Helm Talks - energy climate infrastructure & more8 Feb 2021

Net zero gain - how to build better

Once upon a time, developers applied for planning permission and they either got it or not. Now they have to deliver Net Biodiversity Gain, a very limited application of the polluter-pays principle. They should have to show Net Carbon Gain, compensating for the carbon emissions caused by building works and by the buildings. That way, there is some chance that building 300,000 houses a year could be compatible with net zero; right now they are not. Consistent with the spirit of the Climate Change Act, all developments should first have to measure their full carbon consequences, and provide carbon compensation for three impacts: i) the losses incurred through the building projects themselves; ii) the ongoing loss of the soils and vegetation, which limits future sequestration; and iii) the ongoing carbon emissions from the new buildings. It is not just the bricks and the bulldozers, and not just the fact that, once built, few if any are really net zero homes, but also the damage done to the soils, which are not only carbon storers but also biodiversity reservoirs. Next time you pass a greenfield development called “The Meadows” you will know the lasting consequences, and this especially applies to housing on the Green Belt. This podcast accompanies Dieter Helm's paper, Net Carbon Gain, which sets out the issues in more detail. http://www.dieterhelm.co.uk/natural-capital/environment/net-carbon-gain/

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(90)

Why can't we build infrastructure in this country?

Politicians have been seeking for decades to put right the infrastructure crisis in this country that is rooted not in a lack of ambition, but in deeper economic and political constraints. Building in...

15 Juni 15min

Crisis? What crisis?

The International Energy Agency describes the current Iran conflict as the “biggest energy crisis in history”. While oil prices have risen sharply, they remain below the real highs of past shocks. How...

27 Maj 14min

Britain's negative-sum society

The concept of a zero-sum game was fashionable in the 1970s. The idea was simple: competing interest groups, and especially unions, would fight for ever-bigger shares of the nation’s cake, and their g...

17 Maj 14min

No such thing as free electricity

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is no such thing as “free” electricity. What is true is that there are going to be days in summer when supply exceeds demands and hence the value of e...

24 Apr 11min

Sticky plaster energy policy is falling apart

Another day and another bit of sticky plaster is applied. With the highest industrial energy prices in the developed world, the government is increasing the number of companies that will get a bit off...

20 Apr 15min

Gas prices, gas mistakes and gas policy

The news is very much about gas price shocks, but this is to misunderstand the fundamental difference between temporary shocks and long-term trends. Gas prices spike when major geopolitical events occ...

24 Mars 13min

Britain's industrial energy price crisis

Britain is facing a deep industrial energy price crisis, with many major industries collapsing or shrinking because UK electricity costs are among the highest in the world. Recent closures—from refine...

17 Mars 15min

The energy security gap

The International Energy Agency, at its recent ministerial meeting (Feb 18th/19th), agreed on one top priority: energy security. Hybrid warfare, cyber-attacks and the ease with which modern energy inf...

24 Feb 15min