The pore space scramble:challenges and opportunities for subsurface governance

There is a rich literature on environmental governance that provides critiques and conceptual tools on how various environmental 'arenas' or overlapping global systems should be governed eg. climate, energy, oceans (Cherp et al., 2011, Berkes, 2006, Underdal, 2010). In this paper we argue that the geological subsurface should be considered as a new arena for governance in its own right. The arguments for this are presented by considering current and future challenges the subsurface will face as its utilisation evolves and intensifies, particularly in the context of both energy security and low carbon energy. Three main challenges are highlighted; ownership, access and long term stewardship. These challenges are presented using the illustrative context of subsurface pore space for the long term storage of CO2 from Carbon Capture (CCS). This is presented in the UK context but ultimately has implication for global subsurface governance going forward

Renewable energy scenarios:exploring technology, acceptance and climate – options at the community-scale

Community-based renewable energy could play a key role in the transition to a low carbon society. This paper argues that given the right environmental and societal conditions, communities in the UK could source a high percentage of their electricity supply from a mixture of localised renewable electricity technologies. Here we use exploratory scenarios to assess demand and renewable electricity supply-side options at the community-scale for a location in Cumbria, UK. Three scenarios are presented, using narratives of how local demand and renewable electricity supply could be constructed under either existing or modified environmental and societal conditions. The three scenarios explored were ‘Current State of Play’, ‘Low Carbon Adjusted Society’ and ‘Reluctant Scenario’

‘Doing good science’:The impact of invisible energy policies on laboratory energy demand in higher education

Education is the second largest consumer of energy in the service sector, however, little research to date has focused on the link between education policy and energy demand. Using a case study, this paper explores the role of invisible energy policies in Higher Education (HE). We make a distinctive contribution to debates about invisible energy policy by applying concepts from governmentality to show how different policies and technologies of governance come in to conflict in practice. And, we argue that although there are a number of institutional and national-level policies directly related to sustainability (including energy) there are also a number of conflicting priorities, most notably linked to the neoliberalisation of HE. Our case study focuses on teaching and research laboratories and empirically explores the impacts of both intentional and non-intentional energy policy in these spaces. Specifically this research highlights that the ability to ‘do good science’ has implications for demand management that go beyond research and teaching laboratory activities, and into the wider realm of HE institutions and policies