Climate change impact assessment – supporting guidance
(Based on Devon County Council assessment and guidance
documentation)
This guidance should be used in conjunction
with the climate change impact assessment form.
Date: December 2019 updated June
2020
Version: V4 – July 2020
Introduction
Purpose
This guidance and
the impact assessment document should be used at the outset of the
development of your proposal. The process will help you understand
the potential environmental effects of your options and demonstrate
how your proposal minimises or mitigates climate change impacts and
maximises any potential environmental opportunities.
Why carry out an impact assessment?
North Yorkshire is England’s largest county,
and one of its most rural, containing a diverse range of landscapes
and historic assets including two National Parks and three Areas of
Outstanding Natural Beauty. Our natural environment makes a
considerable contribution to the county’s economy and it is
in our interest to protect it for a number of reasons.
Concern about climate change and the need to reduce
carbon emissions has also led the Council to pass the following
motion on 24 July 2019:
‘This
Council now commits to produce its own carbon reduction plan. As
part of this plan, the Council will invite the relevant
representatives from the district councils to discuss how working
together, we can aspire to achieve net carbon neutrality by, or as
close to, 2030.’
In order to meet
this aspiration we need to ensure that we consider the effect that
all proposals are likely to have on carbon emissions and other
environmental factors, and work hard to mitigate any detrimental
effects.
Our climate is
already changing – for example flood events in North
Yorkshire are increasingly a fact of life – and an important
part of the assessment highlights the need to improve the
resilience of the county and its communities.
How to use
this guidance
The
impact assessment document lists a number of areas which may be
impacted by your proposal. These are listed below.
The impact assessment document asks you to
consider whether your proposal will have no impact, make things
better or make things worse.
Click on each
heading to find out more and for help filling in that section of
the form, including hints and tips to help reduce these
impacts.
The climate
change impact assessment also asks you about timescale. Please
think about impact over the lifetime of the project. The intention
is to enable decision makers to understand the full impact of a
project over time, particularly where there will be positive
impacts in the longer term. For example, a project might be very
expensive in the short term if capital investment is required but
this could pay back over time in energy savings, and reductions of
emissions, over a longer period. Please provide details where this
is the case.
For further support and advice on taking
account of environmental effects please contact climatechange@northyorks.gov.uk
Impact
areas
Greenhouse gas
emissions
Reduce, reuse, recycle and compost
Water consumption
Pollution (including air, land, water, light and
noise)
Resilience to the effects of climate change (e.g.
increased flood events, drier and hotter summers, rising sea
levels).
Conservation and enhancement of wildlife
Safeguarding the distinctive characteristics, features
and special qualities of North Yorkshire’s
landscape
Greenhouse gas
emissions
The UK
Government has committed to a target net carbon neutrality by 2050
levels and NYCC has an aspiration of net carbon neutrality by 2030,
or as near as possible to that date.
Will your proposal affect the consumption of fossil
fuels or electricity in buildings or vehicles?
The burning of fossil fuel directly or to produce
electricity emits greenhouse gases. Examples of how your proposal
could affect fossil fuel or electricity consumption
include:
·
Constructing or demolishing a building,
or changing the occupancy or opening hours
·
Changing the technology (e.g. heating,
ventilation, lighting, IT) in a building
·
Altering the amount of travel required by
staff or service users
·
Changing the mode of travel or vehicle
type
You can use the energy hierarchy to help identify
opportunities to minimise consumption:
1.
Reduce demand for energy.
Is there a way of doing less of these
things? e.g. schedule heating to match building occupancy; redesign
a process to need less travel; make use of flexible working; enable
residents to access services digitally.
·
Improve energy efficiency.
Could the proposal achieve the same
outcome with less energy input? e.g. Add insulation; use more
efficient vehicles; buy low-energy appliances. Could you use
different models of ownership, for example rental or sharing
models? e.g. Philips’ new model of selling light
as a service
2.
Use renewable sources of
energy. Could the proposal use
or promote the development of wind, solar, biomass and hydro
energy?
Will your proposal produce waste?
Waste of any type contributes to greenhouse gas
emissions due to its ‘embodied energy’ – the
energy that has been used to produce the item. Specifying recycled
materials when making purchasing decisions, not over-ordering and
ensuring unwanted resources are reused and recycled will minimise
wasted energy. Biodegradable waste, such as food, garden waste,
paper, and wood, produces methane (a greenhouse gas 21 times more
powerful than carbon dioxide at causing global warming) if it is
allowed to degrade in a landfill site.
