Jo presents MOT presentation at CTS Winter Conference

Jo gave a very well-received presentation on 'Variations in car type, size, usage and emissions across Great Britain' at the Centre for Transport Studies' Winter Conference at UWE this afternoon, on behalf of Dr Tim Chatterton. As well as academics from a number of institutions, the conference was also attended by local policy-makers from transport and highways. The presentation set out the initial findings from our spatial and longitudinal analysis of the MOT dataset focusing on emissions and energy at a Post Code Area level. The work is being undertaken under WP2.2 of an 3-year EPSRC/RCEP-funded project, led by Prof. Jillian Anable (University of Aberdeen), with Prof. Eddie Wilson (University of Bristol and Dr Sally Cairns (Transport Research Laboratory/University College London). Further details about the research can be found on the AQMRC webpages.

Defra publish response to LAQM consultation

Defra published their response to the LAQM consultation on Friday 13th December. The consultation had provoked 232 'substantive' responses (including from 133 local authorities)and more than 18,000 petition responses. In general the report appears to reflect the sentiments and arguments of those responses. A summary of the conclusions and next steps is presented below:

Aim 1 – Local Action focused on what is necessary to support air quality improvements to benefit public health and to work towards EU air quality standards

There was sufficient support for Defra to develop more detailed proposals for consolidating the Air Quality (England) Regulations 2000 and the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010. This would need to take account of:

1. The extent to which local authorities should be expected to meet or work towards EU air quality standards
2. The need to have clarity as to the role and relationship between Defra’s national assessment of compliance with EU limit and target values, and locally derived air quality assessments.

As part of this,

Defra will review the range of air quality objectives that apply to local authorities, taking into account the relevance of these objectives for health protection, and the levels assessed in recent years.

Aim 2 – Local government and other stakeholders are clear on their roles and responsibilities and work together to improve air quality

There were clear concerns that currently different tiers of authorities and even to some extent different departments within authorities do not work effectively for the benefit of local air quality. Whilst most respondents supported the current arrangements for district and unitary authorities to have responsibility for assessment of local air quality many also recognised the key role that transport and planning authorities had in influencing air quality and in delivering improvements.

The Environment Act 1995 states that first tier authorities must cooperate with district tier authorities on the identification of measures to improve air quality and must be consulted upon plans. There is also clearly much in the way of good practice available to demonstrate what can be achieve by successful cooperation.

Defra will review the need for additional guidance on these duties as part of its review of guidance to local authorities in fulfilling their duties under the Act.

Aim 3 – Local authorities have simple reporting requirements with less bureaucracy and more time to concentrate on actions to improve air quality and public health

There was clearly support for a review of the reporting required in Local Air Quality Management. In particular there was support for removing the need for a three year updating and screening assessment of local air quality. There was also strong support for an annual report of local air quality which is public facing. This report should provide an overview of air quality across a local authority and a report of progress with actions to improve air quality.

There was some support for providing flexibility in reporting for local authorities that had no significant local air quality hotspots.

Defra will make proposals to introduce regular annual reporting on air quality for local authorities, taking into account comments made and following further discussions with stakeholders on the content of such reports.

 

There was support for clarity on the purpose of local and national air quality assessment, and for local actions to be valued and represented both within and without nationally identified exceedance areas.

There was overwhelming support for retaining AQMAs as a frame for defining the extent of a locally designated exceedance and where actions to improve air quality should be focused. However, there was also support for having some flexibility in applying these, especially for areas where exceedances or exposure was relatively low.

Defra will take account of the support for retaining AQMAs and will also review guidance on declaration/revocation procedures in order to reduce administrative burdens, taking into account matters of health impacts through exposure to air pollution and scope for measures.

  

Aim 4 – Local authorities have access to information about evidence based measures to improve air quality, including on transport and communications

There was clear support for producing and increasing access to information on evidence-based measures, including on transport and communications. A number of examples were cited, especially on communication schemes.

Defra will continue to explore (with delivery partners and stakeholders) way of improving and disseminating evidence-based measures, including supporting innovative schemes. We will revise official guidance to coincide with the implementation of changes to the LAQM system, likely in mid-late 2015.

