Report on process and outcomes of questionnaire and workshop elements of consultation for the development of Reading Borough Council’s climate change strategy and air quality action plan

This report summarises the outcomes of the consultation activities undertaken by Reading Borough Council in support of the development of their Air Quality Action Plan and Climate Change Strategy. The consultation consisted of a questionnaire being disseminated in both paper and internet formats (including a double page pull-out section in the Reading Evening Post), and two public consultation workshops held in February 2008 in Reading Town Centre.The consultation was not based on seeking approval on draft documents, but was intended to help assess the viewpoint of Reading citizens with regard to their perception of the problems of poor air quality and climate change, how much of a priority the council should give to addressing these problems, and what sort of measures and actions the citizens would want to see taken, or given encouragement and support to take themselves.This report summarises the views and suggestions of all those who have participated in the various aspects of the consultation exercise. The detailed open response comments from the 155 questionnaire respondents, or the notes and feedback sheets from around 5 hours of workshops are available in the Annex. Below are 8 key points distilled from the consultation exercise:Better information on the causes and effects of climate change and air quality, on what individuals can do, and what the council and others are doing about the problems.The council to take a lead both in terms of managing their own estate and in encouraging, supporting and enforcing better practice.Trying to resolve the traffic issue mainly through demand management.Giving non-car transport a higher (perceived) priority so that people do not feel that these modes are more dangerous, more expensive or less convenient than using a car.Businesses to be encouraged/forced to take more action both to improve their energy efficiency, but also to help individuals perform better by, for example, reducing packaging.More attention to green spaces to provide pleasant transport corridors for walking and cycling, to help increase fitness and well-being and to help mitigate and adapt to climate change.Better quality housing development that ensures low carbon properties at affordable prices and uses appropriate land (not gardens, playing fields and other previously green space).Regulation and enforcement to ensure that individual actions take place on a level playing field and so that environmental protection is seen as a necessity rather than an option

Air pollution: Putting people at the heart of the issues

Dr Tim Chatterton considers the theory that the root causes of air pollution are social, not just technologica

An introduction to thinking about 'energy behaviour': A multi-model approach

Human beings are not simple to understand. Even if they were, most of us now live in a complex world that has allowed us to become detached from the natural patterns and drivers that have shaped humans and human consciousness over millennia of evolution. To try and understand how and why people behave the way they do in modern society requires us not just to understand the human side of the equation, but also to understand a great deal about the social context in which this behaviour occurs. The purpose of this paper is to set out a number of different perspectives that can be used to understand and interpret behaviour. It sets these out within a framework that demonstrates how each approach can contribute something valuable towards developing a broad view of behaviour. Within this paper the term ‘behaviour’ is used to refer simply to ‘what people do’ in the broadest terms. WARNING! The intention behind this paper is to act as a simple introduction to a range of theories that come from very distinct academic backgrounds, and to present them in a way that encourage policies to be developed that take them all into account. As a consequence, some of the more nuanced aspects of the theories are inevitably simplified. Therefore the reader is strongly encouraged to read the additional recommended literature to get a fuller understanding of each perspective

A social and spatial analysis of emissions from private vehicle use in Great Britain

This paper will describe a new approach to source apportionment of transport emissions that moves away from traditional approaches which have allocated emissions to point of use, or by journey purpose. Instead, emissions will be attributed spatially to the people responsible for cars that cause the emissions, highlighting how both structural features (such as poor accessibility) or lifestyle choices (such as a preference for large vehicles) impact on air pollution.In 2010, the UK Department for Transport began making available data from the motor vehicle test (MOT) database. This data provides information on vehicles under 3.5 tonnes, including: make, model, engine size, fuel type and a date and odometer reading for when the test was undertaken. From these last two, it is possible to estimate an annual mileage for nearly every motor vehicle in Great Britain. Using this data it is possible to create both an emissions profile for each individual vehicle, and subsequently an estimate of the total emissions over a year. This data is then linked with a privileged-access dataset from the UK Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to allow privately owned vehicles to be separated from commercial vehicles, and then to link vehicles to the location of the registered keeper via small area census geographies (~700 households, ~1600 people).Using this data, we undertake an analysis of variations in responsibility for motor vehicle emissions both spatially, in terms of geographic spread and level of urbanisation, and socially, through income data and social profiles, created by the UK Office for National Statistics, for each area