For further guidance see the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and
Compost section.
Will your proposal contribute to land-use
change?
Generally, permanently removing vegetation such as
trees and hedgerows and replacing them with grass or hard surfaces
is treated as an emission of greenhouse gases because the carbon
stored in the vegetation is released to the air when it is burned
or biodegrades. This emission can be avoided by designing your
proposal not to remove the vegetation or ensure that replanting
takes place.
If you answered ‘no’ to the above
questions then your proposal will not significantly affect
greenhouse gas emissions.
Back to impact areas
Reduce, reuse, recycle and
compost
Does your proposal affect waste
management?
Your proposal will
affect waste management if it:
¨ Needs new
materials or supplies
¨ Generates
waste materials
How you can minimise waste
Reduce, for example:
·
Could the quantity of waste produced by your proposal be
minimised?
·
Could perishable materials be stored or transported more
intelligently to minimise the potential for them to become unfit
for purpose before they’re required?
·
Has the proposal been designed to minimise the quantity of any
packaging materials?
Reuse
·
Is the proposal going to cause items or materials to be disposed of
before the end of their useful life? Could the proposal be altered
to ensure these are used again before disposal or could they be
sold on for use elsewhere?
·
Could items or materials that have been initially thought of as
waste be given a new life as something else?
·
Can you use a rental or sharing model for items?
Recycle and Compost
·
Can the waste be recycled?
·
If the waste products are not currently recyclable, can the process
that produces the waste products be altered to use materials that
are recyclable?
·
Items such as food waste and garden/arboriculture waste should be
composted.
Can you buy recycled products?
If your proposal
needs new materials or supplies, before purchasing those from
virgin sources, consider whether there is an alternative available
that contains recycled material. All sorts of materials and
products are available with recycled content, from office
stationery to construction materials. Ask your suppliers whether
they can provide a similar product with recycled content.
Can you specify alternatives to single-use
plastics?
Could you specify reusable products instead or
use paper or bioplastic alternatives? Note that biodegradable
alternatives, such as paper or bioplastic, need to be recycled or
sent to an energy-from-waste facility rather than landfill.
Back to impact areas
Water
consumption
Parts of
the UK already suffer from water stress. The expected impacts of
climate change, as well as population and household growth, will
make this an increasing problem for the UK. The Water Act (2003)
requires local authorities to “take into account the
desirability of conserving water”.
Does your proposal affect water
consumption?
Will your proposal…
Make use of water directly?
Change the way the county council,
households or businesses use water?
If you can answer ‘yes’ to either of the
above questions, then your proposal does have implications for
water consumption.
How can your proposal minimise water
consumption?
There are three ways to reduce water
consumption:
1. Reduce demand for water
·
Is any of the water to be used by the
proposal unnecessary? Examples to help reduce water
include:
•
Install a water meter to help change
behaviour.
•
Use push-taps, low-flow shower fittings
and put a Hippo in single-flush toilet cisterns.
•
Specify drought tolerant plants for
landscaping.
2. Improve water-use efficiency
·
Could the proposal achieve the same
outcome with less water? Examples include:
•
Specify appliances that use less water
– the EU Energy Label includes water consumption for
dishwashers and washing machines
•
Use dishwashers (full) rather than
hand-washing.
•
Specify dual-flush toilet
cisterns
3. Reuse and recycle water
·
Could the proposal reuse water? Examples
include:
•
Harvest rainwater in water butts for
irrigation and outdoor cleaning (e.g. vehicles, hard
standing).
•
Use greywater (e.g. water from basins,
baths, showers, vehicle cleaning processes) for irrigation and
toilet flushing.
Back to impact areas
Pollution (including air, land, water, light and
noise)
Pollution has negative environmental
impacts which in turn affect our health.
Air Pollution
Transport - Your
proposal could affect air quality if it will make significant
changes to transport patterns or vehicle types. If so, you should
check whether your proposal will affect an Air Quality
Management Area – find out here
If your proposal will affect one of these areas, you
need to contact the relevant highway area team to discuss your
proposal.
Mitigation options include:
·
Is the transport necessary? Could
technology be used to avoid the need to travel?
·
Transport mode – buses, coaches and
heavy goods vehicles are less clean than trains but are cleaner
than cars and vans on a per tonne of freight or per passenger
basis.
·
Could you use an electric
vehicle?