Fracking and the Environment

Enda presented at a recent Fracking event (11^th December) sponsored by RGS and CIWEM. The event covered the implications of fracking on the environment.  AQMRC’s, newest PhD, Jenna Brown presented on the background and regulatory side of fracking, UWE’s Chad Staddon addressed the water angle while Enda looked at the implications for air quality and GHG.  The event was very well attended with >70 people from various background including consultants, Environment Agency, politicians and concerned members of the public.  The UWE team are planning on turning the lectures into  ‘working papers’ to disseminate our thoughts and evidence to the wider public…………..more to follow.

Tim quoted in new report on 'Climate Silence'

The Climate Outreach and Information Network has just published a new report on “Climate Silence and How to Break It” .

 

This report describes the blanket of silence that has descended on the issue of climate change in the UK in the past five years. The report argues the debate urgently needs new narratives that make the link between the climate challenge and ordinary people’s lives.

 

Tim was interviewed by Dr Adam Corner of Cardiff University who wrote the report and it  contains a quote from Tim comparing problems following the Climate Change Act 2008 to those that have beset the air quality  community since the Environment Act 1995.

 

The report is available here: http://www.climateoutreach.org.uk/portfolio-item/climate-silence-and-how-to-break-it/

Expert workshop on Smart Meters

On Monday 9th December, Tim has been invited by DECC to participate in an Expert Workshop on Smart Meters at the Department or Business Innovation and Skills in London.

Jo in the 'Hot Air' headlines

A quote from the ‘Hot Air’ section at the back of the excellent Air Quality Bulletin.

 

‘There’s a new troublemaker on the block – and not quite who you’d expect. At a recent meeting in London there was energetic backtracking on consultation plans to dismantle LAQM. But there were no plans to dismantle LAQM it seems!! We were assured that is was never the case that the consultation had proposed to remove statutory duties from local authorities.  Whereas most were left scratching their heads questioning their memory and deciding that age was not on their side, up jumped the usually serene Jo Barnes of UWE waving an original copy of Government plans which appeared to differ somewhat from the re-imagined plans being presented. Perhaps we should set her upon the Highways Agency to challenge them on the facile answers to air quality questions?’

 

 

Tim to give lecture at Transport Operations Research Group (TORG), Newcastle University

On Wednesday  11th December 2013, Tim will be giving a presentation in Newcastle on "Working at the Interface of Air Quality, Climate Change, Public Health and Energy – Issues and Opportunities"

 

At the present time the future of air quality policy is looking increasingly uncertain.  For much of the last decade and a half the UK government had convinced itself that the problem would be resolved by now through technological measures.  However, following widespread exceedences of the EU limit values for NO₂ and PM10 the government seems more interested in weakening the European legislation, or pulling out of the EU altogether, than in making the changes that would be necessary to tackle our air pollution problems.  It is clear that the single issue approach to air pollution taken to date has led to a primary focus on tightening  vehicle emission standards, and that this has failed.  To develop a new approach to addressing air pollution will require dealing with our transport system – the main source of our existing air pollution problems.  Fortunately, air quality is not the only problem associated with transport, but to develop and implement the radical solutions necessary to deal with the various problems will require significant collaboration over policy and scientific boundaries in respect of air pollution, climate change, public health and energy.  This presentation will cover work from Tim’s current EPSRC/Energy Programme funded projects Disruption (www.disruptionproject.net) and MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK www.tinyurl.com/MOTproject) as well as wider work on co-management of air quality and other issues undertaken by AQMRC@UWE.

 

 

Tim and Jo produce MOT paper for UTSG conference

Tim, Jo and the rest of the EPSRC funded MOT project team (Prof. Jillian Anable at Aberdeen University, Prof. Eddie Wilson at Bristol University and Dr Sally Cairns at TRL/UCL)  have had a paper accepted for presentation at the Universities’ Transport Study Group conference in Newcastle on 6-8^th January 2014.  The paper presents a broad overview of the potential of the DfT/VOSA dataset to create yet another new geography of pollution – one that is based around the users of both cars and energy, rather than the point of emission.

