AQMRC are recruiting...Research Fellow in Air Quality and Carbon Management

AQMRC, UWE, Bristol are currently recruiting for a Research Fellow in Air Quality and Carbon Management. For further details of this exciting opportunity, and to access an application form, please click here.
 
Although the post is advertised as one-year fixed term, there may be opportunities to extend this for the right candidate (subject to funding).  The salary range offered for this full-time position is £30,424 - £36,298.
 
For further information on the team and the work we do, please visit the recently rebranded AQMRC website.

If you would like an informal discussion about the advertised post, please contact Prof. Jim Longhurst on 0117 32 83652 or email: james.longhurst@uwe.ac.uk, Dr Tim Chatterton on 0117 32 82929 or email: tim.chatterton@uwe.ac.uk, or Dr Enda Hayes on 0117 32 83825 or email: enda.hayes@uwe.ac.uk.

The closing date for applications is Thursday 6th June.

Total European emissions resulted in 7.2 million years of life lost yearly

Researchers at DMU have developed a new model to assess the health-related external costs arising from air pollution from ten major emission sectors. Applying the model at national and Europe-wide levels, they suggested that the major contributors to costs were industrial power production, agriculture, road traffic and domestic combustion.

 

Read more...http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/328na5.pdf

 

Access the paper online...http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/13/5871/2013/acpd-13-5871-2013.pdf

 

 

Future Bristol entered into 'Best Climate Practices' competition

The 'Future Bristol' project has been entered into an international competition by the 'Best Climate Practices Observatory' of The International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG). 

Future Bristol competition entry page

The theme of this year's competition is "Climate Change and Urban Resilience. How to prepare our cities to respond to climate changes related challenges". The competition aims to gather innovative responses, projects and 'best practices' on urban climate change, by institutions, scientists, think tanks, researchers and the general public, and are assessed on:

• Feasibility of the actions proposed by the practice
• Replicability potential of the practice described
• Originality of the practice’s ideas
• Likely impact on climate change adaptation and mitigation actions

The award will be judged by an expert panel, in addition to a 'Users Choice' award. Users can vote for their favourite submission using the 'rate' tab on the green box at the bottom. Please give Future Bristol a vote! 

Future Bristol competition entry page

Disruption Papers USAR and UTSG

David has recently uploaded the presentations he gave at the Urban Resilience and Sustainability Conference at UCL, London in November 2012 and at the UTSG Conference at Oxford in January 2013 to the Disruption Project website. To see the presentations follow this link:
http://www.disruptionproject.net/category/outputs

Schumacher Institute - Preparing for (Climate) Change

On Monday 13th May, Tim will be representing the Disruption project at the Schumacher Institute's 6th Preparing for Change workshop on Climate Change.

Transport Solutions Wales

David and Tim are at the Transport Solutions - Wales conference in Cardiff today, with David presenting his PhD work on 'Using Disruption as an Opportunity to Change Travel Practices'

http://events.ciltuk.org.uk/uploads/public/WR0303%20Programme.pdf

AQMRC PhD Progress

AQMRC staff have been busy supervising and examining PhDs over the recent months.

Jim recently completed his 30^th external examination of a PhD candidate when he conducted a viva at Trinity College, Dublin. Recently he has completed research degree external examiner duties for Newcastle University and Imperial College, London.

Ross Hunter completed his minor corrections to the satisfaction of the examiners. He will be awarded his PhD at the Geography and Environmental Management Graduation Ceremony to be held in Bristol cathedral in July. With the award of his PhD Ross becomes Jim’s 25^th successful research degree candidate.  

Jo Barnes and David Williams continue to make very good progress with their research and both will submit their thesis in 2014.

 

 

Enda now a Member of the Scientific Committee for IUAPPA 2013

Enda has been invited to become a member of the Scientific Committee for IUAPPA 2013. This is the 16^th IUAPPA World Clean Air Congress and will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from the 19^th September until the 4^th October 2013. Enda will be attending the Congress and presenting on some of the recent work undertaken by AQMRC. The theme of this year’s Congress is “Many Nations - One Atmosphere: Plotting the Path to Sustainability". Further details on the Congress can be found here - http://www.iuappa2013.com/

 

Enda invited to Newcastle to present on LAQM

Enda has been invited to present at a workshop on “Air Quality and Health Research in the UK” organised by the Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability. The event is on Thursday 18^th April 2013. Further details can be found here - http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sustainability/events/item/workshop-air-quality-and-health-research-in-the-uk

 

AQMRC interviewed for BBC One's 'Bang Goes The Theory'

Last week Rose was interviewed by researchers for BBC One's 'Bang Goes The Theory' for a forthcoming episode on air pollution. The researchers behind the show were keen to understand more about how sources of air pollution have changed over time, from coal smoke and industrial pollution to the majority of problems today being traffic related.

