On the estimation of temporal mileage rates

Peer reviewedPostprin

Analysis of the 2007/8 Defra Farm Business Survey Energy Module

Key points This study has delivered an invaluable baseline estimate of energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on commercial farms in England. Energy use and GHG emissions associated with particular commodities were quantified and results broadly agreed with those derived by Life Cycle Assessment, but with much scatter in the environmental performance of farms.Direct energy use on farms was generally less that indirect (embedded) energy use, except for horticulture, which is dominated by heating fuel use. In contrast, most GHG emissions are incurred on farms, rather than as embedded emissions.Scatter in both environmental and economic performance underlies the somewhat disappointing finding of no clear positive link between farm financial performance and energy use or GHG emissions. However, the mere existence of these ranges shows that there is scope for improvement in both financial and environmental performance and that there is no apparent barrier for both to be achievable in harmony. The recording of such farm-level energy data is essential for the future, as it should enable improvements to be made in efficiency of energy use. The improved UK agricultural GHG inventory will depend on high quality energy data on agricultural activities. This study will be invaluable in identifying the level of detail needed. Future data requirements include: contractor work rates and fuel use per unit area and per unit time, fertiliser and pesticide use by brand name, enhanced output data, especially animal live weights, and horticultural produce recorded by weight rather than by value

'Alive after five' : constructing the neoliberal night in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The development of the ‘night-time economy’ in the UK through the 1990s has been associated with neoliberal urban governance. Academics have, however, begun to question the use and the scope of the concept ‘neoliberalism’. In this paper, I identify two common approaches to studying neoliberalism, one exploring neoliberalism as a series of policy networks, the other exploring neoliberalism as the governance of subjectivities. I argue that to understand the urban night, we need to explore both these senses of ‘neoliberalism’. As a case study, I take the ‘Alive After Five’ project, organised by the Business Improvement District in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which sought to extend shopping hours in order to encourage more people to use the city at night. Drawing from Actor-Network-Theory, I explore the planning, the translation, and the practice of this new project. In doing so, I explore the on-going nature and influence of neoliberal policy on the urban night in the UK

Progress with air quality management in the 60 years since the UK clean air act, 1956. Lessons, failures, challenges and opportunities

© 2016 WIT Press, www.witpress.com. This paper explores the challenges, opportunities and progress made with managing air quality since the United Kingdom parliament passed the Clean Air Act, 1956. It seeks to identify the factors contributing to successful management of air quality and the factors that have acted, or continue to do so, as barriers to progress. The public health catastrophe of the 1952 London Smog created the political momentum for the 1956 Act to be passed. The nature of the contemporary air pollution challenge is reviewed in terms of the public health burden, the economic cost and the governmental response. The contemporary response is considered inadequate for the scale and intensity of the problem

Policy disconnect: A critical review of UK air quality policy in relation to EU and LAQM responsibilities over the last 20 years

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd This paper critically reviews United Kingdom (UK) air quality policy in relation to European and Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) responsibilities over the last 20 years. The arguments articulated in this paper highlight the gulf between national and local air quality management in the UK, including differences in legislation, legal responsibilities, scales of operation, monitoring and modelling requirements, exceedence reporting and action planning. It is argued that local authorities cannot be held responsible for the UK's failure to achieve the European Union (EU) nitrogen dioxide (NO2) limit values due to fundamental differences between local government responsibilities under LAQM and the UK compliance assessment reporting to the EU. Furthermore, unambitious and counterproductive national policies and the failure of EU light-duty vehicle type approval tests and Euro standards to reduce real-world emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) are the main reasons for continued NO2 limit value exceedences. This failure of EU and national air quality policies has effectively undermined local authority action to improve local air quality, resulting in delays in achieving the standards, wasted resources at local and national levels, and, ultimately, unnecessary loss of life and increased morbidity in the UK population. This paper concludes that the current emphasis that the UK government is placing on implementation of Clean Air Zones (CAZs) to achieve the Ambient Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) (AAQD), and avoid substantial fines imposed by the European Court of Justice (CJEU), is flawed. Based on the arguments presented in this paper, a series of recommendations is proposed for the European Union, the UK government, devolved administrations and local authorities

Financial implications of car ownership and use: A distributional analysis based on observed spatial variance considering income and domestic energy costs

This paper presents a new perspective on assessing the financial impacts of private car usage in England and Wales using novel datasets to explore implications of motoring costs (principally Vehicle Excise Duty and road fuel costs) for households as part of the overall costs of their energy budget. Using data from an enhanced version of the Department for Transport ‘MOT’ vehicle test record database, combined with data on domestic gas and electricity consumption from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (formerly the Department of Energy and Climate Change), patterns of car usage and consequent energy consumption are investigated, and the costs of Vehicle Excise Duty and road fuel examined as a proportion of total expenditure on household direct energy consumption. Through the use of these new datasets it is possible to analyse how these vary spatially and in relation to levels of median income. The findings indicate that motoring costs are strongly regressive, with lower income areas, especially in rural locations, spending around twice as much of their income on motoring costs as the highest income areas

