5. Tackling climate change and enhancing our local environment
Introduction
In 2019, East Sussex County Council declared a climate emergency in response to the need to address human-induced climate change and to achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty ratified by the United Kingdom in 2016 with the overarching goal to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” This declaration is aligned with the United Kingdom’s legal requirement under the Climate Act to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 100% of 1990 levels (net zero) by 2050.
Transport is the largest sector for emitting GHG emissions, producing 24% of the UK’s total emissions in 2020 (406 MtCO2e), with increases in the intensity and frequency of severe weather events already being felt across the region. The serious nature of such changes means the transport network needs to be more resilient and for East Sussex to play its part to prevent additional GHG emissions being released to avoid the even more severe impacts of climate change forecast by scientific experts.
The East Sussex Climate Emergency Road Map for 2022-25 sets out a county-wide target of reducing emissions by 13% each year. It also acknowledges the Council’s influence on transport emissions in its role as a local transport and highways authority.
Only by addressing human-induced climate change will all other policies proposed in this Local Transport Plan (LTP) be achievable. This initial chapter therefore focuses on schemes and policies that will support decarbonisation of the transport system and the way in which transport can support, protect, and enhance the natural and built environment.
Also important in addressing climate change is mitigating its impacts. Mitigation of the impacts of climate is covered through a number of the policies within this chapter, including A3: Resilience and adaptation, as well as in subsequent chapters including B6: Improved access to green and blue infrastructure.
Mitigating climate change through decarbonising transport
Transport decarbonisation is the process of reducing, and ultimately removing, greenhouse gas emissions produced as a by-product of transport infrastructure and operations. To achieve this objective, the approach is moving towards supporting a carbon free transport network during the lifetime of the plan. Achieving this ambition will help tackle climate change and limit the impacts on the planet. This plan has been designed to achieve local targets and contribute towards wider, national decarbonisation targets. As part of this objective the aim is to:
- Increase the proportion of people travelling by walking, wheeling, cycling, public or shared transport.
- Facilitate the uptake of ultra-low and zero-emission vehicles for journeys, through the delivery of supporting infrastructure.
- Work with partners to decarbonise transport and tackle climate change.
- Support clean technologies and fuels that contribute towards the decarbonisation of transport.
The plan for decarbonising transport in East Sussex seeks to achieve a reduction in transport carbon emissions in three ways by:
- Promoting public transport and active travel to encourage modal shift from car based journeys.
- Reducing the carbon impact of existing trips through supporting the roll out of electric vehicles and decarbonising public transport operations.
- Reducing the need to travel by bringing people closer to goods, services and opportunities.
Delivering an efficient transport network
The transport’s system efficiency needs to improve. Through integrated land-use planning and transport demand management the need to travel and the length of the remaining necessary trips may be reduced.
Reducing the need to travel is not about reducing accessibility. It’s about bringing people closer to the goods, services, and opportunities that they want and need without the requirement to travel longer distances. This scenario can be achieved through encouraging development to be focused on town centres and to be mixed use, and by encouraging enhanced digital connectivity to enable people to access what they need and want online where the goods or services are not available locally or can be accessed without the need to travel (for example, online medical consultations).
A package of interventions to support the creation of healthy sustainable communities has been developed. In both rural and urban areas, appropriate demand management measures will be used to enhance quality of place and increase safety, for example, through the delivery of a School Streets programme, area-based traffic management schemes, which re-design road space to support liveable towns and neighbourhoods and parking restrictions (particularly in town centres). To optimise the benefits of demand management measures the Country Council will work with local planning authorities to integrate land use, spatial and transport planning. Where possible supporting and facilitating investment by others, such as government’s “Project Gigabit” initiative, in future proofing broadband and mobile digital infrastructure, ensuring that the whole county benefits from constantly evolving opportunities gained through digital transformation.
Promoting public transport and active travel
Decarbonise transport through moving journeys from transport modes with greater carbon emissions such as cars towards walking, wheeling and cycling and using public transport.