Other sources – Your proposal could affect air quality if it
includes a significant use of combustion of any kind, or increases
agricultural emissions. See the section on greenhouse gas
emissions.
Water pollution
Water pollution arises from a variety of sources.
These examples may apply to your proposal:
·
Soil erosion will wash sediment and soil
pollutants into watercourses. Maintaining ground cover (i.e.
vegetation) will help reduce soil erosion.
·
Substance spills – oil, fuel,
chemicals, paint etc. Store and use hazardous substances
appropriately and have a clean-up plan in place to deal with spills
immediately.
·
Cleaning products contain chemicals that
can harm the environment, such as phosphoric acid and bleach. Could
you reduce the frequency of cleaning? Or could you use
natural/ecological cleaning products instead?
·
Use of pesticides and herbicides. Could
the use of these products be minimised or natural/ecological
products be used instead?
Noise pollution
Will your proposal significantly affect noise
associated with these activities, or ones like them?
|
Road, air and rail transport
Events
|
Construction work
Entertainment venues
|
Light Pollution
Will your proposal increase night-time, external
lighting?
·
Is the lighting necessary?
·
Could it be timed to switch off part-way
during the night?
·
Could you specify a light fitting that
shines downwards and therefore minimises the amount of light that
leaks away into the night sky?
Back to impact areas
Resilience to the effects of climate change (e.g.
increased flood events, drier and hotter summers, rising sea
levels).
Enhancing the resilience of your proposal to extreme
weather and climate change will save time and money by avoiding
future impacts, such as service interruptions or damage to
property. It’s useful to think of weather as what is going on
outside right now, whereas climate is weather averaged over 30
years.
Is your proposal sensitive to weather or climate
change? Does it:
·
Include aspects that are affected by the
current weather and climate? For example:
·
Buildings, structures, roads
·
Green spaces and landscaping
·
The need to
travel
·
A location vulnerable to flooding.
Check the vulnerability of the location here
and long term flood risk information
here
·
Vulnerable groups – e.g. the
elderly or people with sensory impairment
·
Have a lifetime or legacy that extends
beyond a few years?
·
Provide or support critical
infrastructure? For example:
•
Highways, bridges, drainage
•
Waste management
•
Health and community support
•
Education
•
Utilities
•
Digital / communications
·
Provide contingency planning or business
continuity needs?
What are the potential impacts of climate change on
the proposal?
Consider how
climate change effects could impact the business aspects of your
proposal.
Ask yourself what
the effects would be on your proposal if a heat wave, flood or
extreme tide became the ‘normal weather’. To help you,
an example proposal is provided in Table 1.
|
Positive or negative
impact on…
|
Change in
climate
|
|
|
Hotter summers
|
Drier summers
|
Wetter winters
|
Warmer winters
|
Intense storms (rain, wind and snow)
|
Higher sea level
|
|
Logistics/travel
|
|
|
Staff and other care professionals travel
affected by potential flooding.
|
|
Staff and other care professionals travel
affected by potential snow or storms.
|
|
|
People
|
Older people adversely affected by high
temperatures
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Premises/location
|
Maintenance of garden areas will require more
water.
|
Maintenance of garden areas will require more
water.
|
May be affected by flooding, dependent upon
siting
|
|
Higher maintenance costs of building.
|
May be vulnerable to coastal
flooding.
|
|
Commercial opportunity
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Financial
|
More costly if air conditioning is run during
hot summers
|
|
|
Reduction in heating bills over
winter.
|
|
|
|
Infrastructure
|
|
|
Food medicines
|
|
|
|
|
Environment
|
|
|
Avoid siting of new facility in flood risk
areas
|
|
|
|
Table 1: Example
climate impacts for a hypothetical project to build an extra care
facility in a coastal area.
How can you adapt your proposal to minimise the
impacts and maximise any opportunities from climate
change?
Think about how you
could mitigate each impact you have identified. Mitigating measures
should increase the resilience of your proposal so that it can
tolerate a wider range of extreme weather before serious impacts
occur. They should also be flexible so that adjustments can be made
easily in the future as new information about climate change and
its effects emerges.
Consider low cost
measures that could be incorporated now and also higher cost
measures, needing more research.
To help you, examples
have been provided in Table 2 based on the same hypothetical
project.
