Bristol urban integrated diagnostics project. Challenge theme report: Carbon neutral city

This report presents the key findings of the Carbon Neutral City theme of the Bristol Urban Integrated Diagnostics (Urban ID) pilot project, one of its four themes and five case studies. Urban ID was one of a small number of projects funded by the seven UK Research Councils and Innovate UK’s Urban Living Consortium to explore sustainability in city contexts. Urban ID brought together researchers from the two universities in Bristol, representatives of Bristol City Council, South Gloucestershire Council, the Bristol Green Capital Partnership, Bristol Health Partners, community groups and companies to explore and co-create means of diagnosing urban sustainability problems and potential solutions.The carbon neutral city theme explored four key questions:•What does ‘carbon neutrality’ means for the Bristol Urban Area (and what is the Bristol Urban Area) and over what timescale should such a vision be achieved?•What are the barriers to decarbonisation across the three scopes of carbon emissions (energy use; energy supply; consumption of goods and services)?•Can Urban ID co-design top-level aims and aspirations for the Bristol Urban Area in relation to carbon neutrality up to 2050?•Can carbon neutrality for the Bristol Urban Area include ‘all embodied carbon’ as well as emissions from energy use and supply?The project team concluded that in order to develop a pathway to carbon neutrality for the Bristol urban area there are several key questions to be addressed:1) What is the carbon budget for the urban area associated with energy production and use in the city region across different sectors – energy supply, domestic, transport, industrial and commercial?2) What are the current emissions from scopes 1, 2 and 3 (energy use; energy supply; and consumption of goods and services)?3) What are the ‘business as usual’ projections for emissions to 2030 and 2050 and how do these differ from a carbon neutral pathway?4) What mitigation actions are needed in different sectors to ‘zero’ the per-capita emissions value and how can carbon budgets assist with this?5) What is the embedded carbon in goods and services consumed and items purchased in the urban area and is this included in the carbon neutral definition? 6) What level of carbon sequestration is it appropriate to consider to offset any remaining emissions after mitigation actions across sectors?7) What are the geographical and economic boundaries of the Bristol Urban Area in relation to the carbon neutrality definition?8) What is the baseline year and what is the end point/target year for the Bristol Urban Area?The project reveals significant challenges in attempts to design and implement a pathway to a carbon neutral city, but also offers a range of insights and suggestions as to how the above questions might be addressed

Facilitating stakeholder dialogues on a carbon neutral city: We need to talk about carbon (and air quality)

© 2018 WIT Press. The issues surrounding successful public engagement with climate change mitigation policy and decision-making have been extensively researched and identified as barriers to long-term civic and civil engagement. The challenge of transforming our urban spaces to mitigate and adapt to climate change was a key theme of the Bristol Urban ID project, which explored the “business as usual” approaches in policy, practice and engagement that limit truly transformational actions. As part of the project, a Carbon Neutral Bristol 2050 roundtable was held with civic leaders and stakeholders. Discussions focussed on defining carbon neutrality targets, “scopes” and boundaries for Bristol, exploring the opportunity for Bristol to be a carbon neutral city leader, how to build political, business and citizen space for engagement with carbon neutrality, and the role of Bristol Green Capital Partnership (BGCP), a cross-sector network of over 800 organisation working for a sustainable city, as an enabler and facilitator of change. The findings demonstrate a need for organisations working on interconnected environmental, social and wellbeing, and economic issues in cities, such as carbon neutrality and air pollution, to communicate and collaborate. Partnership working is essential to improving city-wide engagement in carbon and air quality management decision making, and to developing integrated city sustainability management strategies that recognise co-benefits and trade-offs. A set of guidelines highlight the need to create political space for people and organisations to talk about carbon and air pollution to develop city plans

Bridging the gap: A case study of a partnership approach to skills development through student engagement in bristol’s green capital year

© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. HEIs are well placed to engage with local communities, and can connect students with organisations through several pathways, such as volunteering opportunities, placements, internships, or projects. The University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE), the University of Bristol and their respective Students’ Unions have been working in partnership with the city and local communities, using HEFCE Catalyst funding to promote student involvement in sustainability activity during Bristol’s year as European Green Capital. The Green Capital Student Capital project has created a broad programme of citywide impact through mobilising the enthusiasm of the city’s student body. It delivered a wide-ranging programme of engagement in city sustainability and in so doing developed skills, knowledge and attributes in the student body that support the development of graduate attributes and amore sustainable lifestyle. The project demonstrates how institutions can collaborate across cities and communities to have internal and external impacts for sustainability

UWE - Celebrating Bristol Green Capital 2015 activities catalogue

This catalogue showcases and celebrates examples of the work of the hundreds of UWE staff and students who contributed to Bristol Green Capital 2015