A GIS-based assessment of the suitability of SCIAMACHY satellite sensor measurements for estimating reliable CO concentrations in a low-latitude climate

An assessment of the reliability of the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography (SCIAMACHY) satellite sensor measurements to interpolate tropospheric concentrations of carbon monoxide considering the lowlatitude climate of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria was conducted. Monthly SCIAMACHY carbon monoxide (CO) column measurements from January 2,003 to December 2005 were interpolated using ordinary kriging technique. The spatio-temporal variations observed in the reliability were based on proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, seasonal variations in the intensities of rainfall and relative humidity, the presence of dust particles from the Sahara desert, industrialization in Southwest Nigeria and biomass burning during the dry season in Northern Nigeria. Spatial reliabilities of 74 and 42 % are observed for the inland and coastal areas, respectively. Temporally, average reliability of 61 and 55%occur during the dry and wet seasons, respectively. Reliability in the inland and coastal areas was 72 and 38% during the wet season, and 75 and 46% during the dry season, respectively. Based on the results, the WFM-DOAS SCIAMACHY CO data product used for this study is therefore relevant in the assessment of CO concentrations in developing countries within the low latitudes that could not afford monitoring infrastructure due to the required high costs. Although the SCIAMACHY sensor is no longer available, it provided cost-effective, reliable and accessible data that could support air quality assessment in developing countries

A small area estimation of the capability of individuals to replace car travel with walking, cycling and e-bikes and its implications for energy use

The negative impacts of excessive car use are well documented and this illustrates the need to reduce car use. Mode shift from car use to walking, cycling and e-bike use is one of many possible solutions, addressing for some locations the multiple negative impacts of car use including reduction in transport energy demand. Walking is the most sustainable and equitable travel mode. Cycle use is also sustainable and may be provided equitably. E-Bikes are a smart technology often overlooked due to the hype around e-cars, and are potentially a sustainable and more equitable means of reducing transport energy demand. Some useful work has investigated the potential for emissions reduction by mode shift though a number research opportunities remain. Until recently information at fine spatial scales was not available on either total car use nor the distance individuals in these same small areas were capable of travelling by walking, cycling and e-bike use. This paper brings these two data sets together. This allows production of novel spatial indicators. – Firstly, an estimate of the potential car travel distance which may be transferred to walking, cycling and e-bike use. – Secondly, indicators of the energy reduction potential of transfer of distance travelled from car to walking, cycling and e-bike use are produced and described. The utility of these indicators is to provide fine scale information on the potential for transport energy demand reduction. Quantifying the benefits of reducing car based travel demand at the local scale is useful to policy makers to identify specific locations where large reductions in emissions per person may be achieved by shift to active modes, and it can be used to target resources and policy interventions. The method is applied to a case study in the UK. Maps and other visualisations are shown which illustrate the ease of interpretation of results for policy makers

Diagramming social practice theory:An interdisciplinary experiment exploring practices as networks

Achieving a transition to a low-carbon energy system is now widely recognised as a key challenge facing humanity. To date, the vast majority of research addressing this challenge has been conducted within the disciplines of science, engineering and economics utilising quantitative and modelling techniques. However, there is growing awareness that meeting energy challenges requires fundamentally socio-technical solutions and that the social sciences have an important role to play. This is an interdisciplinary challenge but, to date, there remain very few explorations of, or reflections on, interdisciplinary energy research in practice. This paper seeks to change that by reporting on an interdisciplinary experiment to build new models of energy demand on the basis of cutting-edge social science understandings. The process encouraged the social scientists to communicate their ideas more simply, whilst allowing engineers to think critically about the embedded assumptions in their models in relation to society and social change. To do this, the paper uses a particular set of theoretical approaches to energy use behaviour known collectively as social practice theory (SPT) - and explores the potential of more quantitative forms of network analysis to provide a formal framework by means of which to diagram and visualize practices. The aim of this is to gain insight into the relationships between the elements of a practice, so increasing the ultimate understanding of how practices operate. Graphs of practice networks are populated based on new empirical data drawn from a survey of different types (or variants) of laundry practice. The resulting practice networks are analysed to reveal characteristics of elements and variants of practice, such as which elements could be considered core to the practice, or how elements between variants overlap, or can be shared. This promises insights into energy intensity, flexibility and the rootedness of practices (i.e. how entrenched/ established they are) and so opens up new questions and possibilities for intervention. The novelty of this approach is that it allows practice data to be represented graphically using a quantitative format without being overly reductive. Its usefulness is that it is readily applied to large datasets, provides the capacity to interpret social practices in new ways, and serves to open up potential links with energy modeling. More broadly, a significant dimension of novelty has been the interdisciplinary approach, radically different to that normally seen in energy research. This paper is relevant to a broad audience of social scientists and engineers interested in integrating social practices with energy engineering