These measures will help to encourage a move to public transport through the development and delivery of bus service enhancements across the county ensuring that more people are well served by reliable, frequent, and high-quality bus services. On higher frequency routes, such as coastal routes (for example, Eastbourne - Seaford - Newhaven – Peacehaven - Brighton or Bexhill - Hastings) as well as intra-urban bus routes (for example, parts of Eastbourne’s Loop), highway congestion can present a barrier to faster journey times. Proposals include the delivery of bus priority infrastructure, such as bus lanes and bus gates, to ensure the bus is an attractive mode for all types of trips.
Active travel infrastructure will be delivered, encouraging walking, wheeling and cycling for short and medium length trips. New public transport and active modes will be integrated through a network of interchange opportunities at the intersections of different parts of the transport network (walking, cycling, bus, rail, and road) allowing for easy connections and seamless, sustainable trips thereby increasing the competitiveness of public transport and active travel compared to the car.
Reducing the carbon impact of existing trips
Reducing the carbon emissions of transport modes and related vehicle technology is needed to decarbonise transport. Achieving this ambition will require partnership working as many of the key initiatives and opportunities to support this aim are not in the direct control of East Sussex County Council, but with partners.
Supporting decarbonisation of transport involves working in partnership with transport operators to deliver the rollout of zero-emission vehicles in their fleets and across the county. Working together will ensure that the enhanced connectivity provided by the County Council’s programme of bus service improvements does not generate increased carbon emissions. The East Sussex Bus Service Improvement Plan proposes to “work closely to take advantage of any funding opportunities that may arise to introduce battery electric buses or hydrogen fuel cell buses”. Moving to a zero-emission fleet also has positive air quality impacts and will support delivery on air quality management objectives across the county and improve the health of individuals.
The rail network in East Sussex, while mostly electrified, includes two notable sections which are still serviced by diesel operations: the Oxted Line (Hurst Green (Surrey) to Uckfield) and the Marshlink line (Ore to Ashford). Electrifying both stretches of track will reduce the carbon impact of rail operations in East Sussex.
For trips where public transport and active travel are not an option, this plan seeks to accelerate the transition to a decarbonised fleet. This transition will be encouraged through delivery of on-street electric vehicle charging infrastructure by the County Council, and off-street provision including a network of charging hubs across the county via other partners as well as exploring opportunities to capitalise on newer fuels. This ambition extends to freight and buses,with hydrogen refuelling stations enabling even the largest highway freight vehicles to be decarbonised and buses in other local authority areas already being fuelled by hydrogen (i.e. Metrobus – Crawley). The Hydrogen Sussex Strategy provides a route map for optimising the potential of hydrogen in supporting a decarbonised transport network and East Sussex will work with partners and stakeholders to identify locations where hydrogen production and distribution could take place.
Conserve and enhance our local environment
The approach is to conserve and enhance our natural environment to promote sustainable active travel (walking, wheeling, cycling and horse riding) and enable access to green spaces for residents and visitors. It is aimed to:
Conserve and enhance our local environment by mitigating negative impacts of transport design and delivery.
Enhance and create attractive and connected communities and public spaces.
Support habitat connectivity and increase biodiversity through the delivery of enhanced and new transport infrastructure and public spaces.
Assets and infrastructure
East Sussex is home to many leisure and tourism assets and cultural heritage sites. Preserving these sites is essential to retaining the character and cultural heritage of the area, as well as supporting the visitor economy through encouraging efficient transport to those tourism sites. This plan will, in the first instance, make best use of adapting existing infrastructure, balancing the needs of different users and delivering improvements which have minimal impact on the local environment. Where infrastructure with more considerable environmental impact is required, partners would ensure that assets are protected from the impacts of that construction.
Habitats and biodiversity
During construction and implementation of transport schemes, partners will seek to minimise and mitigate the disruption caused to the environment and habitats, as well as support the connectivity of ecologically robust habitat trails and pathways. Infrastructure schemes will be rigorously assessed to safeguard habitats and increase biodiversity, examples may include through street greening and tree planting. As part of this plan, safeguarding habitats and biodiversity net gain as key requirements in scheme assessment and the LTP has been subject to an independent .