UWE Celebrating Bristol Green Capital 2015 - Activities portfolio (supporting document for UWE Celebrating Bristol Green Capital 2015 activities catalogue)

This Activities Portfolio details projects, events and initiatives which represent the work of hundreds of UWE staff and students during Bristol's year as European Green Capital in 2015. It is the working file to accompany the UWE Green Capital 2015 Activities Catalogue

BGS GeoSure 5 km Hex Grids

An introduction to the new Open Government Licence BGS 5km Hex Grid datasets, demonstrating their aesthetic appeal and informational versatility through illustrating three levels of GeoSure Shrink-Swell susceptibility in relation to population density across Great Britain, in 3D

The Bristol Method: Green Capital Student Capital - The power of student sustainability engagement

THE BRISTOL METHODThe Bristol Method is a knowledge-transfer programme aimed at helping people in other cities understand and apply the lessons that Bristol has learned in becoming a more sustainable city, not just in 2015 but in the last decade. Each module of the Bristol Method is presented as an easy-to-digest ‘how to’ guide on a particular topic, which use Bristol’s experiences as a case study. The modules contain generic advice and recommendations that each reader can tailor to their own circumstances.This module focusses on the Green Capital: Student Capital project, and explains how the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) and the University of Bristol – with their respective students’ unions – have been working in partnership with the city and local communities, using Higher Education Funding Council for England Catalyst funding to promote student involvement in Green Capital activities across Greater Bristol.Student Capital created a broad programme of citywide impact during European Green Capital. It delivered a programme of student and staff engagement in enhancing sustainability within the city and has developed student and staff engagement with sustainability action. Through action research approaches it is also providing lessons for how institutions can collaborate across cities and communities to have internal and external impacts for sustainability. This report is for anyone seeking to increase sustainability engagement. In it we tell the story of the Student Capital project, explaining the processes and the outcomes, and suggesting pieces of advice and lessons for what went well, and what could have been done better or differently

China's soil and groundwater management challenges: Lessons from the UK's experience and opportunities for China

There are a number of specific opportunities for UK and China to work together on contaminated land management issues as China lacks comprehensive and systematic planning for sustainable risk based land management, encompassing both contaminated soil and groundwater and recycling and reuse of soil. It also lacks comprehensive risk assessment systems, structures to support risk management decision making, processes for verification of remediation outcome, systems for record keeping and preservation and integration of contamination issues into land use planning, along with procedures for ensuring effective health and safety considerations during remediation projects, and effective evaluation of costs versus benefits and overall sustainability. A consequence of the absence of these overarching frameworks has been that remediation takes place on an ad hoc basis. At a specific site management level, China lacks capabilities in site investigation and consequent risk assessment systems, in particular related to conceptual modelling and risk evaluation. There is also a lack of shared experience of practical deployment of remediation technologies in China, analogous to the situation before the establishment of the independent, non-profit organisation CL:AIRE (Contaminated Land: Applications In Real Environments) in 1999 in the UK. Many local technology developments are at lab-scale or pilot-scale stage without being widely put into use. Therefore, a shared endeavour is needed to promote the development of technically and scientifically sound land management as well as soil and human health protection to improve the sustainability of the rapid urbanisation in China

The global status of insect resistance to neonicotinoid insecticides

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Chris Bass, Ian Denholm, Martin S. Williamson, and Ralf Nauen, ‘The global status of insect resistance to neonicotinoid insecticides’, Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology, Vol. 121, pp. 78-87, June 2015. The Version of Record is available online at doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pestbp.2015.04.004. Published by Elsevier Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc.The first neonicotinoid insecticide, imidacloprid, was launched in 1991. Today this class of insecticides comprises at least seven major compounds with a market share of more than 25% of total global insecticide sales. Neonicotinoid insecticides are highly selective agonists of insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and provide farmers with invaluable, highly effective tools against some of the world's most destructive crop pests. These include sucking pests such as aphids, whiteflies, and planthoppers, and also some coleopteran, dipteran and lepidopteran species. Although many insect species are still successfully controlled by neonicotinoids, their popularity has imposed a mounting selection pressure for resistance, and in several species resistance has now reached levels that compromise the efficacy of these insecticides. Research to understand the molecular basis of neonicotinoid resistance has revealed both target-site and metabolic mechanisms conferring resistance. For target-site resistance, field-evolved mutations have only been characterized in two aphid species. Metabolic resistance appears much more common, with the enhanced expression of one or more cytochrome P450s frequently reported in resistant strains. Despite the current scale of resistance, neonicotinoids remain a major component of many pest control programmes, and resistance management strategies, based on mode of action rotation, are of crucial importance in preventing resistance becoming more widespread. In this review we summarize the current status of neonicotinoid resistance, the biochemical and molecular mechanisms involved, and the implications for resistance management.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio