In this video, Dr Steve Smith, who leads on climate science at the UK Committee on Climate Change, discusses climate policy in the UK, the role of science in creating policy, and how emission targets can be met. For more information you can visit the UK Committee on Climate Change website.
Source: OUR CHANGING CLIMATE: PAST, PRESENT…UNIVERSITY OF READING
Reading Borough Council
Strategic Environment, Planning and Transport Committee
Local Transport Plan (LTP3)
Civic Offices
Reading
RG1 7AE
Subject: Reading climate change air-pollution strategy and monthly Car-Free Work-Day
Reading should get on board a monthly car-free work-day!
As part of a car free day every motorised vehicle should be forbidden in the whole of the Regional area; with the exception of public transport, emergency services, buses and minibuses, taxis and public vehicles of authority (office, transfer of funds, collection of garbage). Certain people can for exceptional reasons benefit from passes delivered by the municipality.
A car free day is the opportunity to make motorists more aware of the environmental impact of pollution and allow better use of public space.
Background
Air Quality
Air quality is important for our health, quality of life and the environment. Air pollution is harmful to human health, plants and animals, and also corrodes materials and buildings.
Transport
An effective transport system is fundamental to building sustainable and thriving local communities. The challenge is to minimise transport’s contribution to green-house gas emissions, through reducing the need to travel, encouraging the use of more sustainable modes of transport and alternative energy sources, and reducing congestion
Overall we fully agree with the “Outline Development Framework- Reading Air Quality”, however we believe a Reading monthly car-free work-day is a perfect opportunity to build upon London’s success with their clean air initiative, and create Reading’s own sustainable pathway route for its citizens. We would like to put forward this idea to Reading Borough Council of using the site Reading’s Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) during the period of 2015-2020 as a functional space to let local community groups use street space as a sustainability hub to promote Reading to becoming a greener place to live and work in. The “monthly car-free work-day” will promote various green project solutions and can also be a testing facility for monitoring and analysing local community for the council.
We hope a car-free work-day will lead to a change in behaviour, enabling the community to work towards becoming a zero-emissions society.
A regular car-free work-day in Reading could fuel an International monthly Car-Free Day which could be an astonishing example of traffic development and public realm. Reading has great potential to embrace the sustainable pathway and become a British role-model in climate change (the air is our all urban common) to honour a successful climate change agreement taking place in Paris December 2015.
On behalf of the Climate Change Centre Reading (CCCRdg), as Reading’s leader in the green movement against climate change, we would like to ask you for your consideration of our proposed project to help drive Reading’s bid for a monthly “Car-Free Work-Day”.
This is an event that has been held in cities around the world, with areas being closed off to cars thus encouraging people to use more sustainable forms of transport, such as walking, cycling or public transport. The event challenges people to:
This will help us to achieve our aims of reducing air pollution, developing sustainability and increasing Reading’s green credentials through:
A Car-Free Work-Day has the potential to improve the quality of life in Reading through a reduction in traffic, and therefore noise and pollution, and also make people more aware of how their own actions impact on the environment. It will also increase Reading’s chances of enrolling for the European Green Capital Award in the future.
We want to strive for community usage of the streets in order to preserve its heritage qualities but also as a sustainable landmark for the future.
Balanced and mixed use of our public space between integrated interest groups; people, bikes, public transport and cars is a kind of damage control, keeping the new agenda safe and sustainable. Especially regarding the cars’ use of the public realm, which is still 80% of street space (if you design mixed use streets you design a healthy city). This high percentage for car use needs to drop dramatically to cope with future challenges. For instance if urban neighborhoods could interact and agree (Empowered interconnection) to regular car free days on, life in our citizen communities would improve considerably.
Our main aim is to bring together businesses, the local community, the Government and those who want to learn about Climate Change, in order to create collaborative momentum to reduce CO2, find new solutions to commuting, increase remote working and develop sustainability in the Thames Valley Berkshire, and beyond.
We hope after the first year trial the Reading Borough Council, who have already evaluated future usage of streets as a historic move and i.e. permanent decision for the Thames Valley Berkshire area, will take action and actually do something that will lead us and a small part of the UK in to new pathway for a shift away from fossil fuels promoting the Reading area as one front leaders in traffic development of turning into city status for 2020 and forth coming…
/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2466040/3206.0.jpg)
There are very good reasons to hold community street events in a traffic-free street:
Once the traffic is cleared the space opens new possibilities for community activities, particularly in areas needing regeneration – their image can be improved. Communities of different ethnic origins sometimes use streets in different ways, drawing on their own culture.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your consideration and invite you to consider future meetings with us or events to discuss from a business perspective the challenges set out in new agenda of curbing CO2 emissions and contribute to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC´s proposed reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050, necessary if the world is to achieve and to stay below the 2degree target.
