Part One: Spatial Strategy and Policies

12. Climate Change

12.1 The Council declared a climate emergency in 2020 and pledged to achieve net zero carbon by 2050 and a Carbon Neutral Borough by 2041. Alongside this, the West Midlands Combined Authority declared a climate change emergency in June 2019 and committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2041. This means that the Council will be working towards meeting these targets through the timescale of the Dudley Local Plan and beyond.

12.2 Information from the Met Office1 indicates that under projections looking at potential climate change over land to the 2070s, a location in the middle of England is likely to experience changes in precipitation and temperature in both summer and winter² equating to:

12.3 Local planning authorities are bound by the legal duty set out in Section 19 of the 2004 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act, as amended by the 2008 Planning Act, to ensure that planning policy contributes to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change.

12.4 The NPPF sets out in more detail the duty of planning in helping to contend with a changing climate and the vulnerabilities it generates in the built and natural environments. This includes planning for zero and low carbon development, requiring renewable and low carbon energy supply, reducing emissions and greenhouse gases, the mitigation of flood risks and employing appropriate policy and design solutions to address rising temperatures, ventilation, the need for additional green infrastructure and the protection of the natural environment.

12.5 To help Dudley Borough become a more efficient and resilient place, policies in the DLP will encourage development to:

1. improve energy efficiency and move towards becoming zero carbon, in accordance with national targets and with the aims of the West Midlands Combined Authority commitment to achieve net zero carbon by 2041 and the Council target by 2050.
2. help decarbonise the transport system by locating developments sustainably to reduce new trips and encouraging less energy intensive and more sustainable modes of transport (as set out in the Transport section).
3. ensure buildings and infrastructure are designed, landscaped, and made suitably accessible to help adapt to a changing climate, making efficient use of water, reducing impacts from natural hazards like flooding and heatwaves, and avoiding contributing to the urban heat island effect.
4. create a safe and secure environment that is resilient to the impacts of climate-related emergencies.
5. take an integrated approach to the delivery of strategic and local infrastructure by ensuring that public, private, community and voluntary sectors plan and work together. Factors which may lead to the exacerbation of climate change (through the generation of more greenhouse gases) must be avoided (e.g. pollution, habitat fragmentation, loss of biodiversity) and the natural environment's resilience to change should be protected.

Increasing efficiency and resilience

12.6 The Government have stated that all buildings need to be net zero carbon by 2050. Section 19 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (2004), Section 182 of the Planning Act (2008), the Planning and Energy Act (2008), and the NPPF all empower local planning authorities to enforce policies that seek to reduce carbon emissions from new homes.

12.7 The NPPF, in particular states, that plans should take a proactive approach to mitigating and adapting to climate change. As part of this, new development should be planned for in ways that can help to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, such as through careful consideration of its location, orientation and design. The following Climate Change policies aim to ensure that future development address national energy and climate change objectives.

12.8 Policy DLP41 sets out how new development proposals will be required to demonstrate they are designed to maximise resistance and resilience to climate change through a range of design requirements.

Justification

12.9 Buildings, services, and infrastructure need to be able to cope with the impacts of climate change. Part of this will relate to ensuring that development is able to cope with more intense rainfall, the possibility of flooding, heat waves and droughts. The design of development therefore needs to address shading, insulation and ventilation, surface water runoff and storage and the use of appropriate tree planting and landscaping, to futureproof schemes against more extreme weather conditions.

12.10 Where possible and appropriate, the retrofitting of residential and other properties to achieve higher standards of energy and water efficiency will be encouraged and supported.

12.11 This policy should be read in conjunction with Policy DLP47, which covers the use of renewable and low carbon energy and energy-saving measures. It should also be read in conjunction with DLP39, which promotes good design including the management of water resources, and DLP44 and DLP45 which look in more detail at the control and mitigation of flooding and the provision of Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS).

12.12 DLP policies demonstrate that adaptation to and mitigation of climate change can be achieved across all forms of development. The PPG section on climate change³ identifies examples of mitigating climate change such as:

1. reducing the need to travel and providing for sustainable transport;
2. requiring good design to enable the focus of travel to move away from the motor car to modes of "active travel" such as safe cycling and walking routes especially on new housing estates;
3. providing opportunities for renewable and low-carbon energy technologies;
4. providing opportunities for decentralised energy production and district heat networks; and
5. promoting zero-carbon design approaches to reduce energy consumption in buildings, such as utilising passive solar design features.

Evidence

• Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (2004)
• Planning Act (2008)
• Planning and Energy Act (2008)
• UKCP18 Climate Change Projections Overland - Meteorological Office
• UK Climate Change Risk Assessment – Climate Change Committee
• CCC Sixth Carbon Budget⁴
• National Design Guidance
• West Midlands Combined Authority WM2041 Programme and Actions
• Historic England Energy Efficiency and Historic Buildings

Delivery

• Delivery will be secured through the development management processes, specifically through Planning and Design statements, energy plans and evidence accompanying planning applications.
• Planning conditions, CIL and Section 106 contributions.