NLWA welcomes the Climate Change Commission’s (CCC) ambitious recommendations for the 7th Carbon Budget announced today.
Among critically needed measures to decarbonise in response to the climate emergency (such as greater electrification and the rollout of new technologies), it was reassuring to see the CCC recognise barriers faced by local authorities when seeking to decarbonise waste. This includes the need for funding to deliver effective waste prevention and recycling services.
NLWA and other local authorities are grappling with this at present; for example, local authorities will need sufficient funding to deliver the Simpler Recycling food waste collections successfully. While funding has already been allocated to waste collection authorities, disposal authorities have not been promised funding to cover the cost of capital investments to manage the new mandatory food waste services. At NLWA we estimate this could cost up to £25m.
NLWA fundamentally supports CCC’s position that new emissions reduction targets will only be achievable “provided action is taken rapidly”, and therefore urges Government to provide the clarity and support local waste authorities need to decarbonise.
In particular, we want to see the government urgently outline funding and a timeline for the selected Track 1, Track 2 and Track-1 expansion carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. NLWA fully supports the report’s position that CCS is critical for decarbonising the waste industry. Our own plans to implement CCS in our energy-from-waste (EfW) facility in the mid-2030s align with the report’s recommended timeline for the rollout of such technology.
However, we note that successful implementation of CCS is dependent on plants being connected with CO2 transport and storage networks. Government needs to tackle this issue as many plants (including the Edmonton EcoPark EfW) could be reliant on road, rail and/or shipping, which will in turn need to achieve their own decarbonisation targets. NLWA also calls for clarity from Government on how the compliance and voluntary carbon markets would deal with the greenhouse gas removal (GGR) credits generated by EfW CCS.
Reflecting on the report’s recommendations, NLWA Chair Councillor Clyde Loakes reiterated NLWA’s support for decarbonisation while highlighting the need for Government support: “NLWA recognises the urgency of decarbonisation and remains at the forefront of implementing technological solutions to decarbonise our facilities and processes as much as possible. However we remain reliant on Government funding and support for these to be implemented in the most successful way. We also continue to remind Government that the carbon inherently present in waste items is ultimately the responsibility of manufacturers, who must take on a greater share of the costs of disposal."
