Climate Emergency DPD Series (Ch.1) Planning News, Environment, Renewables 26/03/2021 by Gilly
We are facing a global climate emergency. There is no doubt that our choices and actions contribute to the earth’s natural eco-systems, and from decades of human negligence, global warming is now resulting in severe weather, rising sea levels and habitat destruction. We have to act now to turn this around.
Cornwall Council declared a climate emergency in 2019, announcing the aim to achieve a carbon neutral Cornwall by 2030. This ambitious target means an overhaul of existing planning policy to drive the transition to a cleaner, greener Cornwall. With this in mind, the draft Climate Emergency Development Plan Document (DPD) sets out new climate-focused policies, to replace existing policies in the Cornwall Local Plan, and introduce new policies to ensure all development contributes to carbon neutrality. The key objectives of the DPD are:
Decarbonising our lifestyles, reduce carbon in our energy use, building methods, travel and leisure
Create resilient communities and nature
Create environmental growth, develop and reinforce natural systems to protect and enhance our environment
Rebalance the need to travel and how we move around and work
Ensure the health and wellbeing of our residents
Embed practice and standards around making buildings and places more efficient, reducing materials and waste
Developing a whole system approach
Planning is a vital part of the solution to climate change. It can shape how we live, where we get our electricity from, how we travel, where we shop. Planning can be the driver in delivering carbon neutrality, and making the world around us a better place. One of the guiding themes of the DPD is to create policy that helps to develop the right things in the right location, supporting sustainable practice, environmental growth and carbon reduction. This reflects our ethos at Enhance, and we’ve been involved with the consultation process throughout the evolution of the DPD. This is the first of a series of blogs on the DPD, where we will delve deeper into some of the draft policies and what they mean for Cornwall.
The key topics we will be covering over the next few weeks are: Renewable Energy; One Planet Development/Alternative Living; Town Centre Design and Density; Coastal Change and Flooding; and Natural Climate Solutions.
The consultation for the Climate Emergency DPD is available for your comments here
The consultation period for the DPD closes on 16th April.