Climate Change Centre Reading (CCCRdg)
17 Newbury Close
Charvil
Berkshire
United Kingdom
www.CCCRdg.org.uk
Contact No: 07447 934700
If the rest of the world follows the example of the Swedish city of Gothenburg, the long commute and work weeks that many face may become a thing of the past. The year-long study will have one group of city employees working for 6.5 hours, while another works for the traditional eight hours a day. A car factory in Gothenburg has already experimented with this model with great results.
I’m not saying that everyone has to offer a 6.5 hour workday for their agents to be happy. I do feel, however, that executives in North America could learn a lot from Gothenburg’s proactive approach to experiment with a solution outside of the standard "nine-to-five" model.
Unfortunately, most of the world’s workforce isn’t lucky enough to live in Gothenburg, and with the ever growing number of commuters in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) where 3C is located, the typical commuter can face a staggering 80-minute commute to and from work every day—one of the longest commutes in North America! And even in other cities in North America, commute times can range from 20 to 45 minutes. Stack that onto an 8-10 hour workday, and you have one frustrated employee.
Spending that much time sitting in grid-lock can take its toll on your tank – and your wallet, since the price of gas is soon expected be twice what it is today. With more and more employees spending their limited budget on gas to commute to and from work, this will doubtlessly lead to less time with their family, which amounts to less sleep, throwing their balance of life into chaos.
The job market isn’t like it was 30 or 40 years ago, where if you lost your job on Monday, you’d have a new within walking distance from your home by Friday. More and more job seekers are being forced to take jobs farther away from home, potentially for smaller wages. Many households report that they spend much of their budget on fuel and car insurance, with less money for food, clothing and activities for their children.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself: Do they have a job that allows for a flexible start/end time? Do you have a technology solution that can allow them to work from the cloud, reducing their time in the office to 1-2 days per week? If a full time solution is out of the question, can a part-time solution be established (1-2 days per week)?
We have worked a “reduced hour incentive package” into a few employee plans within 3C, and preliminary results have already shown an increase in efficiency and productivity, as well as a reduction in sick days.
The year-long experiment involving city employees in Gothenburg only started in April 2014, so it will remain to be seen how it pans out for them.
I encourage you to take a page out of the Gothenburg play book and be proactive with establishing a plan that takes ‘balance of life’ into consideration, while you still can.
Rdg CAN!
– Have a well-established record of achieving high environmental objectives.
– Commit to ambitious goals for future environmental improvement and sustainable development.
– Inspire other cities through new ideas, best practices and experiences.
Will your city be the European Green Capital 2017? The Commission has launched its search for the 2017 European Green Capital. The European Green Capital Award recognises cities that are at the forefront of environmentally-friendly urban living. The..
Read more here: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Will-your-city-2017_Web-Copy-F01.pdf
Climate Change Centre Reading
STALL EVENT DAY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE CENTRE READING
Climate Change Centre Reading wants to advance and plan the education of the public on the subject of climate change and reach long term sustainability. We hope a new show room in town centre would be a great source of inspiration for new school projects, business and ours. Placemaking can be an excellent entry point to dealing with climate change. Looking to unlock Reading’s green potential – Driving Readings bid for the 2017 European Green Capital Award.
Where in the high street Reading on the 23rd of May
Please see our press release link here: http://media1.tvb-climatechallenge.org.uk/2014/05/Press-Release_Climate-Change-Centre-Reading33.pdf
Togethernessship – All about Placemaking to be truly inclusive and Safeguarding the future; Habitat III in 2016, which will have the overall aim of contributing to a New Urban / Rural Agenda designed for people and places.
“Consider Climate Change in every action”~Climate Change Centre Reading
by Stephen Luntz
Photo credit: Staecker. The demise of the Aral sea could be a foretaste of the future if we don’t change the way society works
Our industrial civilization faces the same threats of collapse that earlier versions such as the Mayans experienced, a study to be published in Ecological Economics has warned. The idea is far from new, but the authors have put new rigor to the study of how so many previous societies collapsed, and why ours could follow.
Lead author Mr Safa Motesharrei is no wild-eyed conspiracy theorist. Motesharrei is a graduate student in mathematics at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, a National Science Foundation-supported institution, and the research was done with funding from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
“The fall of the Roman Empire, and the equally (if not more) advanced Han, Mauryan, and Gupta Empires, as well as so many advanced Mesopotamian Empires, are all testimony to the fact that advanced, sophisticated, complex, and creative civilizations can be both fragile and impermanent,” the forthcoming paper states
Two key social features are identified that contributed to the collapse of every civilization studied: “The stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity,” and “The economic stratification of society into Elites [rich] and Masses (or “Commoners”) [poor]”.
