Minister doubtful over “extremely ambitious” climate change goals

Tuesday 23 April 2019

The Environment Minister has dubbed a goal for Jersey to become carbon neutral by 2030 as “extremely ambitious and challenging”, arguing that the island doesn’t have enough green space to make it possible.

Amid calls to declare a "climate emergency" by Deputy Rob Ward, the doubts were voiced by Deputy John Young, who predicts that committing to this 10-year goal will result in Jersey having to fork out for eco-friendly initiatives elsewhere to offset its carbon footprint.

Deputy Young has therefore submitted an amendment to Deputy Ward's proposal calling for Jersey to pledge to become carbon neutral in just over a decade.

This comes amid an international movement from environmental activists Extinction Rebellion who have been demonstrating across the world to call for governments to take action against global warming. Jersey representatives of this campaign have also been taking to the Royal Square to add their voices to this mission. 

Pictured: Activists have been making their views clear by demonstrating in the Royal Square over climate change.

They aren’t the only islanders claiming a stake in the fight for “climate justice,” with Jersey sixth formers striking from school to show their strength of feeling on the subject – following the example of teenage activist Greta Thurnberg who founded the ‘Fridays4Future’ movement in her native Sweden.

Despite these calls for change, the Minister responsible for protecting Jersey’s natural environment - whilst welcoming the sentiment behind Deputy Ward’s proposition - has expressed doubts about its practicality.

While Deputy Ward’s describes the ambitions set out in his proposition as “achievable and a key starting-point for future actions”, the Environment Minister describes them as “extremely ambitious and challenging”, as well as rushing to defend Jersey’s existing strides in protecting the environment.

Pictured: The Environment Minister's suggested changes come a week ahead of the major debate due to take place in the States Chamber.

Noting that “Jersey’s per capita carbon emissions are low in comparison to other jurisdictions (e.g. 3.8 tonnes/per person vs the UK of 7.1 tonnes/person)”, the Environment Minister’s amendment seeks to soften the commitments set out by his fellow Deputy. 

Rather than the “aim to be carbon-neutral by 2030”, the Environment Minister rather suggests that he should be tasked with assessing how this target could be reached and presenting his findings to the States by the end of next year.

Deputy Young’s amendment also indicates that the Environment Minister should carry out “an examination and assessment of more ambitious policies to accelerate carbon reduction, to include an assessment of the use of fiscal levels to change behaviour and raise awareness.”

These suggestions are brought as counter-points to Deputy Ward’s proposal that the Council of Ministers should create a “a plan to achieve” carbon neutrality by 2030 as well as “a climate impact assessment on the proposals set out in the Plan.”

Deputy Young’s amendment reads: “To date, Jersey has been a responsible and leading jurisdiction in our efforts to reduce our carbon emissions. However, it is now timely to investigate and cost an accelerated carbon reduction strategy to respond to the new level of urgency associated with the global climate change, and therefore Deputy R.J. Ward of St. Helier’s proposition… is welcomed.”

Pictured: Deputy Rob Ward's original proposition calls for the declaration of a "climate change emergency".

However, regarding the carbon-neutrality commitment, the Environment Minister had this to say: “Reaching carbon neutrality by 2030 as proposed by Deputy Ward, is extremely ambitious and challenging. On our current trajectory, and with successful implementation of our existing policies, by 2030 our emissions are projected to be 57% lower than 1990…

“To achieve net-zero emissions, the unavoidable residual carbon emissions would need to be partly mitigated by an increase of natural on-island carbon ‘sinks’ like woodland and permanent grassland. However, our limited land area means that the effect of localised mitigation would be extremely minimal, and to reach neutrality we’d likely need to purchase global carbon offsets.”

The Minister makes clear that he “support[s] the intention of the proposition” and is willing to “further investigate what carbon-neutral might mean in the Jersey context, evaluate the social and economic impacts of such a commitment, and bring this forward for consideration by the Assembly.”

Deputy Young goes onto note that next year will mark the scheduled five-year review of Jersey’s Energy Plan and that “this is the appropriate time to evaluate our progress and explore how we might achieve carbon neutrality or other accelerated carbon reduction policies.”

The major debate on Deputy Ward’s proposition will take place in the States Assembly next week (30 April).