Make sure you
incorporate the appropriate mitigating measures into your
proposal.
|
Impact
|
Low cost, no regret measures
|
Higher cost measures needing research
|
|
Older people
adversely affected by high temperatures due to hotter, drier
summers
|
Design building
to ensure it can be kept cool in the summer and warm in the
winter.
|
|
|
Maintenance of
garden areas will require more water in hotter, drier
summers
|
Specific plant
species that withstand summer drought and winter deluges
|
Investigate the
cost and practicality of installing rainwater harvesting
equipment.
|
|
Staff and other
care professionals’ travel affected by potential flooding,
snow or other extreme weather.
|
Doctors’
appointments by skype to
avoid inclement weather
|
Provide some
staff accommodation within the premises to allow staff to stay
overnight if necessary.
|
Table 2 –
Example mitigating measures for some of the climate impacts
identified for a hypothetical project to build an extra care
facility in a coastal area.
Back to impact areas
Conservation and enhancement of wildlife
Our outstanding environment underpins our wellbeing
and economic prosperity. It provides products such as fuel, water
and timber; services such as pollination, flood control, water
purification and climate regulation; and with recreational and
cultural opportunities.
NYCC has a duty to have regard to the conservation of
biodiversity in exercising its functions. This duty was introduced
by the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act in
2006.
Will your proposal affect wildlife?
Your proposal will affect wildlife if it is likely to
cause the following types of changes:
·
Gains or losses in the amount of area
covered by habitat
·
Gains or losses in the connections
between habitats – e.g. hedgerows and lanes
·
Gains or losses in the variety of
species
·
Gains or losses in the abundance of
species
·
Change land and/or water
management
·
Alter wildlife management
·
Introduce or remove elements from
habitats, such as pesticides, water supply or forestry
activities
·
Cause disturbance to ecosystems through
infrastructure, tourism or recreation
These changes are important to consider even if they
occur in environments which are already managed, such as farms,
parks and greenspace within urban areas.
If your proposal has a specific location, you should
check if it is in or near a site designated for its wildlife or
geological value. You can check here
How to maximise the opportunity:
Redesign your proposal to:
·
Increase the area of habitat
·
Provide additional connections between
habitats
·
Avoid disturbing species but provide
additional shelter
·
Avoid affecting a site designated for its
wildlife or geological value
If you think that
your proposal could have significant implications for wildlife,
contact climatechange@northyorks.gov.uk
Back to impact areas
Safeguarding the distinctive characteristics,
features and special qualities of North Yorkshire’s
landscape
North Yorkshire’s landscape underpins our
economy, offering superb natural and cultural resources that
sustain agriculture, attract inward investment and support a
vibrant tourism industry. It improves our health and wellbeing by
encouraging physical outdoor activity and is an antidote to
stress.
What are ‘distinctive characteristics, features
and special qualities’?
Landscape characteristics are the distinct,
recognisable and consistent patterns of features that make one
landscape different from another, rather than better or worse. In
many parts of North Yorkshire valued characteristics include
tranquillity and the darkness of night skies.
Features are the elements that appear in the
landscape, such as hills, dry stone walls, trees, woodlands,
hedgerows, fields, buildings, valleys, archaeology etc.
Special qualities are characteristics that might be
highly valued, individually rare, outstanding, extraordinary or
dramatic.
Will your proposal affect North Yorkshire’s
landscape?
Your proposal will have the potential to affect
landscape if it results in changes to the landscape’s
distinctive characteristics, features and special qualities. These
would include:
·
New structures or features, such as
buildings, signage, transport infrastructure, drainage systems,
overhead cables, masts, kiosks or landscaping
·
Removal or repair of an existing
feature
·
Changes in land use
·
Changes to the management of land. This
includes proposals not to carry out maintenance operations that
have been done in the past.
·
Changes in noise, lighting levels or
odour
You should also check whether your proposal is in or
near a World Heritage Site, National Park, or Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty using this link
. These areas are designated for their
cultural heritage, natural beauty and wildlife.
If your proposal results in any of the above changes,
particularly in a designated area, then it is likely that your
proposal will affect landscape.
Will your proposal result in visual impacts for
people?
Could residents or walkers enjoying the scenery from
viewpoints, public rights of way, picnic sites or parks be
negatively affected by your proposal?
If so, what could you do to reduce these impacts to
acceptable levels? Could you…
·
Alter the location?
·
Select materials or colours that blend
into the landscape?
·
Plant indigenous shrubs and trees to act
as screening?
If you think your
proposal could harm one or more of the distinctive characteristics,
features and special qualities of the landscape, or cause adverse
visual impacts, contact climatechange@northyorks.gov.uk
Back to impact areas