 

'Bang Goes The Theory', "investigating the science behind the headlines and making sense of the everyday issues that matter to us all", is a popular science programme, shown on Monday nights on BBC One at 7.30pm http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lwxj1

 

The episode will be shown tonight http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s7twg.

Mo continues to publish and present...

Former PhD student Dr Mofoluso Fagbeja is presenting a paper at the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Conference Confluence by the Bay - A Gathering of Geospatial Insights. March 24 - 28, 2013,   Baltimore, Maryland USA.  Mo’s attendance at the conference is supported by the Ian McCrea Travel Grant awarded by the Institute of Air Quality Management  and the Institution of Environmental Sciences.

 

Full details of the paper are:  Fagbeja M.A., Hill, J.L., Chatterton, T., Longhurst, J.W.S., Akinyede, J.O. (2013)  A subjective assessment of the suitability of Sciamachy total column    measurements to interpolate reliable concentration estimates over  a low latitude region. To be published in the proceedings of The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Conference 2013 Confluence by the Bay - A Gathering of Geospatial Insights. March 24 - 28, 2013,   Baltimore, Maryland USA.

 

Mo will also attend the Association of American Geographers conference in Los Angeles, USA,  from the 9^th to the 13^th of April where he will present a paper entitled The Need for Improved Sensing Technology for Estimating Concentrations of Air Pollutants at Ground Level in Low-Latitude Climates. The authors of the paper are Mofoluso Fagbeja,  Tim Chatterton,  Jennifer Hill,  James Longhurst and Joseph Akinyede.  

London Sustainability Exchange behaviour workshop

On Wednesday 27th March, Tim will be helping the London Sustainability Exchange run a workshop at City Hall in London on Planning and Measuring Behaviour Change Campaigns.

The workshop is aimed at a wide range of NGO and Community groups to help them develop and monitor their own programmes to stimulate pro-environmental and pro-social behaviours.

http://www.lsx.org.uk/news/events.aspx?id=3567

AQMRC 'backing Bristol's bid' to be European Green Capital

AQMRC are 'backing the bid' for Bristol to be the 2015 European Green Capital. 

The European Green Capital Award is an annual prize by the European Commission, that goes to one city every year, singling out its environmental performance. Bristol, Brussels, Glasgow and Ljubljana have been shortlisted from 8 entries across Europe.  An independent panel of 12 experts assessed each entry on the basis of 12 indicators, including local contribution to global climate change and quality of local ambient air.

Bristol, Brussels, Glasgow and Ljubljana, will now go forward to present their vision, their potential to act as a role model to other cities, and their communication strategy to the Jury in Brussels on 24 May. Following the Jury’s deliberations the final result, the European Green Capital 2015 will be announced at an official Award ceremony in France on 14 June 2013, hosted by the current European Green Capital, Nantes.

AQMRC and UWE are pleased to be supporting the Bristol bid. Professor Martin Bigg, Director of the Environmental Technologies iNet at UWE is chair of the Bristol Green Capital Partnership and some of AQMRC's work included playing a key role in public engagement activities through the 'Future Bristol' website. We all have our fingers crossed that Bristol will make it third time lucky!

Pledge your support to Bristol's bid here: http://bristolgreencapital.org/back-the-bid.php

Future Bristol website is award-winning!

The 'Future Bristol' website has only been live a month but has already won several accolades! These include: 

• CSS Design Award: winner 24th February 2013 ("a living archive of the world's greatest websites and an inspirational showcase celebrating emerging talent.")
• 'Smashing Award' ("for design, creativity and innovation on the Internet, which recognize and promote the best web, flash, print, logo designers in the world.")
• Nominee for best website by Awwward ("recognition & prestige for web designers")
• Special mention in the online magazine Abduzeedo's 'sites of the week'. 