Large infrastructure construction projects can limit the protection and preservation of key natural areas in the natural environment. Networks will be designed with conservation and enhancement of the environment as a key consideration, accounting for new species along road verges, marine habitats along the coast and the natural landscape.
Delivering these objectives
These objectives will be delivered through the following policy areas:
- Policy A1: Reducing emissions.
- Policy A2: Zero emissions vehicles.
- Policy A3: Resilience and adaptation.
- Policy A4: Biodiversity and natural capital.
- Policy A5: Energy supply.
Policy A1: Reducing emissions
Context
Under the Climate Change Act (2008), the UK Government has set a target for the UK to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In East Sussex, transport accounts for 35% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions – decarbonising transport is therefore a vital part of achieving net zero.
Issues/opportunities
Two thirds of journeys in East Sussex are under 5 miles, however more than 80 per cent of direct tailpipe emissions from highways traffic is generated from journeys over 12 miles in length. Many of these longer distance trips occur where a more sustainable option is not available or suitable. A journey between Uckfield and Etchingham, for example, takes approximately two times longer by public transport (one hour and requiring a change of bus) than by car (thirty minutes).
Interventions to enhance capacity, resilience, reliability, and connectivity provided by public transport will increase its ability to capture a greater share of longer distance trips reducing the number of private car trips taken and limiting carbon emissions from transport.
Delivery of infrastructure and networks that enables journeys under 5 miles by walking, wheeling, cycling or public transport in both urban and rural areas will support decarbonisation of these trips.
Component policy measures
In summary policy measures will focus on:
- Reducing the need to travel by bringing goods, services and other opportunities closer to people through spatial planning and digital connectivity.
- Enabling and encouraging mode shift and choice from the private car to more sustainable transport modes such as walking, wheeling, cycling (including use of e-bikes) and public transport for short journeys or part of longer journeys.
- Supporting efforts to reduce carbon emissions from the public transport network through adoption of alternative fuels.
- Supporting people to transition to ultra-low and zero emission vehicles through the provision of suitable refuelling and charging infrastructure.
Policy A2: Future and zero emission vehicles and infrastructure
Context
Transitioning to zero emission vehicles is essential to reducing emissions. Department for Transport’s Decarbonising transport: a better, greener Britain (2021) sets out a commitment to decarbonisation through mode shift and a transition to zero emission vehicles. It recognises the opportunity and challenges that this transition presents and makes several commitments including support for the delivery of zero emission buses, working towards phase out dates for the sale of all new non-zero emission HGVs as well as petrol and diesel phase out dates for new vehicles.
Issues/opportunities
The arrival of micromobility modes such as e-bikes has increased the range of trips that people can reasonably make through active travel modes as well as making them accessible to wider range of users. Roll out of e-bike and other future mobility type schemes can provide a zero -emission alternative to the private car for short and medium trips.
In January 2022 there were 136 (off-road) public charge electric vehicle points in East Sussex, an increase of 76.6% over a two-year period. This increase is supporting a take-up of and use of electric vehicles. Increasing the availability of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, particularly on road in residential areas which have limited off-street parking and more rural areas where there is relatively low availability, can better support residents to transition to electric vehicles.
Adoption of electric cars in East Sussex is relatively low. In March 2024, 2.2% of the cars and light goods vehicles registered in East Sussex were either battery electric or plug-in hybrid models, lower than the UK (3.9%) and South-East (5.2%) averages. Charging point availability is also relatively low. 373 charging points were available in July 2024, significantly less than in Kent (955), Surrey (894) and West Sussex (736).
East Sussex is part of the Hydrogen Sussex group which seeks to raise awareness and develop opportunities for clean hydrogen as a key energy source in the transition to net zero carbon emissions. They have recently published their strategy which presents a blueprint for harnessing the potential of hydrogen to power zero emissions vehicles.
