Emissions in the news - when will the government wake up?

In a week when we have seen evidence of further emissions cheating in Japan
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36089558) while VW agrees compensation deals for its use of defeat devices in the US (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36103903), and DfT finally provides evidence that real-world emissions across all motor manufacturers are on average six times higher that the type approval tests (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vehicle-emissions-testing-programme-conclusions), how then can the PM continue to defend the motor industry (http://www.airqualitynews.com/2016/04/21/prime-minister-defends-car-industry-over-diesel-emissions/) that has proven itself time and again to not have public health interests at heart. When will the government wake up to the incontrovertible proof that our motor industry is killing us and that no amount of economic growth can justify that!
 

Expert response to the Department for Transport report on the real-world emissions from diesel vehicles

In response to the Department for Transport report out yesterday on the real-world emissions from diesel vehicles, Dr Jo Barnes made the following statement: “It is fantastic news that the UK government has now finally officially, and independently, acknowledged the extent of the discrepancy between test cycle and real world emissions across all motor manufacturers. At last air quality modellers can now stop labouring under the false pretence that published emission factors are “realistic” and, through the implementation of on-road real-world emission testing, motor manufacturers will now have to ensure new vehicles are cleaner. There is still a long way to go however to ensure public health is protected from vehicle emissions. The agreed new emissions tests will still allow emissions to exceed the standards by twice as much and, compared to US standards, it could be argued even the standards themselves are too lenient. It is also unclear what the government plans to do about the dirty vehicles that are already on our roads. Will a new scrappage scheme be in order? This will also have implications for the new Air Quality Plan that Defra has just submitted to the European Commission. Effectively this announcement undermines the emissions forecasts that underpinned Defra’s assumption that health-based air quality limit values would be achieved by 2020 in most areas and by 2025 in London and would push this date on by years.” In addition, the government should seriously consider introducing NOx and PM testing into MOT tests and funding roadside testing in order to check the on-going effectiveness of emissions management systems in real-world driving conditions over time.

UWE air quality training on new LAQM Guidance - book now!

The AQMRC at UWE, Bristol have launched a new suite of IES and IAQM-accredited air quality training sessions to help policy makers and practitioners to understand their role and requirements in the latest Local Air Quality Management Policy and Technical Guidance. Technical Guidance TG(16) for the UK (except London) and Policy Guidance PG(16) for the Devolved Administrations was released by Defra last Friday. The new guidance will have implications for anyone working in air quality, transport, development control, public health and sustainability, both in the public and private sector.

In the week commencing 23rd May 2016, the AQMRC will be running updated sessions on:

•        Air Quality Management
•        Air Quality Monitoring
•        Air Quality Dispersion Modelling
•        Air Quality and Development Control
•        Air Quality Action Planning

Each session is delivered in one day and delegates can book on to as many or few days as they like, although there are discounts available for bookings of all five sessions. Each day costs £200, which includes course materials, car parking, lunch and refreshments. Full details of each of the sessions, including online booking forms are available by clicking on the links above. Places are limited, so please book now to avoid disappointment. If you have any queries, please contact jo.barnes@uwe.ac.uk.

Tim at American Association of Geographers Conference

Tim will be attending the American Association of Geographers annual conference in Chicago between the 28^th March and 2^nd April. http://www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting

He is presenting a paper on “Energy Justice” based on the work of the MOT project (www.MOTproject.net) as well as organising and chairing a panel session for the project on “Vehicle Odometers and Other Novel Methods of Examining Car Ownership and Usage” with a range of international coleages, including Dr Deborah Salon from University of Arizona State University, Professor Joseph Ferreira from MIT, and MOT PI Prof. Jillian Anable from Leeds University.

Tim invited participant at the DEMAND conference

Tim is an invited panel member on the “Energy and Money” workshop stream at the 2016 DEMAND Centre conference (13-15^th April)  http://www.demand.ac.uk/conference-2016/

He will also be giving a presentation on “The Financial Implications of Car Ownership and Use” based on the work of the MOT project (www.MOTproject.net)

Air quality in the media

Jo Barnes has been invited to participate in interviews on BBC Radio Bristol's Breakfast programme and with ITV and BBC News tomorrow morning. The interviews are linked to the 'Smogmobile' which will be making a trip to Bristol tomorrow. In previous journeys the Smogmobile has demonstrated that air pollution levels within vehicles can be as high or even higher than those measured outside. This, together with the findings from the report from the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health released last week, encouraging walking and cycling to reduce air pollution, help to highlight the need to reduce our reliance on cars, not only to reduce emissions but also to reduce our personal exposure to pollution.

AQMRC welcomes the publication of 'Every breath we take: the lifelong impact of air pollution' by the RCP and the RCPCH

The AQMRC welcomes this report into the lifelong impact of air pollution by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. This is yet another publication that reinforces the fact that air pollution contributes significantly to poor health outcomes locally, nationally and internationally.

 

We are pleased to see that the working group have gone beyond the three principal tenets of reducing the long term health effects of air pollution that we set out in our consultation response.   The report emphasises the importance of embracing  a number technological, behavioural and statutory means to achieve better health outcomes for both individuals and society as a whole.

