Memorandum submitted by the Regional Development
Agencies (RDAs)
1. This response to the Environmental Audit
Committee's Inquiry into climate change and local, regional and
devolved government is submitted on behalf of England's nine Regional
Development Agencies (RDAs). A number of RDAs will also submit
individual evidence to the Inquiry to elaborate on the issues
addressed in this response.
2. The RDAs' mission is to transform England's
regions through sustainable economic development. In the period
since our establishment in 1999, the RDAs' strategic role has
deepened and broadened across the regional economic landscape.
RDAs' core intervention areas have grown to encompass enterprise,
innovation, business support, regeneration, economic inclusion
and skills development. The changes announced in the recent Sub-National
Review of Economic Development & Regeneration will further
RDAs' remit (except in London 8) where the GLA Act 2007 has already
assigned further powers to the Mayor of London, including a statutory
duty to tackle climate change mitigation and adaptation).
1. How can central government best support
and encourage local authorities, regional government and devolved
administrations to take action on mitigation and adaptation, and
other climate change related areas like waste and transport? What
funding, powers, and structures are required to improve joined
up delivery of climate change policy at all levels of government?
3. Strong action is already being taken
at regional and local level. RDAs' established regional leadership
role in shaping strategies and mobilising partners; our delivery
role in supporting businesses, commercialising new technologies
and innovations; and our investment role in physical regeneration
and development, means RDAs are already helping regions address
the challenges and opportunities of climate change. Our track
record in developing creative and innovative approaches to the
economic dimensions of climate change; our ability to bring regional
and sub-regional partners (public, private and third sector) to
the table; and our strengths as a network in disseminating good
practice are delivering a step-change in the response to the climate
change agenda. Regional Development Agencies recently published
a pamphlet setting out the action we are taking to tackle climate
change and making a series of commitments to future action.
4. We believe that to be a leading competitive
global economy we need to be an exemplar at home and a leader
internationally and RDAs are committed to leading that agenda
at regional and sub-regional level. Such actions should be seen
in the context of the clear understanding at regional level, as
set out in Regional Economic Strategies (RES), that quality of
life and living within environmental limits represents a competitive
advantage for England's regions. When powers are devolved to the
regional level, RDAs and other regional and local bodies are proving
their ability to deliver carbon emission reductions through innovative
action. All regions are already making emission reduction savings,
often led by RDAs, and will continue to do so as the urgency of
climate change increases.
SETTING AND
ACHIEVING TARGETS
5. Central government has a vital role to
play in setting national targets and encouraging the adoption
of regional and local targets to stimulate action. Please refer
to our answer to Question 4 for detailed views on setting and
achieving targets.
POLICY FRAMEWORK
AND STRATEGIC
INFLUENCING
6. Through the policy it drafts and implements,
central government can drive forward action on mitigation and
adaptation and other climate change related areas. There needs
to be a mainstream and consistent climate change and carbon reduction
policy and strategy framework nationally and regionally with policies
and priorities based on common and robust evidence and intelligence.
Whilst progress has been made, there remains a lack of consistency
across government in the desire and implementation of policy on
climate change. The Climate Change Bill should help to address
this, but behavioural change across government departments and
national public sector bodies is also required to achieve the
necessary step change. By embedding climate change considerations
into policy development, government can set a strategic direction
which will drive change. For example, through planning legislation,
it can set a strategic direction to encourage a significant shift
in energy and waste infrastructure. It must also seek to minimise
inconsistencies between its policies. Enabling powers in the draft
Climate Change Bill, have insufficient emphasis on facilitating
new instruments across all areas of policy to actually deliver
emissions reductions and these therefore need to be strengthened.
7. Embedding consistent carbon reduction
criteria into all government funding streams is critical to accelerating
progress, driving innovation and helping to achieve behaviour
change which is needed. Rather than creating new, separate funding
streams specifically designed to address climate change, it might
be appropriate for the Government to use existing architecture
and try to mainstream the issue of climate change by driving action
forward through existing and proposed new mechanisms. For example,
hypothecated landfill tax receipts in the form of the BREW programme
can make a significant contribution to tackling climate change;
however, there needs to be a strong regional and sub-regional
component to BREW funding if regional and local energy and dynamism
in this arena is to be incentivised. A truly ambitious Defra in
this regard might, for instance, increase the relative sub-national
BREW funding streams vis-a-vis current, often nationally segmented
approaches to funding. This would reinforce the emerging Single
Regional Strategies (together with any climate change indicators
that are agreed as part of those strategies) and LAA/MAA approaches
to sub-national development. However, in fact, indications suggest
Defra intend to do precisely the opposite of this—reinforcing
nationally-segmented streams and reducing or eliminating sub-national
commissioning through the RDAs. This is likely to be a significant
disruption to sub-national delivery in the short-run, and is arguably
counter to the intentions of SNR in the medium-term. At the very
least, decisions on the amount of funding RDAs can expect (if
any), to create the capacity to deliver their component of the
Business Resource, Efficiency and Waste (BREW) Programme in 08/09,
has not yet been announced which makes it very difficult to maintain
momentum of existing initiatives, and forward plan with partners.
