An open letter to European public and policy makers was published by the IAQM today (11/12/2015). The letter, from a group of concerned air quality practitioners and researchers, believe that the public should be made aware of the true nature of the pollution from diesel cars. Both Jim and Enda are signatories to this important document.
The letter itself can be found here: http://iaqm.co.uk/text/letters/Truth%20about%20Diesel%20Cars_11Dec15.pdf
Jim and Ben were filmed as part of a Bristol Earth Champions film, due to be shown at the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 climate meeting in Paris this week. They represented UWE’s contribution to addressing the challenge of air pollution within Bristol and beyond. Other contributors to the film, organised by the international environmental charity Earth Champions, included local Bristol organisations Modcell and Lifecycle.
The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ-wFhHb-Zg&feature=youtu.be
Ben contributed to the annual Geography A-level Conference at the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution on Thursday 19th November. Students from schools across North Somerset were taken on an ‘air pollution journey’ from Roman times through to the modern era and into the future. Questions from the students were wide and varied and a good discussion was had around current topical issues, including real-world driving emissions and Bath’s Air Quality Management Area.
The AQMRC were commissioned by Gatwick Airport Ltd to review the robustness of emission factors used as the basis for modelling within Defra’s proposed Air Quality Plan. Gatwick’s consultation response and our contribution to it, can be found here: http://gatwickairport.com/globalassets/publicationfiles/business_and_community/all_public_publications/second_runway/airports_commission/final_submitted_response_to_draft_air_quality_plan_3nov15.pdf
The Air Quality Management Resource Centre was out in force at the recent Institute of Air Quality Management’s Routes to Clean Air conference, on the 22nd and 23rd of October. The event, co-organised by the AQMRC, the IAQM and Bristol City Council attracted over a hundred delegates keen to discuss issues surrounding vehicle emissions, mitigation measures and the future of air quality within the UK. Jim struck a chord with many delegates during his talk on ‘air quality in historical perspective – or why we fail to learn the lessons of history’. The conference also heard talks from Dr Eckard Helmers of the University of Applied Sciences, Trier on how diesel vehicle emissions may not actually reduce our CO2 contribution compared to petrol vehicle emissions and Dr James Tate of the University of Leeds on how real-world emissions from vehicles are often different to those of type-approval testing.
All in all, the conference was deemed to be a great success with national media outlets running stories derived from a number of the speakers. Jim’s presentation, along with others from the conference can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LyJ24uSbWc
The AQMRC recently responded to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence’s call for comments on the development of reducing the ill-effects of outdoor air quality on health. The guideline scope, can be found here: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/GID-PHG92/documents/air-pollution-outdoor-air-quality-and-health-final-scope2 and our comments and NICE responses to each comment can be found here: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/GID-PHG92/documents/air-pollution-outdoor-air-quality-and-health-draft-scope-stakeholder-comments-and-responses-table2
The AQMRC are delighted to support Bristol City Council’s bid for an Ultra Low Emissions Scheme for Bristol. We look forward to the opportunity for collaboration on such an important scheme.
The AQMRC were very active at the Bristol Bright Night event at @Bristol on Friday. Both Jo and Ben spent the morning explaining air pollution, challenges and solutions to schoolchildren by showing them an enormous laminated map of Bristol City and its air quality management area (which was frequently sat upon and crawled across in the search for homes and schools, by all!) The evening was also exciting, with both Jim and Tim presenting during the Green Hour talks whilst Jo and Ben continued to discuss air pollution issues with those attending (with help from the giant laminated map of course!). A big thank you should also be given to Enda for playing a key role in the event’s organisation and ultimately, it’s success!
