The Government-funded Foresight programme published its report Powering our Lives: Sustainable Energy Management and the Built Environment in December. Announced by the government in its 2006 Energy Review, the project aims to inform the reshaping of national policy. It brought together over 200 experts and a wide range of stakeholders to review the evidence base and use scenario-building techniques to examine key policy issues. The report concludes that the key strategic challenges include the imperative of decarbonisation of the built environment, overcoming the “lock-in” to current centralized energy systems and the impact of people’s behaviours and social values on energy systems. Among its conclusions, it states that investments in ICT and data management could revolutionise the kinds of energy systems which are desirable and feasible, especially if coupled with breakthroughs in energy storage technology. It highlights that a step-change in the rate of retrofitting for energy efficiency in existing buildings is urgently needed. Among the area-based approaches discussed, it suggests schemes linking new urban in-fill to energy improvements for existing stock. To download the report and find out more about this and other Foresight projects, see www.foresight.gov.uk

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Author:

Research Team

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

11-Feb-09

Categories:

Research 

Sections:

The RTPI

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