Estimating sustainability gaps: methods and preliminary applications for the UK and the Netherlands

This paper sets out and applies a new methodology for determining whether or not economic activity is environmentally sustainable. By comparing current environmental impacts with standards of environmental sustainability, it calculates the 'sustainability gaps' (SGAPs) with respect to different environmental impacts. For the UK, SGAPs are computed for CO2, SO2, and other air pollutants. Across none of these environmental themes can current UK use of the environment be said to be sustainable. The SGAP indicators can be combined with current trends to show how long it would take, on continuation of the trends, for the sustainability standard to be attained. The paper calls this indicator the 'Years to Sustainability' (YS) measure. For the policy objective of sustainable development to be made fully operational, it is necessary for the concept of environmental sustainability to be clearly defined by quantitative indicators. On the basis of the indicators set out in this paper it can be judged whether economic activity is moving towards or away from environmental sustainability, and at what speed

Green taxes and charges: reducing their impact on low-income households

Environmental or 'green' taxes and charges send signals to consumers by making consumption of environmental resources more expensive. However, there are concerns that their effect could be 'regressive', by hitting lower income households disproportionately. This research, by Paul Ekins and Simon Dresner of the Policy Studies Institute, investigated the possible impact on low-income households in four areas of environmental and social importance: domestic use of energy, water and transport, and domestic generation of waste. It also considered whether any negative impacts could be reduced if the tax or charge were designed appropriately, or if a compensation scheme were introduced

Global life cycle paper flows, recycling metrics and material efficiency

Despite major improvements in recycling over the last decades, the pulp and paper sector is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental pressures. Further reduction of virgin material requirements and environmental impacts requires a detailed understanding of the global material flows in paper production and consumption. This study constructs a Sankey diagram of global material flows in the paper life cycle, from primary inputs to end-of-life waste treatment, based on a review of publicly available data. It then analyses potential improvements in material flows and discusses recycling and material efficiency metrics. The article argues that the use of the collection rate as a recycling metric does not directly stimulate avoidance of virgin inputs and associated impacts. An alternative metric compares paper for recycling (recovered paper) with total fibrous inputs and indicates that the current rate is at just over half of the technical potential. Material efficiency metrics are found to be more useful if they relate to the reuse potential of wastes. The material balance developed in this research provides a solid basis for further study of global sustainable production and consumption of paper. The conclusions on recycling and efficiency should be considered for improving environmental performance assessment methods

Teaching for Life

The Teaching for Life project aimed to explore the needs of teachers in relation to children with life limiting or life threatening conditions. Teachers were well aware of the medical, emotional and social needs of both the child and the other children and adults that surround that child, as well as the importance of the physical atributes of the building and the culture of the school. They wanted more information, guidance and support. Teachers need emotional support for themselves if they are to be able to contain their own anxieties and to be able to support others. In turn they need to be supported by a whole school approach to emotional health and wellbeing, which includes addressing bullying and inclusion. Collaboration between themselves and inter-professional health and social care agencies needs to work more effectively

Unextractable fossil fuels in a 1.5 °C world

Parties to the 2015 Paris Agreement pledged to limit global warming to well below 2 °C and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C relative to pre-industrial times1. However, fossil fuels continue to dominate the global energy system and a sharp decline in their use must be realized to keep the temperature increase below 1.5 °C (refs. 2,3,4,5,6,7). Here we use a global energy systems model8 to assess the amount of fossil fuels that would need to be left in the ground, regionally and globally, to allow for a 50 per cent probability of limiting warming to 1.5 °C. By 2050, we find that nearly 60 per cent of oil and fossil methane gas, and 90 per cent of coal must remain unextracted to keep within a 1.5 °C carbon budget. This is a large increase in the unextractable estimates for a 2 °C carbon budget9, particularly for oil, for which an additional 25 per cent of reserves must remain unextracted. Furthermore, we estimate that oil and gas production must decline globally by 3 per cent each year until 2050. This implies that most regions must reach peak production now or during the next decade, rendering many operational and planned fossil fuel projects unviable. We probably present an underestimate of the production changes required, because a greater than 50 per cent probability of limiting warming to 1.5 °C requires more carbon to stay in the ground and because of uncertainties around the timely deployment of negative emission technologies at scale

Designing Carbon Taxation to Protect Low-Income Households

Would it be possible to increase carbon taxes on household energy use and transport, while protecting low-income households from negative impacts

Assessing the operating temperature of multi-junction solar cells with novel rear side layer stack and local electrical contacts

Sub-bandgap sunlight provides a source of heat generation in solar cells that is detrimental to performance, especially in space applications where heat dissipation is limited. In this work we assess the impact that an advanced rear-side contact scheme for multi-junction solar cells has on the cell temperature. Our results show that this scheme reduces the optical power absorption below the bandgap of germanium by 81% compared to a standard, full metallization design. Measurements of the electrical and thermal power fluxes performed in vacuum demonstrate that this lower near-infrared light absorption results in 8% less heat dissipated in the cell with the novel rear-side contact scheme when operating at 25 ºC. Modelling of the operating temperature for both cells when fully encapsulated with glass indicates that this effect will also result in a reduction of the operating temperature of 9 ºC for the novel design