 

Further information on the MOT project can be found here:  http://www.abdn.ac.uk/ctr/research/currentbr-research-projects/mot/

 

A copy of the conference paper is available here: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/22075/1/Chatterton%2C%20Barnes%2C%20Wilson%2C%20Anable%2C%20Cairns%20UTSG%202014-Variations%20in%20car%20type%2C%20size%2C%20usage%20and%20emissions.pdf

 

Chatterton, T., Barnes, J., Wilson, R., Anable, J. and Cairns, S.(2013) Variations in car type, size, usage and emissions across Great Britain and relationships with socio-demographic characteristics. In: Universities’ Transport Studies Group, Annual Conference January 2014, Newcastle, 6-8th January 2014

Tim invited to give lecture at Oxford Institute of Sustainable Development

Tim has been invited to give a seminar on “Re-thinking ‘household’ energy use - experiences at the frontiers of policy” at the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development as part of their 2013 seminar series.

 

The lecture will reflect on Tim’s experiences on working on energy issues with various government departments over the  last 3 years, and where a 12-month Fellowship based in DECC has taken his research agenda.  In the current context of headlines about rising energy bills and “Cutting green c%#p” Tim will be reflecting on the challenges of communicating not just climate science, but social science too.

 

http://oisd.brookes.ac.uk/seminars/2013.html

 

Abstracts accepted for Air Quality 2014

AQMRC has had two abstracts accepted for the 9th International Conference on Air Quality – Science and Application in Germany in March next year. http://www.airqualityconference.org/

 

The abstracts are for:

 

A Study of Ozone Concentrations and Trends Across Europe: 1996-2010

This study reviews ozone concentrations from rural monitoring stations across Europe between 1996 and 2010 across a range of statistics with regard to the various objectives, target values and thresholds established by the 2008 Ambient Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC. The findings reveal that whilst there have been complex and varied changes in patterns of ozone concentrations during the last 15 years, there are still extensive exceedences of the various regulatory standards and that while peak concentrations may have been decreasing, background concentrations are on the rise.

 

Extended abstract available here: http://www2.uwe.ac.uk/faculties/FET/Research/AQMRC/Abstracts/Ozone_Trends_Abstract.pdf

 

A Study of Ozone Exposure Across Europe: 2004-2010

This study presents an assessment of exposure to ozone exceedences across Europe using a new methodology based around the Eurostat degree of urbanisation (DEGURBA) classification, which provides the ability to categorise exposure into ‘Urban’ (‘densely populated’), Suburban (‘intermediate density’) and Rural (‘thinly populated’) areas. The study considers exposure to a range of regulatory standards for ozone as set out in the 2008 Ambient Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC. It finds that although concentrations may be higher in rural areas, numbers of population exposed to exceedences of the standards are significantly higher in both urban and suburban areas.

 

Extended abstract available here: http://www2.uwe.ac.uk/faculties/FET/Research/AQMRC/Abstracts/Ozone_Exposure_Abstract.pdf

 

The work is co-authored with partners at The Danish Centre for Energy and Environment at Aarhus University, Roskilde, Air Quality Consultants Ltd.  and Milieu in Brussels and relates to work undertaken for DG Environment as part of support services for the review of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution.

 

Full author list:

T. Chatterton (1), E. Hayes (1), J. Barnes (1), J. Longhurst (1), D. Laxen (1) J. Irwin (1), H. Bach (2), J. Brandt (2), J.H. Christensen (2), T. Ellermann (2), C. Geels (2), O. Hertel (2), A. Massling (2), H.Ø. Nielsen (2), O.K. Nielsen (2), C. Nordstrøm (2), J.K. Nøjgaard (2), H. Skov (2), F. Pelsy(3) and T. Zamparutti (3)

(1) Air Quality Management Resource Centre, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK; (2) DCE - Danish Centre for Environment and Energy, Aarhus University, Denmark; (3) Milieu, 15 rue Blanche, Brussels 1050, Belgium

Jo presented at IAQM meeting

Jo gave a very well-received presentation at the IAQM AGM in London yesterday, entitled "Wither LAQM?" - a pun (if one was necessary) on the status of LAQM following the recent LAQM consultation. The Chair gave a verbal overview of IAQM's concerns prior to Jo's talk, and a Defra representative presented Defra's response. The Chatham House rule prevents a more detailed disclosure of persons or events, but needless to say, the feedback from Defra on the consultation responses so far was very interesting...

