Government urged to bring whole-life carbon assessments into NPPF
The latest report from the all-party parliamentary group for the timber industries has urged the government to bring whole-life carbon assessments into the National Planning Policy Framework and building regulations.
The report, Timber Construction: Barriers and Solutions, provides a set of policy recommendations to expand low-carbon timber construction in the UK as a crucial strand in driving down carbon emissions from the real estate sector.
The recommendations include introducing clauses to the NPPF requiring whole-life carbon assessments to be submitted as part of pre-application enquiries, full planning submissions and at practical completion. They also call for the expansion of the building regulations to include requirements to assess, report and reduce embodied carbon.
The latest report from the all-party parliamentary group for the timber industries has urged the government to bring whole-life carbon assessments into the National Planning Policy Framework and building regulations.
The report, Timber Construction: Barriers and Solutions, provides a set of policy recommendations to expand low-carbon timber construction in the UK as a crucial strand in driving down carbon emissions from the real estate sector.
The recommendations include introducing clauses to the NPPF requiring whole-life carbon assessments to be submitted as part of pre-application enquiries, full planning submissions and at practical completion. They also call for the expansion of the building regulations to include requirements to assess, report and reduce embodied carbon.
The report highlights the use of embodied carbon legislation across Europe in recent years, including in France, the Netherlands and Denmark – in contrast to the lack of legislation seen in the UK.
“Regulation of embodied carbon emissions would inherently incentivise the use of timber, which has the lowest embodied carbon of all the mainstream construction materials and can sequester 0.9 tonnes of CO2 in every cubic metre,” the report says.
Increasing the use of timber in construction has been recommended by both the Climate Change Committee and Environmental Audit Committee to decarbonise the UK’s built environment and achieve net zero by 2050.
The report looks at how government can increase demand for sustainable timber, increase the resilience of timber supply, tackle misconceptions about building safety and expand low-carbon construction skills.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock, chair of the APPG, said: “This report goes beyond the arguments for timber construction. We feel these have been well made and to good effect.
“Instead, we want to turn these arguments into a policy reality, inspiring the government, and other political parties, in their bid to formulate green-built environment policies for the election next year.”
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