'Future Bristol' has also been featured online by The Ecologist Magazine, the Institution of Environmental Sciences, and used as a case study for online public engagement by Delib. 

Rose has also lectured on her use of creative, digital and social media for public engagement to UWE students, presented the project at a recent seminar at UWE on 'Achieving Energy Efficiency' with guest speaker Pat Murray from the New Zealand government, and visited a local primary school to explore their visions and concerns for Future Bristol.

Congratulations to Rose on successful SPUR5 application

Rose has been successful in winning a SPUR5 grant from UWE for her project entitled "‘Future Bristol’: exploring public views on low carbon futures through art and digital media". This project builds on current public engagement work via the recently launched website www.futurebristol.co.uk

The interactive website was created with the support of the Institution of Environmental Sciences, Bristol City Council and the Bristol Green Capital Partnership. The two scenarios depicted on the site are based on the results of Rose's PhD, which explored possible low carbon futures for the Bristol region in 2050.

This research project, starting in August, seeks to understand how the public perceives, comprehends and engages with the notion of Bristol as a low carbon city in 2050, by exploring responses to the scenarios and website, and aims to answer the following research questions:

• How do different groups engage with and respond to alternative visions for a low carbon future?
• Which options and features of low carbon futures are popular/unpopular? What additional ideas are elicited by the public engagement process
•  Are creative media and web tools effective for engaging and communicating low carbon futures?

Rose will be using the results of this research to support a bid to the ESRC Knowledge Exchange Opportunities Scheme later in the year to further develop research and engagement activity in Bristol around low carbon futures.

'Future Bristol' website launched!

The 'Future Bristol' website has launched!

'Future Bristol' is an interactive website aimed at engaging the public with the concept of Bristol as a low carbon city in 2050. It presents two alternative possible scenarios for the city in 2050, developed through a large Delphi consultation with key stakeholders in the Bristol region as part of Rose's PhD research. Visitors to the site are encouraged to explore the two scenarios, cast their votes on different features of each, and have their say by joining the discussion on the Dialogue page.

Thanks to the 2012 John Rose Award grant from the Institution of Environmental Sciences, and with additional support from Bristol City Council and Green Capital Partnership, Rose was able to commission illustrations of the two scenarios and an interactive website to allow the results of her research to be communicated in an accessible, engaging and user-friendly way. 

The 'Future Bristol' website also forms a key part of the public engagement and communications strategy for Bristol's 2015 European Green Capital bid, and will be developed into a larger research project over the next year.

Go online, explore and have your say!

Tim supports Green Alliance Workshop

On Thursday 21st March, Tim was a key participant in a workshop organised by the Green Alliance think tank http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/ to kick off their project to try and identify what an effective package of measures to seriously promote energy efficiency might look like in the wake of the Green Deal.

The project is seeking to encourage government to go beyond very simple economic and information deficit interpretations of householders (non) action, and is a clear indication that the work Tim undertook in his year long fellowship in the Department of Energy and Climate Change is beginning to show impact within the NGO sector.

Successful meeting with the EU Commission and Member States (8th March)

We had a very constructive meeting with the EU Commission and Member States last week discussing the draft findings of our project assessing the impact of AQUILA, FAIRMODE and SEG recommendations. This project, delivered with partners from the Danish Centre for Environment and Energy (Aarhus University) is part of our larger Framework Contract to support the EU Commission in services related to the review of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution.

 

Enda & Jim off to Brussels

Enda and Jim are heading to Brussels on Thursday and Friday (7th & 8th March) for a project meeting with DG-Env and a Member State consultation meeting for our project on the impact assessment of the AQUILA, FAIRMODE and SEG recommendations.
This project is part of our larger Framework Contract to support the EU Commission in services related to the review of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution.

AQMRC response to Defra Further Assessment consultation

As Defra's invited consultation on the repeal of Further Assessments in the Environment Act draws to a close today, we publish our response below:

CONSULTATION ON REPEAL OF 'FURTHER ASSESSMENT' PROVISION IN THE ENVIRONMENT ACT 1995

1.    Do you agree that Sections 84(1) of the Environment Act 1995 requiring the preparation of a Further Assessment following the declaration of an AQMA and Section 84(2)(a), which requires a report of the results of that Assessment to be prepared, should be repealed?

