Knowledge

Low Carbon Innovation and Delivery

GRIP software underpins low carbon urban strategies

'GRIP' software has been used in authorities in England, Scotland and California to target emissions reductions.

Sebastian Carney from the University of Manchester has found that policy makers are markedly underestimating the changes needed to mitigate CO2 emission required to prevent dangerous climate change. Why? Because they work in 'silos'. Lack of communication between government departments, NGOs and other authorities results in significant differences over who is responsible for what.

To address this challenge he uses specially developed software called 'GRIP' (Greenhouse Gas Regional Inventory Project) which blends in real time, different quantities and types of energy consumed with area-specific data to illustrate the effects of different policy scenarios on CO2 emissions.

He has used the GRIP software to target emissions reductions. Scenario sessions bring together politicians, council officers, policy makers and NGOs to explore the changes they believe are possible for their areas. He is now leading a new Europe-wide project, in collaboration with METREX, the Network of European Regions. EUCO2 will use GRIP to devise low carbon urban strategies for cities in Spain, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, France, Slovakia, Italy, Portugal and the UK.

Visit www.grip.org.uk and www.euCO2.org for more details.

Download Sebastian Carney's presentation at the seminar Delivering the Welsh Research Agenda which happened on 24 February 2010 in Cardiff.

Climate Change and Innovation in the Built Environment

A recent report on the challenge of climate change assesses the role that innovation is currently playing in meeting this challenge, and identifies where innovation needs to be harnessed more fully. It covers two broad areas: transport (from changes to vehicles and fuels to infrastructure and planning) and energy (from generation, including renewable and micro-generation, to energy efficiency and demand).

Related scientific reviews on energy and innovation in the built environment are available from the Foresight Review on Sustainable Energy Management in the Built Environment.

Futures Report on Sustainable Energy Management

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.