Transcript Document

John Barnes
Environment and Sustainability Director
United Utilities
Water and Climate Change: United Utilities
Perspective
1
Presentation Overview
• Brief Overview of UU
• The impact of climate change of the provision of water
services
• Adaptation – the impact on our activities and our response
• Mitigation – our strategy and plan
2
Water and Climate Change – a starting
point
“The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the
environment”
Herman Daly, 2005
“The effects of climate change will be felt everywhere …In
the UK the effects will be mainly mediated through water,
with increases in the number of both flood and drought
incidents expected”
H.M Treasury 2006
3
Introduction to UU
– We are the UK’s largest listed water & wastewater
company
– Turnover of £2,386.8 million (2005/6)
– Market capitalisation of £6,507 million
– We provide services to over 27 million people worldwide
– Employing 8,000 people
– £10 billion invested in the UK between 1989-2005
– Between 2005-2010, £3.5 billion will be invested by UU in
its water, wastewater and electricity networks – that works
out at more than £20 per second
4
UK operations
Serve
close to
30% of the
UK
population
Scottish Water
8,000
employees
£1.4bn capital programme
delivery and PFIs
United Utilities
£3.5bn capital investment
programme covering water,
wastewater and electricity
distribution over 5 years.
Northern Gas Networks
15% equity owner, asset management
and operation, 36,000km network
Welsh Water
Asset management and
operation, £1.5bn over
15 years
Southern Water
£750m capital programme delivery
Contracted to deliver
£5bn of capital
investment projects
across the globe
5
How Climate Change will impact the
north west – water services
• Wetter winters with
more intense rainfall
• Hotter and drier
summers but with
intense rainfall
• Longer droughts,
more severe
droughts and more
frequent droughts
Thirlmere Reservoir, Lake District
6
Responding to the impact on our
activities - water
2035 estimate – shortfall in
supply of some 10% or
around 200 million litres of
water every day
Measures to address this:
• Reduce demand for water
(leakage control and customer
efficiency)
• Increase supply of water (small
scale new resource development
and greater network integration)
• Key proposal is the East-West
link to move water from Prescot
to Bury linking Lake District and
Welsh sources
7
How Climate Change will impact the north
west – wastewater services
Carlisle
Wastewater
Treatment
Works –
January 2005
•
•
•
•
Increased flooding incidences
Increased CSO discharges
Reduced final effluent discharge dilution
Increased blockages
8
Responding to the impact on our
activities - wastewater
Green roofs (above) and detention ponds (below)
Traditional approach, to build our way
out of this problem, will not work.
Focus must be on:
– Education – awareness that
flooding can not be eliminated but
must be managed,
– Make public true levels of risk of
flooding from all sources
– Planning input – mandatory that
all new development be drained
on a sustainable basis e.g. green
roofs, rainwater recycling, SUDS
– Responsibility – Reduce the
number of stakeholders involved
in urban drainage to 2 – the
regulator and a single operator
9
Planning Our Response
• Adaptation - a long term problem that demands a long
term answer
• Planning for its consequences needs to begin right now
• We are including our intentions in our regulatory plans for
2010 to 2015 .
• These plans will be influenced by the UKCIP rainfall
scenarios to be released next year
10
UU’s carbon strategy and plan
There are four key strands to our carbon management strategy:
• Seeking to achieve a net 5% reduction on the 2005/06 baseline
for our “owned” carbon emissions by 2012 (with projected rises
this is actually a reduction of 8% overall)
• Continuing our reduction of emissions beyond 2012 in line with
the long-term government targets set for 2050
• Influencing the external environment to support the
achievement of these aims
• Pursuing a vision of making carbon an integral part of the way
we do business
But what is the context for setting this direction?
11
Providing context – UU’s carbon footprint
•
2006/7 emissions - directly responsible for 472 thousand tonnes of CO2
equivalent using one-third of one per cent of all UK electricity
•
A further 1.57 million tonnes that we don’t directly own but can have an
influence over.
UU-owned emissions split by source
1%
3%
4%
Net Grid Electricity Consumption
20%
Process Emissions
Other Fuel use
Transport Fuels
Rail and Air Travel
72%
12
Providing context – emission projections
Graph of emissions – 1990 - 2050
UU Group GHG emissions 1990 - 2050
Tonnes of CO2e
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
1990
1994 2000
2005
2010
2015
2020 2025
2030
2035
2040 2045
2050
Year
Actual carbon emissions (1990-2005) and projections to 2020
Linear reduction of 60% from 1990 baseline
Impact of mitigation activities to 2020
• UU’s operational carbon footprint has nearly doubled since 1990
• This is a direct consequence of £10 billion of investment in assets
to deliver environmental and customer improvements
13
Delivering our carbon strategy – to 2012
Delivery of one
2.4 MW CHP
engine to
Davyhulme
WwTW
•
•
A 8% gross reduction in CO2e emissions by 2012
•
£22m investment in increasing CHP yield by 80%
•
UU home to one quarter of all sewage gas CHP sites (23 in total)
•
Improving pump energy efficiency
18% reduction through green energy supply contracts
14
UU’s (and the industry’s) challenge – the
journey to 2050 and a 60% reduction
488,000 tCO2e
CHP and IPM = 38,000 tCO2e
Cost = £37m
Wind = 80,000 tCO2e
Cost = £80m
Low carbon technology
= 80,000 tCO2e
Cost = £??
• UU carbon emissions baseline (2005/6) 488,000 tCO2e
170,000 tCO2e = TBD
• Climate Change Bill targets 60% reduction on 1990 levels
by 2050
• For UU, this equates to 122,000 tCO2e
• To meet that target equals a reduction of 366,000 tCO2e
• The diagram illustrates what abatement strategies could be
adopted, with what impact and at what price
122,000 tCO2e
15
Delivering our carbon strategy – to 2050
•
On the journey to 2050, aim to halve owned emissions from current
levels by 2035
•
require energy neutrality in wastewater operations
•
reduced pumping in water network
•
tackle problems at source
•
appropriate financial instruments
•
on-going research into renewable generation and low carbon
technology
•
promoting water efficiency
16
Delivering Our Strategy through
influencing others – our customers
•
For customers, making the link in the minds of our customers that
there is a carbon footprint associated with the provision and use of
water
– Reduced heating of water (about 8 x water cycle footprint)
•
Power Shower Study
joint project with Liverpool John Moores University
electric showers better than mixer or pumped
showers
water saving showerheads
•
Better information
17
Delivering our strategy – stakeholder
challenges
• For Ofwat and the Environment Agency, crucial to strike the
balance between the on-going delivery of aquatic
environmental improvements and the airborne (i.e. carbon)
consequence
• For Ofwat, creating the framework to encourage investment
in greenhouse gas mitigation
– Financial instruments such as incentives
– Minimising the impact of the enhancement programme
– Reducing the footprint of the existing assets/maximising
energy recovery
18
Delivering our strategy – the role of
employees
•
Employee engagement is crucial to
change behaviour
•
Our employees can provide many
ideas on reducing carbon emissions
•
Changed business processes are
needed to embed carbon into
decision making e.g. inclusion of cost
of carbon into PR09 planning
•
Sector first in appointing full-time
Carbon Manager to lead plan delivery
•
Carbon communications plan (both
internal and external) in place to
promote our carbon management
agenda
19