8. The Government needs to recognise the
importance of regions and cities in tackling climate change. There
is no mention of regions in the Climate Change Bill. There also
needs to be a stronger endorsement of the need to deliver low
carbon cities.
ADDITIONAL INVESTMENT
9. The Government needs to provide additional
investment, via existing regional and local infrastructure, in
skills development and training packages, in research and development,
in promoting innovation and in attracting inward investment. The
RDAs currently fund over 12% of the publicly supported R&D
investment in energy (including renewables), enabling us to spearhead
work in the development of low carbon technologies. This work
could benefit, however, from additional public funding for science,
innovation and R&D which prioritises interventions that accelerate
a genuine shift to a low carbon economy. RDAs play an important
role in promoting and supporting innovation; the recent report
of the Commission on Environmental Markets (CEMEP) highlighted
the importance of innovation support and creating forward markets
(eg through public sector procurement) in creating a low-carbon
economy and to position UK business to capture global market share
in low-carbon technology and services. The RDAs will need to work
closely with government on delivering these aspirations. RDAs
play a significant role in the skills development agenda. We are
working to identify the new skills needed to face the challenges
and opportunities for the future and are working with partners
to enhance entrepreneurial and leadership skills. We are working
with the Sector Skills Councils to ensure that need is recognised
and accommodated and with schools, FE and HE institutions to consider
the need for adaptation of the curriculum to develop the knowledge,
understanding and skills required on this agenda. Some RDAs have
even been helping with the delivery of targeted training programmes,
for example, South West RDA is funding a programme to help build
capacity within local authority councillors on renewable energy
issues whilst emda is delivering a green infrastructure awareness
and capacity training programme for local planners. All of these
areas of work, however, require additional investment from government
if they are to drive forward the pace at which changes are taking
place.
TRANSPORT
10. National and regional transport priorities
need to promote integrated and sustainable transport choices with
key investments and improvements delivered swiftly and effectively.
The Department for Transport has recently published a discussion
document "Towards a Sustainable Transport System—Supporting
Economic Growth in a Low Carbon World". This sets out the
Department's response to the Eddington study and Stern review.
This includes five strategic goals for transport including one
(goal 2) that seeks to address climate change by cutting emissions
of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The paper recognises
that various actions should be taken forward to address these
including behavioural change measures, making better use of our
existing transport system, technological innovations, pricing
signals, regulation and enforcement, and enhanced public transport
services, as well as investment in infrastructure. It is vitally
important that Government guidance on transport appraisal techniques,
and scheme development mechanisms, are refreshed to ensure that
the greenhouse gas consequences of these actions are fully considered.
The guidance should also incorporate advice on handling the adaptability
of transport proposals to climate change.
11. This will ensure that as interventions
come forward for funding from scheme promoters (including local
authorities), the climate change consequences are fully considered,
and that resilient transport networks are developed. In addition,
it will be important that these impacts are also reflected in
other decision-making processes such as transport prioritisation
exercises for the Regional Funding Allocations. The proposed review
of the Department's "New Approach to Transport Appraisal"
will be a key mechanism through which these can be incorporated,
but it will be important that as other DfT guidance is published
it also reflects these issues.
12. The current technology development platforms
are a vital lever for funding and stimulating regional activity.
In addition, there should be greater rollout of the "Sustainable
Travel Towns" concept currently being piloted in Darlington
with funding from the Department of Transport. In a relatively
short timescale a 12% shift from car use to public transport has
been achieved.
2. Is there clarity about the role played
by local authorities, regional governments and devolved administrations
in tackling climate change? How can their actions be coordinated
and monitored? How can the accountability and transparency of
the response at a local level be improved? How effective has the
Nottingham Declaration process been?
13. The RDAs view their role as providing
regional leadership on the economic dimensions of climate change,
both adaptation and mitigation. This includes developing markets
for low-carbon technology and services, along with support for
R&D and innovation in key sectors (eg environmental technology).
14. RDAs are currently responsible for leading
the development of Regional Economic Strategies (RES) which shape
the growth and development of the regions. AWM and EEDA are both
in the process of producing low carbon RES, building on the low
carbon focus which SEEDA introduced into their RES last year and
all RDAs are committed to including carbon reduction targets within
their Corporate Plans. The Sub-National Review of Economic Development
and Regeneration (SNR) has tasked RDAs (with the exception of
London) with leading the development of Single Integrated Regional
Strategies which will bring together the Regional Economic Strategy
and the Regional Spatial Strategy and cover economic growth, planning
and housing, as well as setting out social and environmental objectives
for each region. These will replace the existing Regional Economic
Strategies. RDAs will be ensuring that climate change adaptation
and mitigation and low carbon aspirations are embedded in these
Single Regional Strategies which will direct the investments of
many public and private sector partners at regional, sub-regional
and local level. It should be noted that many aspects of the Sub-National
Review will not apply to London, however the Mayor now has additional
duties relating to climate change. The London Development Agency
is playing a key role in helping to deliver the Mayor of London's
Climate Change Action Plan, with the Mayor having made tackling
climate change central to many policy areas over which he has
powers. The ambitious Climate Change Action Plan aims to stabilise
London's CO2 emissions in 2025 at 60% below 1990 levels and LDA's
recently launched Green Homes and Green Organisations programmes
will make a significant contribution to delivering this target.
RDAs have also committed to influencing key public and private
sector partners to support regional carbon targets and adopt further
voluntary targets.
15. All of the RDAs are supporting Regional
Climate Change Partnerships and a number of RDAs have lead on
the process of developing Regional Climate Change Action Plans,
whilst others have just started down this route. The Regional
Climate Change Action Plans, combined with the new Single Regional
Strategies (where applicable), should provide the clarity as to
which organisations are contributing to which aspects of climate
change. It will be important that both of these documents provide
the same strategic direction and clarity to ensure they become
the valuable tools they have the potential to be; identifying
the roles local authorities, sub-regional bodies and regional
bodies can play to contribute cohesively to addressing climate
change.
16. RDAs believe that they should act as
exemplar organisations for carbon reduction, demonstrating to
private and public sector organisations the potential to change
and as such have launched a number of commitments. We have committed
to having environmental/carbon management systems in place by
2010 with the view to becoming carbon neutral. We are committed
to setting carbon reduction targets in our Corporate Plans and
publishing the carbon we expect to save as a result of implementing
our policies and programmes in 2010 and 2020. We are also committed
to ensuring that all capital build projects that RDAs invest in
strive towards achieving the BREEAM "Excellent" standard
(or equivalent) including a percentage of recyclate material and
a percentage of energy supplied by renewable energy.
17. Through RDA stewardship of sub-national
business support, we are supporting businesses to improve the
environmental footprint and efficiency of their operations. We
are currently piloting the delivery of resource efficiency advice
to SMEs through the Business Link network, an outcome resulting
from the jointly chaired Healey/Ellis[2]
Taskforce on Business Resource Efficiency. RDAs are at the heart
of the Business Support Simplification agenda and, as such, are
encouraging the mainstreaming of business support programmes and
the progression of businesses towards a low carbon economy. We
are also hosting a number of staff from other organisations working
with businesses (eg Envirowise, Carbon Trust, WRAP). In addition,
RDAs are delivering business growth in environmental and energy
sectors through our enterprise and innovation interventions and
accelerating the commercialisation and diffusion of new technologies.
A number of RDAs have invested, for example, in Enterprise Hubs
or Centres of Excellence (eg the Joules Centre in the North West),
set up Renewable Energy Agencies (eg Renewables East), established
Regional Knowledge Transfer Networks (eg EnerrgiSE) or delivery
vehicles (eg the London Climate Change Agency).
18. Regional Development Agencies are also
investing in improving the evidence base associated with climate
change. RDAs collectively fund SCPnet, a partnership between the
RDAs, Regional Assemblies, Environment Agency and WWF-UK which
collects data and evidence on sustainable consumption and reduction.
RDAs are using SCPnet directly to identify trends in resource
efficiency across 49 sectors and to work out regional eco-footprints.