Jo has been engaged widely with both radio stations and the print media in discussing the recent Volkswagen scandal. A list of her media engagements are shown here:
· Live studio interview with BBC Five Live Drive (22 Sept 2015)
· Quoted in the Daily Telegraph (23 Sept 2015) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11883416/vw-scandal-emission-target-death-rate.html
· Live telephone interview with BBC Radio Tees (23 Sept 2015)
· Live telephone interview with BBC Scotland (w/e 25 Sept 2015)
On Monday 21st September, Tim will be giving a talk about his work on ‘behaviour’ at the Watershed in Bristol as part of the ESRC Behaviour Change Seminar Series http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/bl/research/bsmc/esrcseminarseries.aspx
The series is organised by Bristol Social Marketing Centre at UWE, in conjunction with partners from Capita, City University London, National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), On Target Consulting, University College London, University of Bath, University of Exeter, and the University of Manchester.
Tim will be leading a workshop for the Transport Planning Society in Birmingham on Thursday 30th July on Flexi-mobility – Re-thinking Everyday Travel Patterns.
The work stems from the EPSRC/Energy Programme funded Disruption project.
http://www.tps.org.uk/westmidlands/events/id/0808/
Professor Martin Bigg and a small team of academics and environmental leaders were invited by the Consultative Committee to the State Council, China, to advise on air quality matters, and the drafting of Chinese air quality legislation.
During the visit (22nd – 27th June), Professor Bigg presented at the National Air Quality Symposium in Beijing and subsequently visited Shandong Province, Jining and Taian, where he met with national and regional leaders. During the visit, air quality management expertise developed in the UK, particularly in reference to the challenges within cities, was discussed. The recent developments and plans for the City of Bristol and the roles of both Universities and regulators in understanding and addressing air quality challenges was also highlighted.
There was a great deal of interest from the Chinese delegates in the UK’s experience and expertise on air quality questions, and a desire to explore further how this might be made available to them. To this end, we look forward to hearing from our colleagues in the Chinese air quality soon!
As part of the final engagement activities of the Travel Behaviour Network (http://www.travelbehaviours.net/) Tim helped organise an event on 23rd June at the Transport Catapult in Milton Keynes, and presented work from the Disruption and MOT projects there as well as running workshop sessions on them.
_________________________________________
Dr Tim Chatterton
Senior Research Fellow
Air Quality Management Resource Centre
Faculty of Environment and Technology
University of the West of England
Frenchay Campus
Bristol
BS16 1QY
Tel: 0117 328 2929
Fax: 0117 328 3360
Email: Tim.Chatterton@uwe.ac.uk
As part of the final engagement activities of the Travel Behaviour Network (http://www.travelbehaviours.net/) Tim helped organise an event on 15th June at the Future Cities Catapult, and presented work from the Disruption and MOT projects there.
_________________________________________
Dr Tim Chatterton
Senior Research Fellow
Air Quality Management Resource Centre
Faculty of Environment and Technology
University of the West of England
Frenchay Campus
Bristol
BS16 1QY
Tel: 0117 328 2929
Fax: 0117 328 3360
Email: Tim.Chatterton@uwe.ac.uk
On Tuesday 7th July, Tim will be running a workshop session on transport behaviour based around the work of the Disruption project at the London Sustainability Exchange and Client Earth event “Taking a Deep Breath: Cleaning Up London’s Air”
http://www.lsx.org.uk/news/events.aspx?id=3640
On Wednesday 1st July, Tim organised a co-ordinated set of 4 presentations and a workshop around the Disruptio project (www.disruptionproject.net) at the PTRC 2015 Annual Transport Practitioners Meeting.
The presentations consisted of:
· David Williams on his PhD work on “Defining and delivering sustainable transport: who has the power to change the way we travel?”
· Jillian Anable and Tom Budd’s work from Aberdeen University(presented by Tim) on “Responses and adaptability to disrupted travel patterns – a questionnaire study”
· Noel Cass and James Faulconbridge’s work from Lancaster University on “Spatial, temporal and social factors in everyday mobility and modal choice – 3 years of ethnographic studies”
and
· Greg Marsden and Jeremy Shires from Leeds University on “Disruption as it happens - a selection of responsive case studies”.
