13th January 2020, St Mary’s Church, Hendon Lane N3 1TR
7.30pm
Minutes
Present: 28
Apologies: 5
• Jeffrey Newman welcomed everyone and introduced Brian Cuthbertson, Head of Environment and Sustainability at the Diocese of London
• Syed Ahmed, Energy for London, talked about
decarbonising existing buildings.
There are 3.5 million buildings in London so decarbonisation is a challenge.
They provide 1/3 of London’s carbon footprint. ¾ of that energy is used for hot
water and heating and 90% of this is provided by gas. The key is energy
efficiency. Currently it is poor – ¼ of London homes are in the lowest EPC band.
There are 4 unique challenges for decarbonising London.
1. High proportion of solid wall homes
2. High proportion of flats
3. High proportion of private rented homes
4. High proportion of houses in conservation areas.
Non-domestic properties produce 40% of carbon emissions in capital – there is
no government strategy for SMEs.
40% of non-domestic properties in lowest EPC category
£3.7 bn on energy bills in London of which £3.1bn is London businesses. 30-40%
is simply wasted.
Highest rate of home retrofit was 2012. Money is available but funding cut by
90%. Need to quadruple the uptake of retrofit to get to net zero.
• Brian Cuthbertson, Head of Environment and Sustainability at the Diocese of
London.
Church of England as an organisation is far behind where it ought to be. We
must not be downhearted! Prophetic voice is coming rather from Greta Thunberg
and XR.
Carbon targets vary: XR is 2025, many LAs 2030, government 2050. CofE is
proposing 2045 which is arguably not bold enough.
Efforts relating to carbon reduction and climate change need to be embedded
within wider environmental objectives, the three main ones are:
1. Climate Change
2. Biodiversity
3. Waste production especially plastic.
These are all connected. Mitigating one can be negative on another so we need
to be very canny and wary of bandwagons an example being Gordon Brown and the
enthusiastic encouragement of diesel cars or encouraging biofuels that lead to
deforestation.
Different people engage with different issues. Plastic is popular because easy
to visualise.
We need to plan transition but there is no end point eg abolishing fossil fuels
is not like abolishing slavery. The end point is not as clear as it seems and
we need to respond to new circumstances
as they arise.
What would we do if we fail?
In the technical challenge there are gaps in what we can do. We could do
everything we set ourselves and find that climate change is beyond control, but
we have to keep going – faith, loyalty and justice. We must not be diverted but
we must be realists.
It is vital to work as a team and draw in stakeholders, councils, schools, aid
agencies work with and through people. The Church needs to set an example as an
organisation and then spread ripples into members’ lives. We face hard choices
on food and flying for example. These are common issues. The Church must not
preach but present people with choices they can intelligently address and
decide what is right (not what is simply comfortable or expedient). This means
being realistic in ambitions eg dates for decarbonisation 2025/30 if the policy
direction is not shared by country. Government and business dictate the pace of
decarbonisation eg electricity grid.
There is a necessary reliance on offsetting in order to meet national target.
Green tariffs will change but predicting the future is very difficult.
Intelligent/realistic guesstimate required for policy/practical decision now eg
for churches whether to replace a boiler with a more efficient gas boiler now.
Government still subsidises fossil fuel.
Gas is vital in London and UK. There are two ways to decarbonise: use hydrogen
which is effectively carbon neutral or increase biofuel/biomethane. Moving from
gas to electricity needs to balance removal of gas boiler with increase in
electricity burden, as with electric cars – adds to electricity demands. Best
source of renewables is offshore windfarms.
Most people in the UK think that most people in the UK do not like wind farms!
It is not true! There is a lot of
ground to be made up.
There is a problem with decision making. Solar panels in churches is very
difficult in terms of planning permission. It is OK if they are completely
invisible. Planning is likely to beat down plans to up to half of what was
wanted. On an unlisted building planning is not required in certain
circumstances but if the site faces a road it may be needed. Have to deal with
LA planning officers effectively working against Council climate emergency.
National planning policy and lawful application affected by judicial process
that looks to the past.
Heat pumps have potential.
It is important to engage hearts and minds of congregations/communities and all
pull in the same direction. Communication is key – an understandable message,
expressed in simple terms to enable people to respond. We need to do very big
things but it is hard until we get consensus. Positive egs smoking ban or drink
driving. But much more and much wider action in our lives is necessary.
• Group Discussion
Q – does CofE use green energy supplier? Yes, Parishbuying energy basket (with
Total!)
Q biofuel production – could we use European farming surpluses/lakes? Biogas
comes from biodigestion. Barnet has gone backwards on food collection and
anaerobic digestion. Barnet can get back by 2022. Disposal is actually cheaper
in biodigestion!
More damaging though is unrecyclable material in recycling. If in doubt put it
in general waste!
Q Meeting with Theresa Villiers connecting with specialists.
Q what countries are doing best and what can we learn? Costa Rica good.
Scandinavia not as good as it seems. UK claims it is a leader but is in fact a
laggard though ahead of comparable countries.. All countries face different
challenges and resources eg China carbon emission is massive and per person higher
than UK but govt gets climate change – limits to enacting policy even in a
totalitarian state. Countries need to understand one another. US, president a
climate change denier but states and cities and some corporates are leaders.
Q biodiversity. Wildlife in UK under severe threat – depletion of species and
habitats animals particularly threatened. This is problem in its own right.
Intensive farming and pesticides aggravated by climate change. It is possible
some plant life will benefit but animals will struggle. Churchyard diversity is
important. Needs to be managed. Churchyards are evenly distributed across the
country and become refuges and stepping stones for species distribution. There
is general drift northwards. We can encourage habitat and maintenance for most
under-threat species eg bees and encourage other kinds of pollinators. See
Waltham Forest pollinator strategy.
Q – winning hearts and minds is it individualism vs collectivism? Is compulsion
necessary? Power of LA in planning. Councils make arbitrary decisions.
Decarbonising food production very difficult. It is heavily dependent on fossil
fuel. Building in concrete. Necessity of consent.
Q coastline and threat to sea life especially birds
Q – Church of England and poor parish maintenance of buildings, houses and
churches. There is a big gap between best and worst.
Q – waste and incentives. Good example from cashback at supermarkets in US.
Q – church owned land and PV/wind turbines. Diocese of Truro are doing a lot
using glebe land for environmental projects.
Q – consultation on building regulation “Future Homes” website www.leti.london gives help if we wish to respond.
Try watching Apocalypse Cow (George Monbiot) on Channel 4.
• Details of Next Meeting – Wednesday 12 Feb 6.30pm-8pm [see february-2020-meeting-12th-feb-630pm]