Jo presenting at IAQM meeting tomorrow

Jo has been invited to speak at the IAQM AGM, entitled: 'Where now for LAQM'. The members' only meeting is being held in London tomorrow afternoon. Jo will be presenting, in addition to IAQM, in response to Defra's feedback on the LAQM Consultation. Further details about the meeting are available on the IAQM website http://iaqm.co.uk/event/iaqm-agm-where-now-for-laqm/. 

New paper for Tim

Tim has just had a new paper published setting out a lot of the work that he undertook in his ESRC funded Fellowship based in the Department of Energy and Climate Change and subsequent follow-on funding.

 

The paper, which is Open Access and written with Dr Charlie Wilson from the Tyndall Centre at UEA, describes and critiques the current tendency towards ‘universalist’ conceptions of behaviour within UK government policy, before setting out a tool aimed to help practitioners in all fields in developing a much broader understanding of the behavioural challenges that they seek to address.

 

Tim Chatterton & Charlie Wilson , Transportation Planning and Technology (2013): The ‘Four Dimensions of Behaviour’ framework: a tool for characterising behaviours to help design better interventions, Transportation Planning and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/03081060.2013.850257

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03081060.2013.850257

The paper was developed as an extension of the report that Tim wrote for DECC on ‘Thinking about Energy Behaviour: A multi-model approach’ https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/48256/3887-intro-thinking-energy-behaviours.pdf

 

and his EPA commentary with Charlie on ‘Multiple models to inform climate change policy: a pragmatic response to the `beyond the ABC' debate’ http://www.envplan.com/epa/editorials/a44404.pdf

Jo presents at EPUK Autumn Conference

Environmental Protectection UK held their first national conference since its rise from the ashes, yesterday at Aston University, Birmingham. Covering the range of EPUK's core interests, the day provided an interesting and diverse series of talks on issues such as hydraulic fracturing with shale gas, noise policy and action plans, life-cycle analysis of steel production, and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. Addressing the recent LAQM consultation, Jo Barnes was invited to speak on the 'Implementation of Defra's Air Quality policy'. The talk, which outlined UWE's reponse to the consutlation, was well-received and was welcomed by the chair of EPUK's Air Quality Committee, Sarah Legge, as a key issue that they had also responded to on behalf of EPUK.

New PhD student investigating unconvential gas in the UK

As part of AQMRC’s involvement in the recently launched International Water Security Network project, a new PhD student, Jenna Brown, has just started her studies. Jenna will be investigating the impact of fracking on water-energy-carbon in the UK. Enda will act as Director of Studies with further supervisory support provided by Chad Staddon (BWG) and Rose Bailey (AQMRC).

Enda attends the Umgeni Ecological Infrastructure Partnership Workshop

As part of AQMRC’s involvement in the recently launched International Water Security Network project (in which Enda and Rose have a work strand investigating the water-energy-carbon nexus), Enda visited Durban and Pietermaritzburg for stakeholder meetings and workshops.  Enda had the opportunity to meet with Durban Municipality to explore their participation as a case study, spend time with project collaborator, Duncan Hay, to learn more about current and future challenges facing the Umgeni River catchment and attend the Umgeni Ecological Infrastructure Partnership Workshop.

 

 

Enda meets with ICLEI Africa

While in South Africa attending the 16^th IUAPPA World Congress, Enda was invited to present to ICLEI Africa on previous work undertaken by AQMRC for the Dube Aerotropolis project in the vicinity of the King Shaka International Airport, Durban. The Dube project included a Framework for Sustainability, a Carbon Inventory and a Water Inventory for the development of an ‘aerotropolis’ (airport city type development). ICLEI Africa were interested to learn more about our methodological approach, results and recommendations as it impacts on one of their Urban Low Emissions Development Strategies (http://urbanleds.iclei.org/) models with KwaDukuza Municipality.