If these look familiar, so do the factors that make up the resource side of the equation, with climatic change, and scarcity of water and energy key among them, although for others climate variation was a matter of bad luck, rather than their own actions.
The model Motesharrei used, Human And Nature Dynamics (HANDY), explores the relationship between population and resources, drawing heavily on predator-prey models used by ecologists. Four key factors were included in the model: Elites, Commoners, nature and wealth. Equations of how these interact were created with varying inputs. The outcomes were not pretty. The timing and shape of collapses varied, but the societies that most closely resembled our own doomed themselves, through overuse of resources exacerbated by economic stratification.
In one scenario many commoners do make it into the elite population at year 750, but the “scarcity of workers” caused a collapse by year 1000. In another so many of the Earth’s resources are consumed that society, and the ecology of the planet, are doomed by the year 500.
“It is important to note that in both of these scenarios, the Elites — due to their wealth — do not suffer the detrimental effects of the environmental collapse until much later than the Commoners,” the paper notes.
If those year numbers seem comfortingly far off, be aware that the year zero in these models is well behind us. Nevertheless, contrary to much of the reporting, the model does not provide a useful timeline for when we can expect to see the world we live in turn into something that resembles a post-apocalyptic nightmare, although studies of the convergence of climate and resource challenges suggest we may witness drastic food crises within a little over a decade.
In every economic bubble people looking back to past crashes are told “this time it is different”. Certainly some things have changed for modern civilization compared to the others Motesharrei has looked at. Technological developments that provide access to greater resources is the most frequently mentioned difference. Motesharrei responds, “Technological change can raise the efficiency of resource use, but it also tends to raise both per capita resource consumption and the scale of resource extraction, so that, absent policy effects, the increases in consumption often compensate for the increased efficiency of resource use.”
One advantage we do have, however, is much greater knowledge of what has gone wrong in the past, and therefore the capacity to build models like HANDY. In a presentation of an earlier draft of this work in 2012 Motesharrei noted, “Simple models provide a great intuition and can teach us invaluable points. It is crucial to have a measure that can give us an early warning of collapse. Carrying Capacity tells us when overshoot happens, and this can be defined by noticing the decline in wealth.”
Some coverage of the announcement has described disaster as inevitable, but that is not the paper’s conclusion at all. “Collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion,” it argues.
Although the study has reportedly passed peer review it is yet to be published. It received global attention after a pre-release version was provided to The Guardian.
Update: NASA has issued a clarification stressing that this study does not necessarily represent NASA’s viewpoint. Noting that they fund many studies they stress it “was not solicited, directed or reviewed by NASA”. The funding came about because the project was “utilizing research tools developed for a separate NASA activity.” The clarification points out, “As is the case with all independent research, the views and conclusions in the paper are those of the authors alone.”
via According To A Nasa Funded Study, We’re Pretty Much Screwed | I Fucking Love Science.
Newsdesk
Climate Change Centre Reading
How can Reading / Thames Valley Berkshire become a role model in Climate Change? How can our leadership in in this very current area attract green businesses to the region? How do we form a strong sustainable community 2020-2050? These are questions the Climate Change Centre will address in Driving Readings bid for the 2017 European Green Capital Award; and in doing so will help safeguard the future of our children;
“Streets as Public Spaces,” reflects the importance of modern street design in enabling – or damaging – the well-being of city dwellers. Streets serve a broader function than the efficient conveyance of vehicles or pedestrians from one location to another. They, and their adjacent spaces, form a critical connective network within the city, profoundly influencing, and potentially limiting, social and economic development.
Please see our press release here: http://media1.tvb-climatechallenge.org.uk/2014/03/Press-Release_Climate-Change-Centre-Reading22.pdf
Following the 2013 Future of Places conference in Stockholm, Sweden, Ax:son Johnson Foundation, together with its partners UN-Habitat and Project for Public Spaces, are pleased to announce the next conference in the series. The theme of the 2014 conference, “Streets as Public Spaces,” reflects the importance of modern street design in enabling – or damaging – the well-being of city dwellers. Streets serve a broader function than the efficient conveyance of vehicles or pedestrians from one location to another. They, and their adjacent spaces, form a critical connective network within the city, profoundly influencing, and potentially limiting, social and economic development.
BACKGROUND TO THE PUBLISHER:
‘Habitat III’ is the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, to take place in 2016.