The RDAs have also developed and piloted a number of approaches
to provide more consistent monitoring information. Emda has developed
R-ISEW, the first regional composite indicator integrating economic,
social and environmental costs/benefits, Yorkshire Forward has
piloted a methodology for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions
associated with RDA projects and NWDA has developed the Enworks
Toolkit, a monitoring tool that can be used by business as an
improvement tool and a way of justifying cost actions.
19. In terms of monitoring and accountability,
there needs to be recognition of existing monitoring and reporting
requirements which local and regional bodies are subject to and
an understanding that these existing requirements are likely to
deliver evidence of the action being taken to deliver against
the climate change agenda.
3. What, if anything, needs to be changed
in the framework governing the actions of devolved administrations,
regional government and local authorities? For example, does there
need to be a more explicit reference to climate change in the
local government performance framework and will the new performance
indicators on climate change be enough to stimulate action?
20. The RDAs welcome the inclusion of climate
change mitigation and adaptation indicators in the new Performance
Framework for Local Authorities and Local Authority Partnerships.
Performance indicators have the potential to provide a real impetus
for action at a local level. It is important that they are backed
up with clear advice from government for regional and local bodies
on how emission savings should be calculated and reported.
4. To what extent should there be disaggregated
targets for different levels of government? How should independent
targets, for example Scotland set its own emissions target for
2050 (80% reduction rather than UK target of 60%) and the Greater
London Authority has committed itself to making a 60% cut by 2030,
fit together with national carbon targets and budgets? How can
Government monitoring and forecasting of emissions be improved
so as to disaggregate emissions, and the impact of carbon reduction
policies, in different regions and nations?
21. Ownership of emissions targets at the
correct level is crucial if the Government is to establish effective
governance and deliver real change. There needs to be a robust
and consistent process for cascading targets from the national
level through the regions to local authorities. There needs to
be a clear line of sight between targets in the Regional Economic
Strategies and the Local Area Agreements (LAAs) currently being
taken forward by government with local government. Targets need
to exist at regional and local level and, in some circumstances,
at sub-regional or city-region level. As time moves on, regions
have started to identify their own targets in the absence of disaggregated
national targets for the regions. It is important that the Government's
Climate Change programme targets and these regional targets knit
together and, further, that innovative action by regional bodies
be accounted for by the Government's Climate Change Programme.
Regional activity is generating additional carbon savings and
without this recognition, there will not be clarity on how the
UK's overall carbon reduction targets are being met. Locally,
there appears to be the start of local target setting through
Defra's NI 186. This approach, which sees regions and local authorities
setting their own targets, has the potential to cause significant
confusion. The targets should be complementary and consistent.
Local targets should cover those areas which local authorities
and LSPs can control and should connect to sub-regional and regional
targets. The new Integrated Regional Strategies should recognise
these targets.
22. Central government needs to provide
robust and back-calculated datasets, disaggregated to the regional/local
level, to support this process. Whilst some regions have developed
their own greenhouse gas inventories, government needs to provide
data and funding by way of assistance in establishing inventories
and baselines.
5. How advanced and co-ordinated are local,
regional and national programmes of adaptation to climate change?
What support is there for adaptation? How vulnerable to climate
change are local authorities, regional government and devolved
administrations?
23. Whilst the role of national government
in providing climate change adaptation needs to be strengthened,
adaptation is best undertaken at local level by, for example,
local authorities in partnership with other agencies including
the Environment Agency and RDAs. The RDAs want to ensure that
they and the regions can deliver more economic growth while reducing
carbon emissions and enhancing the resilience of our regions'
communities, infrastructure, utilities and private sector to the
effects of climate change.
24. The Government role should be to facilitate
action by promoting good practice and providing recommendations
on approaches, the extent of adaptation that may be required across
the UK, the costs of the adaptive measures and the future financial
implications of not adapting. The Government also needs to provide
more funding and fiscal incentives for investment in adaptation
activity, especially climate-resilient infrastructure, and remove
policy barriers that prevent adaptation uptake.
25. Regional activity on adaptation is underway
but the RDAs recognise that there is still more to do to achieve
effective co-ordination and delivery. The North East, for example,
is currently undertaking a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy
with buy-in from a range of regional partners, EEDA is supporting
the development of a Climate Change Action Plan with a focus on
adaptation and NWDA is funding an adaptation group. The Mayor
of London is preparing a world first comprehensive climate change
adaptation strategy for a city covering risks such as heatwave,
drought and flooding, which the LDA will help to deliver. The
London, East of England and South East Climate Change Partnerships
have published a guide for developers on climate change adaptation,
together with a set of case studies. They have also commissioned
a study, due to report shortly, on retrofitting existing buildings
for adaptation to climate change.