Tim, Caroline Mullen and Greg also ran a workshop on “‘Flexi-mobility’ – Re-thinking Everyday Travel Patterns” (see www.fleximobility.solutions)
_________________________________________
Dr Tim Chatterton
Senior Research Fellow
Air Quality Management Resource Centre
Faculty of Environment and Technology
University of the West of England
Frenchay Campus
Bristol
BS16 1QY
Tel: 0117 328 2929
Fax: 0117 328 3360
Email: Tim.Chatterton@uwe.ac.uk
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Tim is in Leeds on Friday and Saturday this week, working with the Institute of Transport Studies at Leeds University running citizen engagement workshops for the Disruption project.
On 28th May, Tim gave a seminar to the School of Construction Management and Engineering at Reading University on his work on energy consumption and ‘behaviour’. The talk covered a range of work from his DECC Fellowship, Follow on Fund (4 Dimensions of Behaviour), the Disruption and MOT projects and his recent work for the Committee on Climate Change.
On Wednesday the 29th of April the UK Supreme Court voted unanimously that the UK Government has failed to secure compliance with EU limit values for nitrogen dioxide concentrations within certain zones under Directive 2008/50/EC. As such, they have been ordered to submit new air quality plans to the European Commission, no later than the 31st December 2015.
This judgement sends a strong message that harmful levels of air pollution are unacceptable and must be addressed promptly. The AQMRC are pleased with this result and we look forward to the anticipated consultation period later in the year.
Congratulations to ClientEarth on this hard-won case!
Air pollution has been covered widely in the media during the last week or so due to a period of particularly poor air quality affecting much of the UK. This period of poor air quality was as a result of contributions from industry and agriculture on mainland Europe, some contribution from Saharan sand and significant proportions of local emissions. Although the South East and East of England are experiencing the highest levels, Bristol has also been affected. To this end, Made in Bristol TV interviewed Ben and discussed this pollution episode and its potential impact on Bristol and its residents. The interview will be broadcast at 6pm and 9pm tonight (10th April) on Made in Bristol TV News.
Congratulations to our newest recruit Ben Williams on passing his viva at the University of Portsmouth on Monday 30th March (subject to minor corrections). Ben’s PhD is on the ‘Source Apportionment and Dispersion Mapping of Fugitive Dust using Directional Passive Monitors’. We look forward to the publications from his thesis and their subsequent impact.
On Friday 30th January, Tim, along with Prof. Greg Marsden and Dr Caroline Mullen of the Institute for Transport Studies in Leeds, ran a workshop for York City Council transport planning department. The workshop explored the concept of ‘Flexi-Mobility’ that has been developed from the 3.5 year EPSRC project “Disruption: Unlocking Low Carbon Travel.
For more information on ‘Flexi-mobility’ and what it might mean for sustainable transport policy see our engagement website here http://www.fleximobility.solutions
Tim and David, along with colleagues Fiona Spotswood and Alan Tapp from the Bristol Social Marketing Centre, have just had a new paper on Cycling and Social Practice Theory published in Transport Research Part F: Psychology and Behaviour
The paper is Open Access and can be downloaded here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847814001776
Abstract
Despite significant national and local efforts over the last decade to stimulate uptake of cycling in the UK, levels of cycling (particularly utility cycling) remain at around 2% of journeys. Understanding of cycling behaviour and subsequent development of interventions has typically been undertaken using an individualist approach, often relying on psychologically based models of behaviour. This paper argues that Social Practice Theory (SPT) may be a valuable addition to practitioner’s toolboxes by providing an alternative means of understanding the complex dynamics between the elements that constitute the practice of utility cycling, allowing it to be considered as a social issue, rather than focusing solely on individual behaviour. This is demonstrated within the paper by the use of SPT to reanalyse quantitative and qualitative datasets that explore views and experiences of both cyclists and non-cyclists. Therein, the practice of utility cycling is described according to its three elements; materials, meaning and competences and the potential benefits of this approach are discussed; particularly its ideological shift away from ‘victim blaming’ and its natural support of interdisciplinary intervention design.