The future is already here; it’s just not very evenly distributed

The future is always created on an uneven foundation. In order to understand how we can create futures that do not exclude, isolate or exploit we have to understand how the future is ‘written’ in the present. So, whilst there is some interest in looking at how, in the language of socio-technical transitions, the niche becomes part of the landscape, here we are more interested in how these minority elements are at the moment unequally distributed; how those inequalities are likely to be reproduced or altered in the future; and how those inequalities may actually determine what future or futures we arrive at. Through exploring how existing differences create unequal futures, we can begin to understand how to look forward in a way which is beneficial to those who are often excluded from official narratives of change

Report on data analysis and GHG emissions estimates related to travel choice (EU FP7 CATCH Project Deliverable 3.2)

This report describes the objectives and activities defined and carried out by task 3.2 “Data Collection/Collation/Specification” within Work Package 3 in CATCH.The Carbon Aware Travel Choice (CATCH) project was developed in response to the FP7 call for proposals that would help cities to reduce the amount of CO2 produced by travel choices. Alternative fuel technologies, sustainable transport policies, and new technologies applied to support mobility (and virtual mobility) are being developed and fine tuned throughout Europe. These technologies offer opportunities to move towards a more sustainable future. However, despite a range of initiatives, most of which are supported through projects funded by the European Commission, there is still a need for a trusted and easily accessible resource which enables travellers, policy makers and operators, and other stakeholders, to determine appropriate actions to address the growing environmental challenge of reducing the carbon dioxide emissions from urban transport by encouraging carbon-friendly travel choices. In response to that, the CATCH project aims to develop a knowledge engine to inject carbon reduction into the public’s and policy maker’s decision making . This will be an online knowledge platform that aims to:•support city stakeholders to develop sustainable transport policies;•motivate travellers to adopt sustainable transport choices. The CATCH project has developed a knowledge platform that includes two tools that allow for visualisation of data at the city level (the co-benefit tool, also called “My City”, and the Scenario tool, developed in WP4). The input to both tools is the GHG and Performance Database. The database structure was initially developed in T3.1 and described in D3.1. This document describes how data was identified and assessed, and how the database has been populated with relevant data as well as the estimation of city-specific per-capita road transport CO2 emissions. Road transport CO2 emissions were estimated by using the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR), GIS data and the application of a ‘top-down’ methodology. The publishing in 2011 of a spatially disaggregated inventory of a range of diffuse atmospheric emissions based on the E-PRTR marked a significant advance in understanding variations in emissions from various sources Europe. Through this release, the CATCH platform was able to estimate city-level road transport CO2 emissions for over one hundred cities. Over 40 different indicators had sufficient coverage for the 149 cities for which per-capita road transport CO2 emissions estimates were created. That data feeds the My City tool of WP4. The My City tool allows for cities to be compared and ranks them according to their per-capita road transport CO2 emissions (and other indicators, or ‘co-benefits’). Further, it uses the 43 indicators to show how the cities are performing in six different policy areas. The data that feeds into the Scenario tool is not as expansive. However, over seventy cities were identified that had 10 common indicators with at least three distinct results. Currently, the only transport indicator is car ownership and it is not possible to include CO2 emissions estimates as only one year exists in the E-PRTR data.Future directions of this work include expanding and building upon the indicators that are available for both tools. In particular, now that a baseline has been established using the E-PRTR, accurate historic data and future versions of the E-PRTR data would allow for trending

An independent review of monitoring measures undertaken in Neath Port Talbot in respect of particulate matter (PM10)