We acknowledge that the cost of zero-emission vehicles is relatively high and therefore difficult for operators and local authorities to meet alone. The County Council will work with public transport operators to support their transition to zero-emission buses. Support could include submissions for funding to secure infrastructure or zero-emission vehicles, through to collaborative working to re-charge electric vehicles at the start, beginning or mid route.
Component policy measures
Whilst more detail is provided in the Electric Vehicle Charging Strategy, in summary the policy measures focus on:
- Supporting the delivery of electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the County to for all users; communities, businesses and visitors.
- Utilising new zero emissions transport fuels and technologies as they become available.
- Working with bus operators to rollout zero emissions vehicles through Enhanced Partnerships (EP’s), a statutory partnership between a local authority and their local bus operators, setting out how they will work together to deliver the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) outcomes in their local geography.
- Supporting the continued development of active travel networks and transport interchange facilities (mobility hubs) to encourage the use e-bikes and micromobility modes.
Policy A3: Resilience and adaptation
Context
The impacts of climate change being experienced in the UK include hotter, drier summers with more intense storms and rainfall, potentially increasing the risk of flash flooding. This change is alongside milder and wetter winters. Both bring more extreme weather events; and contribute to global rising sea levels – all of which are significant for East Sussex. While exact impacts are difficult to forecast, East Sussex will be susceptible to both water shortages and flooding in the future.
Issues/opportunities
Highways, pavements, and other active travel routes are subject to a number of risks such as:
- Subsidence, heave and landslips due to coastal erosion, drought and lower water tables.
- Surface damage due to extreme heat in the summer, erosion from intense localised storms in the summer, freeze/thaw in the winter and flooding.
- Extreme weather flooding of active travel infrastructure and highways.
- Potential future sea level rises and coastal flooding affecting existing road infrastructure.
Railway infrastructure may suffer from:
- Buckling of railway tracks due to excessive heat.
- Impacts from adverse weather (e.g. flooding or landslips) as well as from potential future sea level rises and coastal flooding.
A Climate Change Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA) for East Sussex was undertaken in 2024. This assessed climate risks facing East Sussex under three scenarios: present day, 2 degrees (temperature rise) and 4 degrees. The individual risks assessed under these scenarios were drawn from the UK national climate risk assessment, ensuring risk alignment between national and local level.
The report outlined the risks facing the county, with the key risks for transport being:
- Surface water flooding is prevalent across East Sussex, with hotspots in Eastbourne, Hastings and Bexhill. Heavy rainfall is projected to become 20-25% more intense under a 2°C warming level, or 40-45% under a 4°C warming level. This change is expected to have an adverse impact on the likelihood of surface water flooding, albeit with some uncertainty around how heavy rainfall changes the likelihood of a flood event.
- River flooding affects road and rail infrastructure in flood plains. Risk in East Sussex is associated with the county’s five main rivers and their tributaries: Adur, Ouse, Medway, Rother and Cuckmere. The likelihood of river flooding is expected to increase, with peak river flows projected to increase by 27-37% (2080s, approximately 2°C scenario), or up to 62-107% (approximately 4°C scenario).
- High temperatures can cause road melt, buckling of railway lines, etc. Taking the example of road melt, the likelihood of temperatures exceeding that linked with an increased risk of road melt is projected to increase from the baseline of 12 per year (1981-2010) to 29 days per year under 2°C and 65 days under 4°C
- Cascading failures are a domino effect of increasing failures due to positive feedback mechanisms. For a county council, one example could be highway flooding causing a succession of failures in services such as domiciliary care, school transport, etc. Transport is a frequent starting point for cascading failures, and the risk of serious incidents increase in line with climate risks.
In building a transport network capable of serving all, it will be important to respond to these risks. Including designing transport infrastructure that is resilient to natural disasters (for example flood-proofing) and adapting existing infrastructure to tackle the negative impacts of climate change for people (for example, public realm improvements and development of healthy streets which include consideration of measures such as provision of urban greening (vegetation and trees - providing shade, benches and materials which are reflective of heat etc.) and securing appropriate levels of funding to support these changes.