 

 

Enda attends the 16th IUAPPA World Congress

Enda attended the 16^th IUAPPA World Congress in Cape Town (30^th September - 4^th October 20130. He presented two papers which were very well received. The papers were “Integrating Carbon Management into the Local Air Quality Management Framework: an English Case Study” and “Utilising Openair to support multi-stakeholder engagement and the resolution of air quality issues”.  The Congress was very well attended and covered the theme of ‘Many Nations – One Atmosphere: Plotting the Path to Sustainability’. The 17^th IUAPPA World Congress in 2016 will be on the theme of ‘Mega-Cities Perspective: Healthier and Greener Future’ with Busan City, Korea hosting (www.iuappa2016.org).

 

 

Tim has just a new paper published in the highly esteemed journal Energy Policy.  The paper follows as a direct result of Tim's 2010 Fellowship in DECC, and was written with Patricia Allen who undertook most of the work for the project as her dissertation for the UWE MSc in Environmental Consultancy.  This paper, along with the work of Dr Rose Bailey (see http://www.futurebristol.co.uk/) demonstrate the leading role that AQMRC is taking in supporting the development of strong, credible visions for a low carbon future.

 

Carbon reduction scenarios for 2050: An explorative analysis of public preferences

Allen, P., Chatterton, T.

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of public preferences for a low carbon future UK and compares them with three future scenarios proposed by the UK government based on data from 10,983 self-selected participants who engaged in the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change 'My2050' online simulation. Participants expressed a stronger preference for demand-side options than for supply-side ones. They also chose fuel switching (to electricity) and technical energy efficiency measures above more behaviour focused options. Renewable energy options (wind, solar, marine and hydro) were preferred to other low carbon supply options (nuclear power, carbon capture and storage), with offshore wind power more popular than onshore. Nuclear power was the least popular generation option. Acceptability of the government′s three proposed scenarios was tested by comparing these scenarios with the research findings. Greatest support was suggested for the two scenarios emphasising business greenness, home energy efficiency, electrification of home heating and travel behaviour. The lowest level of support was demonstrated for the scenario based on significant growth in nuclear power with minimal increases in energy efficiency. Despite issues regarding the representivity of the sampled respondents, the work demonstrates the possibility of using outputs from the tool to assess publically preferred pathways.

 

Patricia Allen, Tim Chatterton, Carbon reduction scenarios for 2050: An explorative analysis of public preferences, Energy Policy, Available online 17 September 2013, ISSN 0301-4215, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.08.079.

 

AQMRC wins Framework Agreement on EU Air Quality Policies

AQMRC (in consortium with partners Triple E Consulting, TNO, TML, DTU ME-SYS and DCE) has been awarded a major contract (4 million Euro) by the European Commission’s DG Environment. Over the next 4 years, the consortium will evaluate, implement and further develop Europe’s air quality policies.

European air pollution policy has a long history, with the most recent policy round having been launched in 2005 with the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution. The strategy’s goals of achieving “levels of air quality that do not result in unacceptable impacts on, and risks to, human health and the environment” had already been part of the Sixth Environment Action Programme and are now also embedded in the Proposal for a new EU Environment Action Programme to 2020 (7^th EAP). The main objective of this Framework Agreement is to support the European Commission’s DG Environment in the evaluation, implementation and further development of air quality policies. Specifically, the support provided within the context of this Framework Agreement is articulated to:

1. Improve air policy management - aims at developing improved strategies for the EU air quality legislation. This necessarily includes the improvement of legal provisions, monitoring, reporting, assessment and management at the different levels of governance.
2. Project air pollution and air quality - aims to update and improve the current reference projections for a number of key sectors to better understand policy impacts and to compare different strategies. This objective requires expertise and know-how on state-of-the-art models and well established methodologies. Developing reference projections for energy, transport, agriculture, sectoral policies and carrying out impact assessments of different strategies demands a high level of confidence in dealing with state-of-the-art models.
3. Assess additional EU measures - consists of assessing from a technical point of view (especially with regard to costs, benefits and feasibility) the possible measures for further air emission reduction at the EU level.
4. Assess local measures - in line with Objective 3, this objective aims at assessing from a technical point of view (especially with regard to costs, benefits and feasibility) the possible measures for air pollution reduction at a local level.
5. Support evaluation and further development of air policy - includes the assessment of current legislation with regard to the outstanding issues not covered by the previous review on air quality legislation.