 

2.    Do you agree with the estimate of costs and benefits outlined above? Are there other costs and benefits that should be taken into account?

 

Thank you for your invitation to respond to the above consultation questions. Our responses are presented below: 

1.    The Air Quality Management Resource Centre at the University of the West of England (herein AQMRC, UWE) has many years of experience working directly with and for local government in assisting them with their statutory Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) duties, appraising Review and Assessment reports, including Further Assessments, and also in disseminating Continuing Professional Development training on LAQM to local authorities and environmental consultancies. AQMRC has been involved in the development of LAQM since its inception and has been central to the development of statutory and non-statutory guidance. AQMRC is therefore fully versed on the role of Further Assessments in LAQM and these opinions are based on direct experience and on those experiences recounted by local authorities with whom we have worked. AQMRC is also currently assisting the European Commission with the review of the Air Quality Directive and so is well-placed to recognise the importance of LAQM to national air quality policy in achieving the EU Limit Values.

With that in mind, AQMRC is firmly of the opinion that the requirement for local authorities to prepare a Further Assessment, as prescribed in the Environment Act 1995, should be retained, and not repealed. The reasons behind this standpoint are explained below:

·         Further Assessments are the only Review and Assessment report explicitly required under statute. It is our experience that air quality fails to receive the political recognition that successful implementation of policy requires, particularly in comparison with other local policies that prioritise economic development over public health. The removal of the only statutory report would therefore only serve to further demote the political weight attributed to air quality management.

·         The resource pressures on local authorities’ Environmental Health departments are recognisably high. However, this supports the need to retain the statutory nature of Further Assessments in order to ensure that air quality is not ignored.

·         Currently statutory guidance on the preparation of Detailed Assessments and Action Plans does not require sufficient further analysis (as provided by the Further Assessment) to ensure a high quality, scientifically-based Action Plan. Specifically this relates to the requirement for source apportionment, which tailors and focuses the action plan on targeting those sources that are the main contributors to poor air quality at a local level, thereby ensuring the most effective use of limited resources.

·         While a clear, scientific basis is required to determine the need for an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA), it would not be an efficient use of local authority resources to include the requirement for source apportionment at the Detailed Assessment stage in the event that appraisal of the Detailed Assessment showed there was no need to declare an AQMA.

·         Furthermore, until the AQMA is declared, many local authorities are unable to target significant resources at air quality management.

·         Neither would the Action Plan be a suitable place to include this scientific basis for an AQMA, given that the Action Plan needs to be management and action-focused document.

·         If the requirement for a Further Assessment was repealed there would be little or no reduction in burden on local authorities as the essential components, i.e. the source apportionment, calculation of emissions reduction and date when compliance would be achieved, would still need to be undertaken in order to inform the Action Plan.

·         A number of local authorities have revoked AQMAs on the basis of findings within the Further Assessment; without this step these local authorities would have continued to expend resources on creating and implementing an Action Plan.

·         Further Assessments provide a clear, scientific statement of the local air quality situation, which is accessible to those with a professional or public interest.

·         Given the potential for LAQM and local Action Plans to assist Defra in achieving the EU Limit Values, it would be short-sighted to reduce the scientific basis for AQMAs and Action Plans.

2.    The costs and benefits outlined in the consultation document are questionable or potentially misleading.

·         The basis of the cost of producing a Further Assessment (£4,919), and the extrapolation to all local authorities of £245,950, is not referenced to any peer-reviewed literature that explains the methodology and the assumptions implicit in the calculation.

·         Furthermore, the following statement in the Review of Local Air Quality Management, referenced in the consultation document, states that: “…any savings achieved from [Further Assessment] abolition would be very modest, it is a statutory requirement, and the change would not be worth pursuing unless there were other, more substantial, reasons for revisiting Part IV of the Environment Act.” Is it the intention to revisit all of Part IV of the Act? If not, can we be sure the cost of revisiting one section is commensurate with the estimated saving of local authority resource?

·         We challenge the basis of the statement made in para. 8 of the consultation document: “…given that there appears to be general agreement that the requirements for Further Assessments are redundant…”. This assertion is not referenced to any literature and we suggest that this can be construed as a leading question in an open consultation document.

·         The benefits of a Further Assessment are clear and have been identified above. These substantially outweigh the very modest and questionable benefits proposed in the consultation document as grounds for repealing the statutory basis for a Further Assessment.