To mitigate the impacts of flooding in the County, specifically Eastbourne and South Wealden a new six-year project called the Blue Heart was established in 2021. This project will provide an understanding of the local water catchment and how it works. It will communicate the risk of flooding to the communities of Eastbourne and south Wealden.
The project will mitigate the impact of flooding caused by climate change through technology to manage and monitor water levels in Eastbourne and south Wealden. This project will involve the development of a smart integrated water management system that gives warning of heavy rainfall, will calculate the most the optimum response and issue flood warnings and alerts where necessary. This technology will trigger watercourses, ponds and lakes to release water so they are ready to contain incoming storm water. Homes and businesses will benefit from better flood mitigation.
Component policy measures
In summary, policy measures will focus on:
- Ensuring the design of transport infrastructure is resilient to the physical impacts of climate change (flooding, heat etc.).
- Improvements to existing transport infrastructure to consider the impacts of climate change through surface water flooding, river flooding, high temperatures and cascade failures on people and infrastructure.
- Assessing the transport network and places at risk especially along the coast where there are key corridors of movement (i.e. A259) vulnerable to coastal erosion as well as potential sea level rises and coastal flooding to identify, with partners, potential mitigation options.
- Incorporating climate change projections into road and active travel infrastructure design and maintenance plans as well as other key strategic transport infrastructure projects.
- Utilising new technologies to improve climate resilience as they become proven and available.
- Identifying opportunities to pilot emerging technologies to support more effective resilience and adaptation.
Policy A4: Biodiversity and natural capital
Context
Biodiversity net gain is a strategy to ensure that when land is developed there is contribution to the recovery of nature. It is a way of making sure the habitat for wildlife is left in a better state than it was before development. These requirements apply from November 2023 for residential and commercial developments and will be extended to ‘Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects’ – which include large road and railway schemes – by no later than 2025. Wildlife habitats are present across East Sussex including woodlands, marshes, heathlands, meadows, and coastal areas as well as the county’s network of rivers and ponds. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended) is the main law followed for the protection of wildlife in Great Britain, with particular emphasis on conserving biodiversity, natural habitats, flora, and fauna.
Issues/opportunities
Transport has an important role to play in the enhancement of the environment and managing negative impacts on biodiversity in addition to people’s experience of the environment:
- Balance the management of vegetation in terms of providing value as natural capital (i.e. verges), alongside reducing any impacts on safety for all users (i.e. removal of overgrown vegetation impacting sightlines).
- Prioritising transport interventions which minimise land take and increases in traffic such as active travel routes can enhance biodiversity, landscape, geodiversity and the quality of water and soil.
Such interventions can also enhance people’s access to and experience of the natural environment increasing public health and personal well-being. More detail is provided in Policy B6: Improving access to green and blue infrastructure.
There is a need to ensure consideration of the emerging East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Local Nature Recovery Strategy, which maps, plans and prioritises action for nature locally, especially for improving, expanding and better connecting areas for wildlife on the ground. The Local Nature Recovery Strategy will also include identifying opportunities to reduce light pollution from the transport network, supporting policies in relation to ‘Dark Skies’, specifically in relation the High Weald National Landscape and the South Downs National Park in East Sussex.
Component policy measures
In summary policy measures will focus on:
- Implementing the correct and timely use of Strategic Environmental Assessments and Habitat Regulation Assessments for all transport schemes where required.
- Achieving material biodiversity net gain in the delivery of transport schemes.
- Implementing integrated planning and travel demand management approaches.
- Enforcing developers’ adherence to central government requirements for biodiversity net gain.
- Supporting delivery of flood risk management strategies.