26. The proposed Local Area Agreement adaptation
indicator will help to embed and drive adaptation activity by
local authorities if selected.
6. How should the Committee on Climate Change
reflect the interests and needs of the different levels of government
across the UK?
27. The RDAs stated in their response to
the draft Climate Change Bill that the Committee should include
regional representation to ensure that it provides advice to the
Government which recognises the diversity of regions and the contribution
that they can make to tackling climate change through fit-for-purpose
policy. The Government's response was that the Committee should
consist of experts, not representatives of stakeholder groups,
that it is up to the Committee to decide how to do this and that
it has the power to establish sub-committees. The RDAs believe
that regional and local government are key to delivering emissions
reductions and that the Committee needs to be aware of and support
action at regional and local level. The Committee must therefore
have a mechanism for engaging with regional and local stakeholders,
including RDAs, to ensure that regional programmes are recognised
and that there is co-ordination between the national level and
the regions on carbon budgets, targets and accounting. The Climate
Change Bill is silent on this matter.
7. What are the barriers to greater local
or regional action? Do the different levels of government have
sufficient powers to take action? What changes in policy are needed
to support action at a local level? What policies are working
well?
28. The RDAs believe that their commitments
to tackling climate change are significant, but that their impact
can be immeasurably multiplied by a similar level of commitment
from national, regional and sub-regional partners and by the Government
taking action to remove barriers.
29. The Government needs to provide a clear
and consistent policy and strategy framework for climate change
with carbon reduction being mainstreamed nationally and regionally
and appropriate enabling policies put in place. Such a framework
needs to provide a stable long-term direction of travel in order
to give confidence to business, but also include challenging short-term
targets to stimulate the market-place and supply chains (eg on
low energy appliances). The Government's climate change priorities
need to be applied consistently across the breadth of mainstream
policy development and Public Service Agreements and through the
way national targets are manifested in regional and local policy
frameworks (eg Local Area Agreements).
30. Policies and priorities should be based
on common and robust evidence and intelligence. As previously
stated, Government has a vital contribution to make to this evidence
at regional and local level as the evidence base needs to be used
to establish baselines and monitor progress towards targets.
31. All regions will only be able to realise
their full potential to reduce carbon emissions if Government
removes key barriers such as subsidies for unsustainable products/services
and makes changes to our current energy infrastructure to support
a low carbon economy. We are pleased to see that the new Planning
Policy Statement on Climate Change is encouraging decentralised
distributed renewable energy supplies as delivery of robust renewable
energy projects needs to be accelerated through the planning system.
There are particular concerns about the competitiveness and practicality
of renewable and low carbon energy generation at community level.
Current barriers include regulatory licence exemptions that limit
the maximum size of electricity generation plant exempt from the
burdens of a Supply Licence (projects therefore tend to minimise
their size in order to remain exempt) and the cost of connection
to the grid. The regulatory and market structure for electricity
also needs to be adapted to reflect the different scale and economics
of decentralised energy, in contrast to centrally generated and
supplied electricity. In particular, planning and regulatory changes
are needed to provide more incentive for renewables and Combined
Heat and Power (CHP).
32. It is vital that the Government take
rapid action to introduce a comprehensive system of carbon pricing.
This is a major barrier to action at all levels. It would better
enable low and zero carbon technologies to compete against traditional
energy supply technologies and therefore encourage the commercial
implementation of low and zero carbon energy projects.
8. What impact will the new Planning Policy
Statement on climate change have on emissions reductions and work
on adaptation? How are the so called "Merton rules"
affected? How might other planning guidance be changed to reduce
emissions?
33. Planning is crucial to effectively tackle
the issues being raised by climate change. The recent Local Government
Association (LGA) report on councils and climate change highlights
planning as one of the four areas in which local authorities can
make a difference. The requirements in the supplement to PPS1
will be crucial for the medium term in delivering real change
in the planning system and in shaping the ability of local and
regional government to this challenge. RDAs are yet to fully digest
this Statement but from initial assessment it appears that the
Statement is broadly welcome with new recommendations for planning
authorities.