 

Tim invited to Greenpeace energy report launch on Rainbow Warrior

On Monday, alongside ex-Prime ministers, the City Mayor and a  wide range of New Zealand’s political and environmental great and good,  Tim was invited on board Rainbow Warrior III in Wellington Harbour for the launch of Greenpeace’s new roadmap for a 100% renewable energy New Zealand by 2025 http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/campaigns/climate-change/The-Future-is-Here/  

 

 

Air Quality Scrutiny Workshop

Jim Longhurst was an invited participant in a Bristol City Council event to consider progress with air quality management in the city. Jim shared with the meeting some of the conclusions of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Commission referring to the scale and severity of the current air quality problems in the UK. He noted that Bristol has a very good air quality monitoring network and a strong evidence base that supported the continuing declaration of an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) for nitrogen dioxide in the city. According to the timescale set out in the Air Quality Regulations the AQMA should have been revoked by 2005 due to actions taken in the city’s Air Quality Action Plan. Unfortunately this has not happened but the city is not alone in this as more than 60% of local authorities still have one or more AQMAs.  Jim described this situation as the mismanagement of air quality, where the evidence of the problem is known and compelling but the remedial action to improve the situation is not taken.  Jim recommended that the city recommits itself to the management of air quality and develops a new city wide Air Quality Strategy with strong targets for improvement actions to be completed within specified timescales. Central to this new strategy must be a clear identification of where responsibilities and accountabilities for actions are held within the city. Jim noted that the new Mayor has a critical role to play in developing, implementing and being accountable for such a strategy.

Tim presenting to the Policy Studies Institute

 

On Tuesday 4^th February, Tim will be presenting his work on ‘Energy Behaviours’ at the Policy Studies Institute in London. http://www.psi.org.uk/

Enda going to DCE @ Aarhus University

Enda will be visiting the Danish Centre for Environment and Energy at Aarhus University on Wednesday 23^rd until Friday 25^th January to work with Danish colleagues on the delivery of outputs from our European Commission Framework Contract providing services to support the Review of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution.

Air Pollution 2013 Call for Papers

AQMRC are delighted to be the co-organisers of the 21^st meeting of the International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution.

Organised by: Wessex Institute of Technology, UK University of the West of England, UK University of Siena, Italy Sponsored by: WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment; International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning To learn more about the Wessex Institute of Technology please click here. Papers presented at the previous conference in this series can be downloaded here. View full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements online at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/air2013?e=4-34665

The International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning Presenters at Air Pollution 2013 will be invited to submit an extended version of their paper to the International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning, edited by the Wessex Institute. This International Journal is an interdisciplinary journal covering the subjects of environmental design and planning, environmental management, spatial planning, environmental planning, environmental management and sustainable development in an integrated way as well as in accordance with the principles of sustainability.

Abstract Submission

Submit an abstract online at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/air2013?e=4-34665 or contact the Conference Secretariat below.

Conference Topics

Air pollution modelling Monitoring and measuring Air quality management Indoor air pollution Aerosols and particles Emission studies Air pollution chemistry Source identification Global and regional studies Exposure and health effects Economics of air pollution control Policy and legislation Case studies Innovative technologies

Conference Secretariat

Rebecca Lawrence Wessex Institute of Technology, Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst, Southampton, SO40 7AA Telephone: 44 (0) 238 029 3223 Fax: 44 (0) 238 029 2853 Email: rlawrence@wessex.ac.uk Please circulate this announcement to colleagues who may be interested in this conference. They can subscribe by emailing enquiries@wessex.ac.uk with 'Subscribe - Air Pollution 2013' as the subject line. Follow us on: Facebook Twitter Blogger

Email Policy

We endeavour to email you information relevant to your field. However, if you are now specialising in another field and wish to receive news relevant to this area, or if you no longer wish to be included in this list please email: enquiries@wessex.ac.uk

 

 

Energy Conferences and Workshops in New Zealand

In February, Tim has been invited to participate in the International Energy Authority Demand Side Management programme (http://www.ieadsm.org/)  Task XXIV workshop in Wellington, New Zealand.  He will be helping organise part of the workshop based around the Four Dimensions of Behaviour (4DB) Framework developed as part of his current ESRC funding in partnership with Charlie Wilson at the Tyndall Centre at UEA.