Habitat III will be one of the first global conferences after the Post 2015 Development Agenda. It is an opportunity to discuss and chart new pathways in response to the challenges of urbanization and the opportunities it offers for the implementation of the sustainable development goals.
The conference promises to be unique in bringing together diverse urban actors such as governments, local authorities, civil society, the private sector, academic institutions and all relevant interest groups to review urban and housing policies affecting the future of cities within an international governance architecture, with a view to generate a ‘New Urban Agenda’ for the 21st century which recognizes the ever-changing dynamics of human civilization.
Habitat III offers Member States an opportunity to discuss a New Urban Agenda that will focus on policies and strategies that can result in effectively harnessing the power and forces behind urbanization.
“Consider Climate Change in every action”~Climate Change Centre Reading
More information:
See UN-Habitat Vision for Habitat III
First ever global assessment of best practices in green growth reveals pathways for success
Category: News
Published on Tuesday, 11 March 2014
R20 is pleased to announce the release of the summary of key findings from the Green Growth Best Practice (GGBP) book, ahead of its full release in June 2014. This summary report was unveiled at the 1st Global Conference on Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) in Dubai earlier this month.
The Green Growth Best Practice book is the result of an initiative led by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), and was written by 75 authors in the field of green growth from a variety of organizations, including R20.
Lead authors Christophe Nuttall (R20’s Executive Director) and Tadashi Matsumoto (OECD Senior Policy Analyst), wrote the chapter on National and Subnational Integration that explores approaches to advancing green growth through coordinated national and subnational programs and across government. Several co-authors contributed to this chapter, including Denise Welch (R20’s Director of Research & Technical Initiatives).
By analyzing around 60 specific government programs from different countries and regions around the world, the GGBP makes recommendations for effective green growth approaches, based on the experience of early movers, and provides practical guidance for national and subnational policy planning.
Green growth strategies play vital roles in unlocking synergies between economic growth, environmental protection and poverty reduction, and enabling a transition to an inclusive green economy.
The Synthesis of Key Findings elaborates on nine key actions that enable effective green growth policy:
· Use well-designed planning and coordination processes;
· Establish clear visions, targets, and baselines;
· Undertake robust analysis and balanced communication of the benefits of green growth;
· Prioritize options and develop credible pathways towards targets;
· Design policies to address multiple goals and respond to specific market failures;
· Design public finance instruments to overcome barriers and mobilize private investment;
· Tap the power of public-private collaboration;
· Pursue mutually reinforcing action across all levels of government;
· Build and maintain strong monitoring and evaluation systems.
The report and supporting case studies will also be available in the form of an online “living handbook,” which will feature an interactive interface.
Read the Synthesis of Key Findings here.
via First ever global assessment of best practices in green growth reveals pathways for success – Regions 20.
A new technology that allows sunlight to heat up the house completely silently, with zero carbon and with minimal running costs are now being developed. With the help of KTH researcher Peter Kjaerboe and many others. This is through the use of glass tiles on the roof, which allows light which can be used as energy to pass through to the fabric layers below.
Glass tiles are the same as conventional roof tiles, except the glass passes light to the fabric substrate.As a result When light passes through the glass and hits the fabric it is converted into heat.The heated air can then either heat the house directly or transferred to the liquid-heat, says Peter Kjaerboe.
The system can be integrated with other energy systems such as district heating, geothermal heating, heat pump, pellet, wood, oil or electric boiler.
Climate Pact member SolTech Energy markets solar power solution, whose life expectancy is estimated to be at least 40 years.
Read more here .
The doubling of a city’s production of solar electricity
Stockholm’s largest photovoltaic plant has been inaugurated. The plant supplies approximately 180,000 kWh per year, which is a doubling of Stockholm’s production of solar electricity.
– I am proud that Ports of Stockholm now has a photovoltaic system that contributes to the increased use of an alternative and environmentally-friendly energy sources. This is the first time that a photovoltaic system has been economically viable, and produced a profit, says Sten Nordin (M), Mayor of Stockholm.
The photovoltaic system consists of 919 solar panels, which cover an area of 1,500 square meters and are mounted on the roof of Tray 6 in Frihamnen. Tray 6 is a giant ( 40 000 square meters ) building of archives, warehouses and offices. 15 percent of the building’s total annual electricity needs will be met by solar energy.
The price of solar panels has dropped so much that for the first time we can expect to be able to produce electricity at a cost that is competitive. We will pay a lower price for it, than we currently pay for “normal” electricity, says Helena Bonnier (M) , Chairman of the Ports of Stockholm.
Source: energinyheter.se