 

The RCP and RCPCH report can be found here: https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/every-breath-we-take-lifelong-impact-air-pollution

 

 

 

Jo presentated at Westminster Briefing event on Tuesday

On Tuesday 16th February, Jo gave a presentation on 'Local and National Action - Next Steps' at the Westminster Briefing 'Air Quality Management Under the New Government: Understanding National Priorities and the Next Steps for LAQM'. The presentation covered the latest LAQM and Action Plan consultations from Defra and speculated on the effects that recent legislative actions may have on air quality management in the near future. The presentation can be accessed here: https://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/secure/28240/








 

Jo invited to speak at Westminster Briefing Air Quality event

Jo Barnes has been invited to speak at the Westminster Briefing event 'Air Quality Management Under the New Local Government: Understanding National Priorities and the Next Steps for LAQM'. The event is to be held in Victoria, London on Tuesday 16th February. There are still places available though, so to book yours, please register online at: http://www.westminster-briefing.com/home/event-detail/newsarticle/air-quality-management-under-the-new-government/

Bristol Method - UWE's transport module most popular

The Bristol Method: Transport modules, which AQMRC, UWE helped write and coordinate, have just been announced as the most popular. The Bristol Method is a knowledge-transfer programme aimed at helping people in other cities understand and apply the lessons that Bristol has learned in becoming a sustainable city.In a summary of the web stats:

• 25 modules have now been published on line. A further seven are due to be published before end of Feb taking the final total to 32.
• The Method has been accessed by people in 56 different countries including 20 unique users in Japan and four in Nigeria.
• As expected, the bulk of the audience to date has been from the UK and western Europe, particularly Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Around 2% of traffic has come from the USA.
• In total, 2,400 unique users have visited 3,300 pages.

AQMRC's Jo Barnes helped to write and coordinate the module 'How to reduce traffic and its impacts' in conjunction with Bristol City Council and with additional contributions from the Centre for Transport and Society at UWE.

Financial Implications of Car Ownership - a social and spatial analysis

On 6th January, Tim presented work from the MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK) project (www.tinyurl.com/MOTproject) at the 48th Annual Universities' Transport Study Group conference in Bristol.

Tim gives presentation at CTS Winter Conference

On 14th December, Tim gave a presentation at the annual UWE Centre for Transport and Society Winter Conference. The presentation was on 'Financial Implications of Car Ownership' was based on analyses undertaken in the MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK' project (www.tinyurl.com/MOTproject).

AQMRC signatories to 'The Truth about Diesel Cars' open letter

An open letter to European public and policy makers was published by the IAQM today (11/12/2015). The letter, from a group of concerned air quality practitioners and researchers, believe that the public should be made aware of the true nature of the pollution from diesel cars. Both Jim and Enda are signatories to this important document.

 

The letter itself can be found here: http://iaqm.co.uk/text/letters/Truth%20about%20Diesel%20Cars_11Dec15.pdf

 

 

Jim and Ben contribute to the Bristol Earth Champions short film

Jim and Ben were filmed as part of a Bristol Earth Champions film, due to be shown at the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 climate meeting in Paris this week. They represented UWE’s contribution to addressing the challenge of air pollution within Bristol and beyond.  Other contributors to the film,  organised by the international environmental charity Earth Champions, included local Bristol organisations Modcell and Lifecycle.

 

The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ-wFhHb-Zg&feature=youtu.be

 

Air pollution on topic at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution

Ben contributed to the annual Geography A-level Conference at the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution on Thursday 19^th November. Students from schools across North Somerset were taken on an ‘air pollution journey’ from Roman times through to the modern era and into the future. Questions from the students were wide and varied and a good discussion was had around current topical issues, including real-world driving emissions and Bath’s Air Quality Management Area.

 

The AQMRC contribute to Gatwick Airport Ltd's Air Quality Plan consultation response

The AQMRC were commissioned by Gatwick Airport Ltd to review the robustness of emission factors used as the basis for modelling within Defra’s proposed Air Quality Plan. Gatwick’s consultation response and our contribution to it, can be found here: http://gatwickairport.com/globalassets/publicationfiles/business_and_community/all_public_publications/second_runway/airports_commission/final_submitted_response_to_draft_air_quality_plan_3nov15.pdf

 

 

 

Routes to Clean Air conference success

The Air Quality Management Resource Centre was out in force at the recent Institute of Air Quality Management’s Routes to Clean Air conference, on the 22^nd and 23^rd of October. The event, co-organised by the AQMRC, the IAQM and Bristol City Council attracted over a hundred delegates keen to discuss issues surrounding vehicle emissions, mitigation measures and the future of air quality within the UK. Jim struck a chord with many delegates during his talk on ‘air quality in historical perspective – or why we fail to learn the lessons of history’. The conference also heard talks from Dr Eckard Helmers of the University of Applied Sciences, Trier on how diesel vehicle emissions may not actually reduce our CO₂ contribution compared to petrol vehicle emissions and Dr James Tate of the University of Leeds on how real-world emissions from vehicles are often different to those of type-approval testing.

 

All in all, the conference was deemed to be a great success with national media outlets running stories derived from a number of the speakers.  Jim’s presentation, along with others from the conference can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LyJ24uSbWc

 

 

Tim presenting at MODEshift Convention

Tim will be presenting the 'fleximobility' work (http://www.fleximobility.solutions) from the Disruption project today at the annual MODEshift Convention in Birmingham (http://www.modeshift.org.uk/convention).

MODEshift are the UK's leading sustainable travel organisation.

AQMRC responds to the NICE consultation on outdoor air quality and health

The AQMRC recently responded to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence’s call for comments on the development of reducing the ill-effects of outdoor air quality on health. The guideline scope, can be found here: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/GID-PHG92/documents/air-pollution-outdoor-air-quality-and-health-final-scope2 and our comments and NICE responses to each comment can be found here: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/GID-PHG92/documents/air-pollution-outdoor-air-quality-and-health-draft-scope-stakeholder-comments-and-responses-table2

 

 

AQMRC delighted to support Bristol City Council's bid for an Ultra Low Emissions Scheme

The AQMRC are delighted to support Bristol City Council’s bid for an Ultra Low Emissions Scheme for Bristol. We look forward to the opportunity for collaboration on such an important scheme.