34. We are hopeful that the Statement will
streamline the planning process to reduce delays in decision-making,
thereby making it easier to develop decentralised energy and more
widespread microgeneration. The Merton Rule plays an important
role in encouraging development of renewables and we would like
to see it applied more consistently to delivering decentralised
energy networks. Some regions and local authorities are already
setting high standards, for example, the Mayor of London is proposing
that developments achieve a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions
of 20% from onsite renewable energy regeneration because developers
are already routinely meeting the current 10% standard in London.
9. Are local authorities meeting their duty
to enforce building regulations in relation to environmental measures?
Does the enforcement regime discourage non-compliance?
35. There is anecdotal evidence that there
is a lack of compliance with building regulations on new-build
domestic properties, despite local authorities efforts to discharge
their enforcement duties. We believe that local authorities need
to be given the resources to enable them to ensure that developers
are complying with additional requirements such as for carbon
reduction through the use of renewables, an issue which will accelerate
in demand as efforts are made to meet the Government's ambition
for zero carbon homes by 2016.
36. The twin-track approach to improving
energy efficiency, using both the planning system and building
regulations, can be confusing. RDAs would like to see the building
regulations strengthened as quickly as possible with adequate
training of enforcement officials so that building regulations
become the main means of delivering uniformly high energy efficiency.
10. What good practice is there to be shared?
How is best practice shared and does central government support
for sharing best practice work? What role should UK Climate Impacts
Programme, IDeA, Salix Finance, the Carbon Trust and Energy Savings
Trust play in providing support?
37. The RDAs have national mechanisms in
place, facilitated by EEDA as the climate change lead, for sharing
good practice amongst themselves through both national meetings
where all RDAs come together to discuss issues relating to climate
change and through an online RDA-only resource. In addition, the
RDAs periodically publish national documents setting out current
RDA activity. For example, we published a national pamphlet on
tackling climate change earlier in the year, whilst in the past,
we have published sets of case studies on regional sustainable
development activity (Smart Productivity and Smart Growth) which
we have shared widely with partners and interested parties. RDAs
are also involved in sharing good practice at a local and sub-regional
level with partners; activity which is better explained in the
individual submissions you will receive from some RDAs.
38. Sharing of good practice with other
agencies does need further support in the short-term to help ensure
that successful initiatives are effectively rolled out, as the
skills and knowledge are not yet widespread. There is a critical
role of national organisations in disseminating this best practice
and ensuring that there is a central pool of expertise for the
regions and local authorities to draw upon. Groups such as the
Regional Energy Group, whose members include RDAs, are useful
for sharing best practice and information on regional initiatives.
It is important that sufficient Government funding be provided
to Government-funded delivery agents and programmes such as the
Energy Saving Trust, Carbon Saving Trust and Business Resource
Efficiency and Waste programme to enable regional and local bodies
to continue to benefit from their expertise, such as through the
Carbon Trust's Local Authority Energy Financing Scheme.
39. The Energy Savings Trust plays an important
role in disseminating good practice and its website with a list
of publications is viewed as a valuable resource. Primarily, the
Energy Savings Trust has provided support in the domestic energy
sector. This is critical given that 28% of CO2 emissions come
from this sector. The Energy Savings Trust is working with RDAs
in some regions to deliver specific activity. The North East hosted
a trial Sustainable Energy Network which was well received and
the rollout of Sustainable Energy Networks across the country
will ensure holistic advice is provided to householders. The announcement
by Gordon Brown that a Green Homes Service will be rolled out
supports the notion that taking a holistic approach to energy
reduction is the most effective way forward.
40. The Carbon Trust is working closely
with RDAs in some regions to help businesses improve their energy
efficiency. The Carbon Trust has excellent examples of how reducing
energy demand is extremely cost effective and some RDAs have found
that useful.
41. The UK Climate Impacts Programme provides
an invaluable source of expertise and support, assisting both
with the development of policy for climate change adaptation and
advice on implementation. It is important that the UK Climate
Impacts Programme continues to provide robust scenarios, including
at regional and local level, and to assist public bodies' adaptation
improvement now required in the Climate Change Bill. As the planning
and decision-making processes of both the public and private sector
rely on climate change projections, it is essential that UKCIP
is funded to continue to provide up-to-date scientific expertise
in this rapidly developing area.
3 January 2008
2 Richard Ellis is Chair of EEDA, the Regional Development
Agency in the East of England. Back
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