Policy A5: Energy supply
Context
Over the coming decades, road vehicles will move from petrol and diesel fuelled engines to zero emission technologies. Scenarios for the government’s 2023 ‘Decarbonising Transport’ strategy suggest that between 30 to 47% of car miles will be driven by zero emission vehicles by 2030, and almost the entire national fleet of cars, vans and HGVs will be zero emission by 2050. For cars and light vehicles, battery electric systems are expected to dominate. Public electric vehicle infrastructure for such vehicles will be provided by a mix of partners – East Sussex County Council for on street provision in residential areas with no off-street parking as well as town centre locations, alongside district and borough councils and other public/private organisations (e.g. Network Rail/Great British Railways, NHS Trusts, supermarkets, private car park operators) for off street parking. However, for heavy vehicles there is currently no single clear technological pathway – battery electric, hydrogen, and e-fuels (which are synthetic liquid fuels made by reacting hydrogen with captured CO2), may all have roles to play.
Facilitating this change will require new infrastructure to supply transport energy. By 2050, distribution networks for liquid fossil fuels will be largely redundant, and new systems established that use electricity, hydrogen and/or e-fuels as the energy carrier. During the transition period, ensuring secure, accessible supplies of both legacy diesel/ petrol and zero emission energy will be crucial.
Rail and maritime transport are also expected to decarbonise. In East Sussex, much of the rail network is already electrified. However, there are notable exceptions in the coastal line east of Hastings (Ore) to Ashford and the Uckfield branch line. The government’s stated ambition (Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail) is to remove all diesel-only trains from the network by 2040, using a combination of rail electrification and battery/hydrogen trains. For shipping, there are currently no clear decarbonisation pathways, with hydrogen and e-fuels two potential options.
Issues/opportunities
By 2050, it’s anticipated that nearly every road vehicle will be zero emission. Current expectations are that the vast majority will be battery electric. This transition will require a huge increase in the number of charging points - public, business, and domestic – to ensure all vehicles have opportunities to charge.
Where households have off-street parking, most of their charging is likely to take place at home. In East Sussex, 62% of households have off-street parking (or the possibility of off-street parking). This figure is considerably higher than most urban authorities, for example Brighton and Hove has 46%.
There is a great deal of uncertainty around technology pathways for heavy road vehicles. Hydrogen and e-fuels are possible solutions; however, battery technology is advancing rapidly and may become viable for heavy vehicles, including freight and buses. Similar uncertainty affects zero emissions shipping, with no clear technology pathways at the time of writing. This uncertainty makes planning difficult and risks funding being wasted on technological dead ends.
The electricity distribution network is an increasingly essential means of providing transport energy. Pressures on the network are mounting, and current issues include high costs for upgrading electricity supplies to support (for example) installation of commercial vehicle charging and rapid chargers for light vehicles. Significant upgrades to the system will be needed to support the electrification of transport, and (outside of transport) to electrify heat supply and allow distributed renewable generation to be connected to the grid.
As electric vehicles become dominant, the costs of supplying and distributing petrol and diesel will be split between fewer and fewer users. Transition to electric vehicles could lead to increasing cost and lower availability of petrol and diesel, or even a total collapse as the distribution business becomes uneconomic. This change may negatively affect residents and businesses who are unable to switch to electric vehicles.
Component policy measures
In summary policy measures will focus on:
- Improving electric vehicle charging infrastructure availability by implementing an electric vehicle charging strategy.
- The County Council will work with key stakeholders, including the energy network operators, the emerging Regional Energy Strategic Planner function of Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero funded Greater South East Net Zero Hub, to determine the optimum power supply options and phasing that will facilitate the transition from fossil fuelled transport.
- Improving the availability of electric vehicle charging and/or zero emission fuels at Council operated sites, to facilitate the use of zero emission vehicles.
- Working with district and borough councils to ensure that anticipated electric vehicle charging demand is integrated into Local Plans and positively provided in new development sites.
- Supporting pilot projects on hydrogen, e-fuels and other zero emission technologies for heavy vehicles and shipping, working with partners such as Hydrogen Sussex.
- Working with Network Rail/Great British Railways and train operators to support projects that remove diesel only trains from the county’s rail network.
- Monitoring the availability of petrol and diesel fuels and, if necessary, developing fuel availability strategies.