Fortnightly Bulletin – 3rd April 2023
5 April 2023
Guidance
Develop a management system: environmental permits
This guidance details how to develop a management system and keep it up to date so that you can carry out activities under an environmental permit.
A complete environmental permit requires you to have a written management system. This is a set of procedures describing what you will do to minimise the risk of pollution from the activities covered by your permit.
Once you are operating you must implement your management system, or you will be in breach of your permit.
The “A Changing Climate” section has been updated on the Gov. UK website. The updated guidance explains when permit holders will need to meet the updated requirements for climate adaptation planning. This updated guidance is linked to new guidance “Climate Change: Risk Assessment and Adaptation Planning in your Management System”.
Source: gov.uk
To access the full updated guidance, click here.
Register for climate change levy
If you’re an electricity producer or energy supplier, check if you should register, send returns and pay the levy. Also, find out how to change or cancel a registration.
You must register with HMRC within 30 days of the date you make, or intend to make, your first taxable supply or self-supply.
To register, you need a Government Gateway user ID and password. If you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you register.
Source: gov.uk
To access the full updated guidance, click here.
Articles of Interest
England not ready for climate change impact
England is not ready for the unavoidable impacts of global warming, the government’s advisers on climate change say in a new report.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said the government hasn’t achieved any of its targets and needed a policy “step change” to avoid loss of life.
The CCC reviews the government’s adaptation plans – preparations to cope with the effects of global warming.
The government said it would take the recommendations into account.
The committee, also known as the CCC, is an independent group of experts set up to provide the government with advice on the climate crisis.
Baroness Brown, chairwoman of the CCC’s sub-committee on adaptation, said that the government wasn’t taking the issue seriously enough.
“The government’s lack of urgency on climate resilience is in sharp contrast to the recent experience of this country,” she said.
Over the last couple of years, England has faced a series of extreme weather events, likely made worse by climate change.
A UK government spokesperson told the BBC: “We have taken decisive action to improve the UK’s climate change resilience – including investing a record £5.2bn into flood defences.”
The spokesperson said the government would factor in the committee’s recommendations to the new National Adaptation Plan, which is expected to be published this summer.
Source: BBC News
To read the full article, click here.
UN warns against ‘vampiric’ global water use
A United Nations report has warned of a looming global water crisis and an “imminent risk” of shortages due to overconsumption and climate change.
The world is “blindly travelling a dangerous path” of “vampiric overconsumption and overdevelopment”, the report says.
Its publication comes before the first major UN water summit since 1977.
Thousands of delegates will attend the three-day gathering in New York which begins on Wednesday.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says water, “humanity’s lifeblood”, is being drained by “unsustainable water use, pollution and unchecked global warming”.
The report, published by UN Water and Unesco, warns that “scarcity is becoming endemic” because of overconsumption and pollution, while global warming will increase seasonal water shortages in both areas with abundant water and those already strained.
Source: BBC News
To read the full article, click here.
Fines and Prosecutions
Construction Company Fined £185,000 For Polluting Brook At East Midlands Site
Contractors at the East Midlands Gateway development site prosecuted for polluting a local brook.
The Environment Agency has successfully prosecuted a construction company for polluting a local brook whilst engaged as contractors at the East Midlands Gateway development site.
At Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on 1 March 2023, an established construction firm admitted causing pollution and was fined £160,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £25,577.79.
The court was told that the company were contractors at the site near Kegworth when Hemington Brook became highly turbid and discoloured with clay solids.
A biological survey revealed that the discharge of contaminated run off from the site had caused “gross and chronic” pollution adversely affecting invertebrates. A member of the public alerted the Environment Agency when the brook started “running red with silt pollution” on or before 27 September 2019.
The established construction firm caused or knowingly permitted, a water discharge activity. Namely the discharge or entry of suspended solids, being a polluting matter, into the Hemington Brook, except under and to the extent authorised by an environmental permit.
Source: gov.uk
To read more about this prosecution, click here.
Online Learning and Events
Do you work in or near watercourses?
20th April 2023 13:00-14:00
Cura Terrae is bringing together environmental experts from across the organisation to explain environmental permitting, licensing and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements for those planning a project which will affect a watercourse. Topics covered will include;
- When do you need an environmental permit?
- Applying for an environmental permit – timescales and requirements
- What is Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)?
- How BNG might affect your projects after November 2023
Scope 3 and resource efficiency; practical examples from the building sector
13th June 2023 13.30-14:30pm
Building operations, refurbishments and the changing use of space to accommodate more flexible ways of working and wellbeing criteria has the potential to generate more waste and disposal of items no longer required. This is contributing not only to the use of resources, but also to the carbon emissions associated with the lifecycle of these items.
The development of a Scope 3 Standard by and for the FM sector seeks to provide consistency and to promote circular economy principles into the role of FM and building management. During this session, a panel of experts and practitioners will discuss the role of circular economy in FM and provide examples of practical engagement to help reduce scope 3 emissions.
This will be an ideal opportunity for anyone managing estates or working on resource efficiency for physical estates to learn from the development of this project, with time scheduled for a Q&A session with the speakers.
Using objective data and insights to navigate the subjective world of ESG
27th April 2023 14:00 – 15:00pm
This session will provide attendees with information on how to derive and leverage objective ESG data points that facilitate impact, drive stakeholder and shareholder value, and avoid ‘greenwashing’. Specific topics to be discussed include:
• How to define ‘ESG’ for your industry.
• Valuable tools and techniques that will continuously drive fact-based ESG management decision.
• Why objectivity in a subjective discipline creates a competitive edge.
• How ESG is changing the role of the EHS professional.
