1. Environment and Sustainability Director United Utilities
John Barnes
Environment and Sustainability Director
United Utilities
Water and Climate Change: United Utilities Perspective

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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
Between , £3.5 billion will be invested by UU in its water, wastewater and electricity networks – that works out at more than £20 per second

5. Serve close to 30% of the UK population
UK operations
Serve close to 30% of the UK population
Scottish Water
£1.4bn capital programme delivery and PFIs
8,000 employees
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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Responding to the impact on our activities - wastewater
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
Green roofs (above) and detention ponds (below)

10. 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
These plans will be influenced by the UKCIP rainfall scenarios to be released next year

11. 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?
We have become the first UK water company to set out a £37 million action plan to reduce our CO2 emissions by 8% (gross) on 2005/06 figures by (The reduction is the equivalent of taking more than 9,000 cars off the road.)
The strategy follows six months of intensive work with the Carbon Trust, the independent government-funded body charged with helping business reduce carbon emissions.
Our carbon strategy positions us with other leading companies in the area of carbon mitigation, and as a leader in the water sector

12. 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.

13. Providing context – emission projections
Graph of emissions –
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

14. 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

15. 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 = £??
170,000 tCO2e = TBD
UU carbon emissions baseline (2005/6) 488,000 tCO2e
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
This slide applies a model increasingly used in climate change circles to try and show what can be done to close the GHG emissions gap.
I have seen it used by Sir David King to illustrate how much different sources of green energy will contribute to the UK’s energy gap.
In this slide, I have used the model to illustrate the size of UU’s gap to 2050 – 366,000 tonnes of CO2 – and what sort of measures are available at what cost to close that gap.
We have high confidence in CHP and IPM while the wind calculation is based on the installation of 40 2 MW turbines, operating at 30% of the theoretical maximum, providing power to our assets. At £1m a MW, this equates to £80m investment.
The low carbon technology relates to a redesign of part of the activated sludge process, devised by Son Le. Called Gravitox, if the new process is proven, then it is calculated it would save UU 80,000 tonnes. This idea is UU intellectual property for which a patent is currently being sought.
The final segment is left deliberately at status TBD to illustrate that some of the answers to reduce GHG emissions are yet to be found, so what we need is support for on-going investment in research and development and investigatory studies to determine what the future might look like and what investment is necessary to bring that future about. These themes should be reflected in the SDS.
122,000 tCO2e

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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