Air Pollution 2014 Call for Papers

CALL FOR PAPERS Air Pollution 2014 22nd International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution 7 - 9 July, 2014 Opatija, Croatia Papers presented at Air Pollution 2014 will be referenced by CrossRef. View the conference website for more information or to submit an abstract. Air Pollution 2014 is organised by the Wessex Institute, UK and the University of the West of England, UK. It is sponsored by WIT Transactions on the Ecology and the Environment and the International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning.   Benefits of Attending ·         Conference Book Papers are published in a book by WIT Press. Delegates may choose to receive a copy of the book in either hard cover or digital format. ·         Indexing Papers presented at Wessex Institute conferences are referenced by CrossRef and regularly appear in referencing and abstract services such as SCOPUS, Compendex, Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge and ProQuest. ·         Reviews Abstracts and papers are reviewed by members of the International Scientific Advisory Committee and other experts. ·         Papers Online All conference papers are archived online in the WIT eLibrary. View papers from Air Pollution 2012 ·         Special Fee for Students PhD Students may publish and present for a much reduced fee. How to Participate Papers are invited on the topics outlined and others falling within the scope of the meeting. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted as soon as possible. Delegates may also attend without submitting a paper. Submit your abstract online or by emailing the Conference Secretariat Registration for the conference will be available online shortly Conference Topics ·         Air pollution modelling ·         Air pollution mitigation ·         Air pollution management ·         Aerosols and particles ·         Emission studies ·         Exposure and health effects ·         Indoor air pollution ·         Monitoring and measuring ·         Case studies ·         Emerging technologies ·         Power generation and air pollution ·         Incineration plant studies ·         Air pollution chemistry ·         Global and regional studies ·         Policy and legislation Conference Secretariat Genna West Wessex Institute of Technology Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst Southampton, SO40 7AA Telephone: 44 (0) 238 029 3223 Fax: 44 (0) 238 029 2853 Email: gwest@wessex.ac.uk Submit an Abstract Scientific Committee C A Brebbia Wessex Institute, UK J W S Longhurst University of the West of England, UK C Borrego University of Aveiro, Portugal D Ganjo University of Salahaddin-Erbil, Iraq A Gonzales Bicol University, Philippines O Herbarth University of Leipzig, Germany M Lopes University of Aveiro, Portugal S Shiva Nagendra Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India F Nocera University of Catania, Italy F Patania University of Catania, Italy S Pongpiachan National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand J A Souto University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain T Tirabassi ISAC-CNR, Italy S Viegas ESTeSL, Portugal Q Wang Saitama University, Japan 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 2014' as the subject line. Follow us on:   Facebook     Twitter     Blogger

Jo chairs session at Air Pollution 2013

Jo chaired the Monitoring and Measuring session at the Air Pollution 2013 conference in Siena last week.  The session included a keynote address from Dr Paulo Zannetti and two invited presentations from Professor Dr Olf Herbarth and Dr Myrium Lopes and an additional presentation from Mr Shaikh Abdullah.

Jo presents at Air Pollution XXI

Jo presented a paper on 'Is Local Air Quality Management a Successful Strategy in Achieving Selected EU Limit Values' at the 21st Air Pollution conference in Siena last Wednesday. The paper appeared in the 'Regional Studies' session. The abstract submitted  follows:

'Is Local Air Quality Management a Successful Strategy in Achieving Selected EU Limit Values'
For the past 15 years, local air quality management in the UK has relied on the implementation of air quality action plans to allow local authorities to work towards remediating breaches of the national air quality objectives, primarily due to road traffic. Failure of national policies to sufficiently reduce road traffic emissions has added to the importance of local air quality action plans to help the UK government to meet EU limit values for NO₂ and PM₁₀. Local authorities are required to report measured pollutant concentrations and progress on their action plans annually, but, to date, there have been no studies published to determine whether, locally or collectively, action plans are effectively implemented and what, if any, effect they are having on air quality.  This paper provides a synoptic and time-series approach to assess the effectiveness of local air quality action planning using local authority case studies to demonstrate.

Report Back from ECEEE Summer Study

Tim had a busy time at last week’s Summer Study held by the European Council for and Energy Efficient Economy.  He ran workshops during the week.  The first on the EPSRC funded MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK) Project and dealt with “Linking energy use from private transport and domestic use:  The challenges and opportunities of ‘Big Data’”.  The second workshop, run with Charlie Wilson from UEA,  was  on his current ESRC Follow On Fund (Characterising Energy Behaviours – or “When is a behaviour not (just) a behaviour?”).  

 

Tim also presented a paper on his ‘4 Dimensions of Behaviour’ framework from his Follow-On Fund project, which was described by ECEEE old-timer and esteemed energy anthropologist from Oslo University as “representing the future of social science engagement around energy”.

 

 

Tim at the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy summer study

Tim is currently representing UWE at the ECEEE summer stud in France this week.
He is giving a presentation and running a workshop on the '4DB Framework' from his ESRC energy behaviour project, and ran a workshop on the challenges and opportunities of big energy datasets as part of the MOT project.

FORTHCOMING TITLE Air Pollution XXI Editors: J. W. S. LONGHURST, University of the West of England, UK C. A. BREBBIA, Wessex Institute of Technology, UK Subject: Air Pollution ISBN: 978-1-84564-718-6 eISBN: 978-1-84564-719-3 Pages: 320 Short Description: Containing papers presented at the twenty-first in a successful series of conferences on the modelling, monitoring and management of air pollution, the book Air Pollution XXI covers what has become a widespread and growing challenge to the international community. Click Here for More Information Topics Include: 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 Related Titles Air Pollution XX Air Pollution XIX For information on all our books on this subject, please visit: Air Pollution Download our Book Catalogue, Newsletters and Flyers Read our latest Reviews To find out more information about our books, please contact Simon or Dee: Simon Ibbotson WIT Press UK Marketing Co-ordinator Tel: +44 (0)238 029 3223 Fax: +44 (0)238 029 2853 Email: sibbotson@witpress.com Dee Halzack WIT Press USA Marketing Manager Tel: +1 (978) 667 5841 Fax: +1 (978) 667 7582 Email: dhalzack@witpress.com eBooks are available from these eBook vendors: dawsonera ebrary MyiLibrary E.B.L. EBSCO Please note: We endeavour to e-mail you information relevant to your field. However, if you are now specializing in another field and wish to receive news relevant to that area, or if you no longer wish to be included in this list please email: database@wessex.ac.uk

Future Bristol article by European Environment Agency

The European Environment Agency have published an article on their 'European Green Capital' webpages about Rose's 'Future Bristol: Low Carbon 2050' project. The article showcases the project as one of Bristol's citizen engagement activities, in support of the city's bid to be European Green Capital in 2015.

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital/low-carbon-bristol/index.html

Future Bristol also features in Bristol's Green Capital bid film series, including this one on "Communications"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN3j6dRTTZQ

Don't forget to visit the site at http://www.futurebristol.co.uk
and have your say at engage.futurebristol.co.uk

New publications

Peer reviewed paper
Mofoluso, F., Hill J., Chatterton T., Longhurst, J.  & Akinyede J. (2013) Residential-source emission inventory for the Niger Delta – a methodological approach. Journal of Sustainable Development.   6 (6) 98-120  ISSN 1913-9063 E-ISSN 1913-9071 On line 29/4/13

Edited volume

Longhurst, J.W.S. & Brebbia, C., (Editors 2013) Air Pollution XXI WIT Press. Southampton and Boston.  320pp ISBN: 978-1-84564-718-6 eISBN:978-1-84564-719-3

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.