in the second Programme for Government that will ensure Northern Ireland will meet its climate change obligations.

The public service agreement must include a targeted and measured reduction in GHGs arising from departmental transport including how the public and employees travel to various government buildings. The current Regional Development and Transport Strategies are long on talk of sustainability but short on the strategies that implement sustainability as measured by the ever increasing rates of GHG emissions from road transport. Targets should be set to reduce CO2 emissions from transport and measures outlined how to make this happen. There is an opportunity to do this given the imminent review of the Regional Transportation Strategy.

• To consider what secondary legislation raising powers within the UK Climate Change Act would contribute to Northern Ireland’s commitment to the UK Climate Change Act.

Adapt the legislation of local taxation and rating to allow for the carbon taxation of emissions associated with car parking provision and location.

• To express views on if and how the Assembly might conduct more effective scrutiny of climate change responsibilities across all relevant departments.

Climate change science robustly demonstrates that climate change is happening. If the anthropomorphic effects on climate are not constrained the late adulthood of NI’s current generation of young children will be seriously compromised. The Assembly is obliged to act and shoulder responsibility for the highest rates by household of GHG emissions in the UK(10)

The Assembly must give teeth and resources to scrutiny on a regular and searching basis

According to the Met Office, in their 2007 Report 'Together: Make a difference to your climate with the Met Office', the UK's transport system could be severely affected as a result of the effects of climate change. Prolonged high temperatures caused by climate change could cause road surfaces to melt and railway lines to buckle, creating delays and disruption. Railways would be threatened with wetter UK winters, greater storminess, coastal erosion and sea-level rise.

It is essential that mitigating climate change be a priority for the Assembly but in addition that work be undertaken to prepare for mitigation of some of the effects of climate change on our transport networks. Research should be undertaken on adapting materials and techniques in highway works to the changing climate, together with a full assessment of how to manage the risk from climate change to its roads, walking and cycling networks. 

References

(1) Travel Survey for NI 2005-2007 Dept for Regional Development
(2) Campaign for Better Transport
(3) Travel Survey for NI 2005-2007 Dept for Regional Development
(4) Rural Settlement Patterns and Access to development land: Developing the Evidence base
(5) Building a low Carbon Economy http://hmccc.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/TSO-ClimateChange.pdf
(6) Shrinking Carbon Improving Lives – A plan for reaching Climate Change Goals, Campaign for Better Transport November 2008 - http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/system/files/Low_carbon_companion_report_0.pdf
(7) NI population is the least active most obese population in the UK. Obesity costs in NI are£500 million pa and Road Traffic Collisions in NI cost £450 million pa
(8) Carbon Trust Northern Ireland Vision Study for NI published 2005 - http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/Publications/publicationdetail.htm?productid=CTC520
(9) GHG - Green House Gas
(10) Green Barometer Three Energy Saving Trust November 2007 - http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/content/download/21447/80032/file/Green%20Barometer%20three.pdf