Whilst he is there he will be attending the Energy Conference 2013, organised by The National Energy Research Institute and Victoria University of Wellington and entitled: Energy at the Crossroads: Energy Innovation for a Sustainable Society. http://www.theenergyconference.org.nz/

He will be presenting an oral paper entitled “Which Types of Interventions Work the Best in Changing Domestic Energy Using Behaviours?” based on the work that UWE undertook in partnership with RAND Europe and the Tyndall Centre at UEA for the Department of Environment and Climate Change.  This work has now been published as part of DECC’s Energy Efficiency Strategy
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/tackling/saving_energy/what_doing/eedo/eedo.aspx

 http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/11/tackling-climate-change/saving-energy-co2/6921-what-works-in-changing-energyusing-behaviours-in-.pdf

He will also be presenting a poster on his current ESRC funded work entitled “Improving Opportunities for Energy Reduction from 'Behaviour Change' through the Use of Multiple Models and a Better Characterisation of Behaviour”.

DECC and Social Science - Bridging the Gap Workshop

On 19^th December, Tim attended a workshop organised by DECC and hosted by the UCL Energy Institute to bring together academics from the social sciences, with members of the social research and customer insight teams at DECC.  The workshop stems from Tim’s 2010 Fellowship based in the DECC, as well as work undertaken for DECC in partnership with RAND EUROPE and the Tyndall Centre at UEA over the summer of 2012. 

 

All in all, the workshop was seen as being a very successful and important step forward in improving the mutual understanding between academics and the policy realm.   However, it was also clear that it was a small step in a much longer path towards allowing the social sciences to significantly shape whatever pathway we find ourselves on towards meeting the 2050 climate goals.

Seasons Greeting from all at the

Air Quality Management Resource Centre

The Mismanagement of Air Quality - Invited Presentation, Southampton University’s Centre for Environmental Science

On December 12^th 2012 Jim Longhurst was delighted to deliver the first Christmas lecture for Southampton University’s Centre for Environmental Science. Jim took a deliberately polemical position is his talk contrasting the successful review and assessment process with the action planning process in local air quality management. He described how the review and assessment of local air quality had been successful in identifying areas of air quality objective exceedence and in so doing had delineated a new geography of air pollution. He contrasted this with the failure of the action planning process to revoke air quality management areas. He reviewed the variety of evidence from official sources indicating the scale and magnitude of the health effects arising from exposure to adverse concentrations of air pollution and asked why we had arrived at a position where the policy intent and the process of remediation were misaligned. He explored whether this was a political failing and described the situation as the mismanagement of air quality.

Funding success for 2050 Low Carbon Bristol public engagement project

Rose's 2050 Low Carbon Bristol public engagement project is gaining momentum as more funding is secured to support communication activities and a further research bid.

Rose was the 2012 winner of the IES 'John Rose Award', to communicate the result of postgraduate research to the general public. Rose commissioned local street artist Andy Council to produce two visual representations of the future low carbon scenarios for Bristol from her PhD research. 

Scenario X (left) and Scenario Y (right)
©Andy Council 2012

Rose will be using these images as the basis of a public consultation and 'Dialogue' with the public, using an app from local digital democracy company Delib, and has now secured additional support and £2000 funding from the Green Capital Partnership's Community Challenge Fund to design and build some new interactive webpages as part of their redesigned website. 

Rose also yesterday secured a further £3500 of HEAT@UWE bidding funding, to support the development of a bid for external funding for an interdisciplinary research project. This will allow Rose to extend this initial phase of communication and engagement work into a larger and research project.

Danish Workshop

On 28th November, Tim will be helping run a stakeholder workshop at the Danish Centre for Environment and Energy in Roskilde, Denmark ad part of UWE's work to support the review of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution.

Tim in EU Meetings

On Tuesday 27th November, Tim will be in Brussels attending meetings with DG-ENV for UWE's projects on ozone and stakeholder recommendations.

'Air as a common good' paper published

AQMRC, UWE is pleased to announce the publication of a paper co-authored by members of the Faculties of Environment and Technology and Business and Law, and led by Dr Mark Everard. 'Air as a common good' has just been published online in the Journal of Environmental Science and Policy and can be found at:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2012.04.008. The paper explores the ecosystem services of air alongside its legal status and discusses how an ecosystem approach could improve management of air.

