National Highways has clarified that contractors building its huge £9bn Lower Thames Crossing project will not be permitted to engage in offsetting in order to meet their contractual carbon limits.
As Highways has reported, the government-owned company has said that its pledge to achieve an overall carbon limit for the project of 1.44 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e), includes contractors undertaking not to exceed their share of this figure.
However, it has refused to disclose the penalties that contractors would pay if they breached these limits.
A recent submission to the planning inquiry for the project to build a tunnel from Kent to Essess states: ‘Corrective actions would in the first place comprise the identification of alternative carbon reduction measures or, if not feasible for a specific material or activity, compensation by achieving gains elsewhere.’
The company has also removed the definition of ‘construction’ from the glossary of a new version of the project’s revised Carbon and Energy Management Plan so that it no longer refers to ‘activity on and/or offsite required to implement the project.’
This has raised concerns that it might allow contractors who breach carbon limits – something that the company says will be reported on regularly – to purchase offsets unrelated to the scheme to bring emissions back into line.
When questioned, a National Highways spokesperson told Highways: ‘We can confirm that our delivery partners will not be permitted to engage in offsetting in order to meet their contractual carbon limits.’
The spokesperson added: ‘We routinely updated our application documents throughout the examination period, and at the final deadline the term “construction" was removed from the glossary of the control documents because the use of the term is clear and did not require definition.
‘The term was removed from the glossaries of all the control documents, including the Carbon and Energy Management Plan, for consistency. The change does not alter the intent or requirements of that document between version 3 and version 4.’