The purpose of this Executive Summary is not to provide a comprehensive summation of all the observations and conclusions identified during this study but rather provide a synopsis of the main findings of this independent review. The points raised in this Executive Summary are supported by in-depth discussion and data analysis in the main document and therefore the reader should not draw any conclusions without reading the main document in detail.The Air Quality Management Resource Centre (AQMRC), University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) was appointed by the Welsh Assembly Government following a competitive tendering process to undertake a project entitled ‘An Independent Review of Monitoring Measures Undertaken in Neath Port Talbot in Respect of Particulate Matter (PM10) - Contract Number RPP0001/2009’. Within the Tender Specification prepared by the Welsh Assembly Government, clear project aims have been highlighted as follows:- Provide an independent amalgamation and review of the monitoring, modelling, source apportionment and atmospheric particle characterisation work undertaken in respect of PM10 pollution in the Neath Port Talbot area since 2000;- Draw upon the projects undertaken by, and experiences of, relevant stakeholders including Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council (NPTCBC), contracted consultants, WAG, the Environment Agency Wales (EAW), the Port Talbot Steelworks site operators and several university researchers;- Provide advice to WAG on further measures to pinpoint sources of particulate matter within the area; and- Assist the Welsh Minister’s understanding of the issues and implementation of actions in the affected area to ensure that concentrations of PM10 attain the air quality standards as set out in the Air Quality Standards (Wales) Regulations 2007.Following the Environment Act 1995 all local authorities have a statutory duty to review and assess air quality within their administrative area. NPTCBC have undertaken their review and assessment duties since the commencement of Round 1 in 1998. In Round 1 the Council identified an exceedence of the PM10 24-hour air quality objective and the Taibach Margam Air Quality Management Area for PM10 (24-hour objective) was declared on the 1st of July 2000.Subsequently, as required by the Environment Act 1995, NPTCBC undertook a Stage 4 / Further Assessment of air quality in which their source apportionmentstudy identified the Port Talbot Steelworks as the primary source of PM10 emissions. As required by the legislation NPTCBC has developed the Taibach Margam Air Quality Management Area (PM10) Air Quality Action Plan (NPTCBC AQAP) in collaboration with various stakeholders including the site operators and Environment Agency Wales (EAW) and has subsequently continued with their statutory Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) duties. A synopsis of all the key conclusions and recommendations from this study are provided below and they have been categorised according to the primary objectives of the project tender specifications as outlined in Section 2.1

Emissions vs exposure: Increasing injustice from road traffic-related air pollution in the United Kingdom

© 2019 The Authors This paper presents unique spatial analyses identifying substantial discrepancies in traffic-related emissions generation and exposure by socioeconomic and demographic groups. It demonstrates a compelling environmental and social injustice narrative with strong policy implications for the UK and beyond. In the first instance, this research presents a decadal update for England and Wales to Mitchell and Dorling's 2003 analysis of environmental justice in the UK. Using 2011 UK Government pollution and emissions data with 2011 UK Census socioeconomic and demographic data based on small area census geographies, this paper demonstrates a stronger relationship between age, poverty, road NOx emissions and exposure to NO2 concentrations. Areas with the highest proportions of under-fives and young adults, and poorer households, have the highest concentrations of traffic-related pollution. In addition, exclusive access to UK annual vehicle safety inspection records (‘MOT’ tests) allowed annual private vehicle NOx emissions to be spatially attributed to registered keepers. Areal analysis against Census-based socioeconomic characteristics identified that households in the poorest areas emit the least NOx and PM, whilst the least poor areas emitted the highest, per km, vehicle emissions per household through having higher vehicle ownership, owning more diesel vehicles and driving further. In conclusion, the analysis indicates that, despite more than a decade of air quality policy, environmental injustice of air pollution exposure has worsened. New evidence regarding the responsibility for generation of road traffic emissions provides a clear focus for policy development and targeted implementation

Practice ecology of sustainable travel: The importance of institutional policy-making processes beyond the traveller

Changing mobility behaviour towards activities and actions that have a less detrimental impact on the environment, public health and society is an objective of transport policy jurisdictions globally. In line with a burgeoning body of research examining behaviour and social change, this paper explores the governmental systems that influence mobility behaviours through a social practice lens. This paper blends two social practice theoretical models, the ‘3-Elements Model’ and ‘Systems of Provision’, as a means of understanding the delivery of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF), a central government grant scheme for English local authorities. We examine how the meanings, materials and competences within the practices of bid writing by local authorities and scheme selection by government influenced the distribution of funding to local authorities. The research starts from the principle that, where funding is provided by central government, in the case of this research that of the UK, an opportunity is created for mobility practices to change. The significance of funding is not easily theorised by the 3-Elements model but is more helpfully explained when that model is blended with the wider Systems of Provision model to create a model of practice ecology. Our theorisation allows for a rigorous exploration of the ‘practice scaffolding’ which shapes how people travel. Policymakers are recommended to consider a practice ecology approach when developing mobility management schemes to tackle air quality, climate change and obesity issues more effectively. Document type: Articl