Europe's air story told in pictures

European Environment Agency (EEA)
www.eea.europa.eu

Air is a tricky subject to photograph, but this challenge has proved to be a source of inspiration for the winners of photo storycompetition ‘ImaginAIR’, organised by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Read more ...

What works in energy saving?

DECC has just published a new report on 'what works in changing energy behaviours in the home?' http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/11/tackling-climate-change/saving-energy-co2/6921-what-works-in-changing-energyusing-behaviours-in-.pdf

The report is from a project that Tim Chatterton undertook with RAND Europe and Charlie Wilson from the University of East Anglia.

It forms part of the wider evidence base for DECC's new Energy Efficiency Strategy http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/tackling/saving_energy/what_doing/eedo/eedo.aspx#

Jim chairs international expert panel in Portugal

The Environment and Global Changes Panel of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) met in Lisbon between the 7^th and  9^th of November 2012. The international expert panel, chaired by Jim Longhurst, evaluated 341 research proposals and made recommendations for funding to FCT.  

 

FCT Panel Members

Back row, left to right: Joel Knoery, Sabine Kleinsteuber, Christian Kjær, Alastair Grant, James Longhurst, Jürgen P. Kropp, Ingvar Brandt, José Miguel Rodríguez Maroto, Vincent O'Flaherty. Front row, left to right: Matt Bentley, Mara Silva, Georgina Mace, Ariana Zeka, Maryse Labriet, Lídia Ferreira, Jose Maria Baldasano Recio, Darren Reynolds, Petros Samaras.

 

Mo receives IAQM Ian McCrae Travel Award

One of our recently completed PhD students, Dr Mofoluso Fagbeja, has just been awarded the IAQM McCrae Travel Award.

The award is for a paper presentation at the 2013 American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland USA in March.

The paper is titled, "A subjective assessment of the suitability of SCIAMACHY total column CO measurements to interpolate reliable concentration estimates over a low-latitude region."

Congratualtions, Mo!

Tim at Behaviour, Energy and Climate Change in Sacramento

Tim is currently attending the BECC conference in Sacramento, California this week. He will be presenting the work that he has been doing with DECC, Defra and DfTon multi-model approaches to energy behaviour, and running a workshop for practitioners on the 'Four Dimensions of Behaviour' (4DB) framework that he has been developing with Charlie Wilson at UEA. The workshop "When is a behaviour not (simply) a behaviour?" Will take examples brought by participants and use the novel 4x5 framework tool to examine the key characteristics of each behaviour and explore how they differ and how different models and tools for understanding them and devising interventions might be more or less applicable.

ImaginAIR - vote for your favourite photostory

The ImaginAIR competition - launched in September 2012 - asked Europeans to tell their story of air through three photographs and a short paragraph. Here are the finalists from the competition. Our external jury will select five thematic winners, but you get to choose the public vote winner. Vote for your favourites before 14 November 2012 to determine which photo story should win the ImaginAIR Public Choice Award. The photostory that receives the most votes will win the award. Become a member of our public jury. The decision is in your hands.
Vote for your favourites now

Jim Longhurst to Chair the Environment and Global Change Panel as part of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) 2012 evaluation process

The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) is the public research-funding agency which selects and distributes research funds for a wide range of scientific fields of research. FCT places high importance on the international peer-review evaluation process as a critical element to ensure credibility and quality in all its activities.   FCT has established six high-level panels of leading field scientists to take part in the 2012 evaluation process and selection of the best applications.

The Board of Directors of FCT have invited Professor Jim Longhurst to chair the Environment and Global Change panel in the 2012 evaluation process. The Environment and Global Change panel will consider some 335 proposals in four sub themes:

• Global Environmental Change

• Sustainable Management of Resources
• Environmental Technologies
• Environmental Modelling and Assessment
 

For further information on the work of FCT see http://www.fct.pt/

AQMRC Port Talbot Report providing advice to Ministers

The 2009 report by AQMRC for the Welsh Government reviewing air pollution in Neath Port Talbot continues to be of importance.  The report is currently linked to the front page of the Welsh Government air quality website, described as "Advice to the Welsh Ministers on further measures to pinpoint the sources of particulate matter."