Page 8 - link magazine

8 swindonlink.com • January 2011
Localism, development threats and getting ready

for a four degree rise in global temperature
Local and global: there’s a complex mix of issues and allowing developers to build houses on green fields to the west of Swindon
will severely limit what future generations can do, writes Richard Pagett of Purton Environmental Group Purton Ps & Qs

The climate change conference take a different and cleaner cuts for a variety of complex
at Cancun, Mexico in December: development route. political reasons, and the
what was it about, and how does Most serious climate sci- EU no longer carries the
it affect Swindon and Wiltshire? entists have already sug- required clout in the real
The recent High Court decision gested that we have now corridors of global power.
that confirmed (in its view) the il- lost the opportunity to keep It was not a case of poor
legality of the rapid ditching of the to the 2 degree limit. In negotiation, poor science or
Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) by 2010 the Met Office held an poor understanding of the
the Coalition Government could expert conference in Oxford problem and its implica-
open the floodgates. It could al- on planning for a 4 degree tions, it was simply selfish-
low developers to submit applica- temperature rise (which in ness and greed - sadly, two
tions to concrete over green fields fact means up to 7 degrees very common and universal
between Swindon and Purton/ in some places). human ‘qualities.’
Lydiard before the Localism Bill Cancun agreed a Green Flooding - in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, top, and So, we are into a world
becomes law. Once the Bill is law Climate Fund to channel £60 below, Andrea, Carla and Nathan Huynh by Westlea of adaptation. Resistance to
Brook in July 2006 that flooded about ten homes
the RSS is then formally ditched. billion each year by 2020 to inappropriate development
It is imperative that these cynical developing countries. Re- here is very worthwhile
applications are stopped. ally? Remember the EU is supporting because the key
James Gray MP recently came out scratching around to bailout to successful adaptation
strongly against inappropriate large Ireland for just a few billion? will be the ability to think
development in North Wiltshire The smart money was about future land use in
and, as he said, it is not NIMBY-ism; saying before Cancun that Wiltshire.
it is just common sense. it would be South Africa in But climate change isn’t
This is correct and crucial because December 2011 before there the only problem. Increas-
where we put housing determines can be a final agreement on ingly it is recognised that the
pretty much everything else: travel emission limits...and so it overwhelming challenge is
to work and schools, waste disposal came to pass. population and resources.
and water supply management, lo- The final text is of such The sustainable population
cal food possibilities, smart energy byzantine subtlety that level for the UK is around
opportunities and so on. It also it allowed all sides to hold their allow monitoring and verification 30 to 35 million, but we are at 60
jeopardises efforts of local people in positions while putting off proper anyway because it is against their million right now and projected to
doing what they can to reduce their emissions decisions until world philosophy of sovereignty. go to 70 million by 2050.
carbon dioxide emissions. governments meet again in Durban. The Japanese are playing for dif- So, yes, let’s mitigate as much as
But it is not just about developers By finessing the intractable, the ferent stakes in their eternal tussles possible and as quickly as possible
pouncing to get outline permission financing and movement on sorting with the Chinese in the South China because we have an ethical respon-
on all sorts of land banks before out global deforestation which is Sea. The South Americans want as sibility to do this and to demonstrate
the Wiltshire Council can agree less threatening to sovereign states much of the Green Climate Fund as leadership, but the future is in ad-
an alternative plan. It is far more could proceed. possible so it was in their interests aptation and that is why we need to
serious than that. But strip away the spin and gloss to agree to emissions discussions figure out how we will need to use
At the Copenhagen climate and posturing and the agreement at for some time in the future so they our land space in North Wiltshire,
change conference in December Cancun wasn’t much of anything, can get their hands on the financing. before it is concreted over for short
2009, the outcome -The Accord - was other than to try harder and do bet- On top of that, the recent mid- term gain.
hopelessly weak. It was trumpeted ter by December this year. Russia term election results in the US have • Richard Pagett is a consultant
as the first time governments of- played its usual game of chess as bolstered the Republican ability to advising governments around the
ficially came out and agreed that if it were draughts, the Chinese do stymie any US-inspired emission world on planning for climate change
it was important to hold global not believe in win-win, if someone limits for perhaps ten years. If the as far afield as the Bukina Faso in
temperature rise to two degrees, to ‘wins’ then they must have lost US cannot lead, then who? China, West Africa and Fiji in the Pacific.
fund the non-industrialised world to by default, and they will never India, Russia and Japan won’t agree

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