Climate Change Act – Section 72: thirteenth annual report

3. Understanding the Legislation and Guidance on it

Responsibility for implementation

3.1. The legislation is a requirement for policy in local development plans and therefore a responsibility of planning authorities.

Operational emissions

3.2. The legislation aims to save emissions otherwise created from the operation and use of new buildings. This excludes construction and demolition of the building and transport to and from it. Therefore, emissions savings relate to emissions otherwise created through space and water heating, and the electricity used for operation of the services within a building. Such services powered by electricity include those that are fixed like lighting and mechanical ventilation. In practice moveable electronic appliances in homes and other plugged-in devices such as for industrial and commercial processes, among other things, do not form part of building level operational emissions calculation methodology.

Low and zero-carbon generating technologies

3.3. Section 3F operates on the basis that there are emissions from the energy source for the operation and use of the building that can be saved (or avoided), by using low and-zero carbon generating technologies at the building to provide energy instead. The legislation seeks emissions savings only using generating technologies, and not energy efficiency measures such as improved glazing or additional insulation.

3.4. The legislation operates on the basis that the low and zero-carbon generating technologies will save a proportion of the emissions to be created by the operation and use of the building. It does not require that the technologies will avoid all emissions otherwise created by the operation and use of the building.

Guidance

3.5. We continue to suggest that local development plan policies implementing the legislation contain three elements:

• A proportion of emissions to be saved;
• At least one increase in the proportion of emissions to be saved; and
• A requirement that savings should be achieved using generating technology (rather than energy efficiency measures).

3.6. The Annex to this report identifies the policies in adopted local development plans considered to respond to Section 3F and a web link to where the full text of them can be found. This is offered as a resource for those preparing a policy in response to Section 3F. Previous annual reports have provided full text or extracts of the individual planning authority policies, this is replaced this year with a web link to where the relevant local development plan can be read.