Sustainable Glasgow

The Sustainable Glasgow Initiative aims to help Glasgow become one of Europe’s most sustainable cities. For Glasgow sustainability means achieving a mix of objectives – reducing carbon – but also achieving urban regeneration; delivering jobs and training; helping change the city’s image; regenerating communities, and tackling fuel poverty

The impact of low carbon generation on the future price of electricity

There are relatively few who would argue that tackling climate change, and therefore reducing carbon emissions, should not be a priority for society and the energy sector. But significant increases in energy prices are a necessary consequence of that policy. Using published sources this paper estimates that by 2020 UK and EU regulatory mechanisms designed to promote lower carbon energy will increase average household electricity prices by between 23% and 42%, and median industrial electricity prices by between 30% and 60%

Smart & sustainable cities

The University of Strathclyde is creating a new Institute for Future Cities that aims to improve the quality of human life across the world through innovative research that enables cities to be understood in new ways, and innovative approaches to be developed for the way we live, work, learn and invest in cities. The new Institute will create a focus and strategy to coordinate academic research on urban themes, and partnerships with cities, businesses, research institutions and governments across the world. This paper outlines the wider context and issues for urban policy and research, and describes some of the key objectives and activities of the Institute for Future Cities - including the €3.7 million EU FP7 STEP UP project on sustainable city planning and implementation, a new ESRC research programme on crime prediction, and the City Observatory within the £24 million TSB Future City Demonstrator in Glasgow

The impact of lack of clean cooking fuels on sustainable development in developing countries

Access to energy is crucial in tackling many of the current global development challenges that impact on people’s economic, health and social well-being as well as the ability to meet the commitments of reducing carbon emissions through clean energy use. Despite increased attention from multiple governments and agencies, energy poverty remains a serious sustainable development issue in many developing countries. To date, most research have focused on general access to electricity and the generation of clean energy to replace fossil fuels, failing to address the lack of basic access to clean energy for cooking and heating. More people in the world lack access to clean cooking fuels than to electricity. This issue is one aspect of a broader research which investigates the impacts of optimized energy policy and energy business models on sustainable development in developing countries

The investigation of the impacts of optimized energy policy and energy business models on large-scale urban programs in developing countries

In developing countries, due to the total lack of access to energy systems in some regions or its availability to only high income households in the society, amenities deemed basic in developed countries, such as reliable and resilient energy systems, can in fact be classed as luxurious attributes [1]. The impact of the lack of access to modern energy systems, not only attributes to the poor quality of life experienced in these countries but also plays a vital role in health and environmental issues, whilst causing severe hindrance to the social and economic developments in these countries. Consequently, the aim of this research is to develop optimised energy policies and business models to facilitate the alleviation of energy poverty whilst concurrently aiding large-scale urban developments in these countries

Clean cooking fuel and sustainable development in developing countries : an overview

Enabling access to energy is vital in addressing many of the present global development issues which affect people's economic, health and social well-being as well as the ability to meet the goal of reducing carbon emissions through clean energy use (International Energy Agency (IEA), 2016). Nonetheless, in spite of increased attention from multiple agencies and governments, energy poverty remains a severe development issue: particularly in developing countries, where access to modern energy systems is mostly embryonic. Yet, to date, most research have focused on general access to electricity and the generation of clean energy to replace fossil fuels, failing to address the lack of basic access to clean energy for cooking and heating (Saracini, 2014). In this paper, we address this gap by reviewing the issue of lack of access to clean cooking fuel as well as providing empirical evidence of the impact of use of solid fuel on economic development (using Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as indicator)

Carbon Capture and Storage Regulatory Test Toolkit - Summary Brochure

Large point sources of carbon dioxide are responsible for a significant proportion of the world's greenhouse gas emissions - with fossil fuel power stations and other large-scale industrial activities responsible for around half of the total. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is expected to make a major contribution to reducing these emissions. Few CCS projects currently exist in the world - and a lack of experience in regulatory agencies and commercial entities of how regulatory systems would apply to such projects increases risk - potentially leading to delays and increased costs for emerging CCS projects. This toolkit has been produced by Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage (SCCS) researchers on behalf of the Scottish Government and sponsored by the Global CCS Institute. It guides users through a regulatory test exercise, which provides a low-cost, low-risk approach to testing regional and national legislation and regulatory systems for CCS projects, and gaining the benefits in follow-up activities. The toolkit recommends use of a real or simulated CCS project as part of this exercise to assist government agencies and other stakeholders to work together to test and improve understanding of regulatory systems. It explains how a simulated or real CCS project can be taken through the regulatory process from inception to decommissioning - a test of the regulatory process at much lower cost, time and risk than would be incurred under a real project application.Large point sources of carbon dioxide are responsible for a significant proportion of the world's greenhouse gas emissions - with fossil fuel power stations and other large-scale industrial activities responsible for around half of the total. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is expected to make a major contribution to reducing these emissions. Few CCS projects currently exist in the world - and a lack of experience in regulatory agencies and commercial entities of how regulatory systems would apply to such projects increases risk - potentially leading to delays and increased costs for emerging CCS projects. This toolkit has been produced by Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage (SCCS) researchers on behalf of the Scottish Government and sponsored by the Global CCS Institute. It guides users through a regulatory test exercise, which provides a low-cost, low-risk approach to testing regional and national legislation and regulatory systems for CCS projects, and gaining the benefits in follow-up activities. The toolkit recommends use of a real or simulated CCS project as part of this exercise to assist government agencies and other stakeholders to work together to test and improve understanding of regulatory systems. It explains how a simulated or real CCS project can be taken through the regulatory process from inception to decommissioning - a test of the regulatory process at much lower cost, time and risk than would be incurred under a real project application

Exposure to a Complex Cocktail of Environmental Endocrine-Disrupting Compounds Disturbs the Kisspeptin/GPR54 System in Ovine Hypothalamus and Pituitary Gland

BACKGROUND: Ubiquitous environmental chemicals, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), are associated with declining human reproductive health, as well as an increasing incidence of cancers of the reproductive system. Verifying such links requires animal models exposed to "real-life," environmentally relevant concentrations/mixtures of EDC, particularly in utero, when sensitivity to EDC exposure is maximal. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the effects of maternal exposure to a pollutant cocktail (sewage sludge) on the ovine fetal reproductive neuroendocrine axes, particularly the kisspeptin (KiSS-1)/GPR54 (G-protein-coupled receptor 54) system. METHODS: KiSS-1, GPR54, and ERalpha (estrogen receptor alpha) mRNA expression was quantified in control (C) and treated (T) maternal and fetal (110-day) hypothalami and pituitary glands using semiquantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and colocalization of kisspeptin with LHbeta (luteinizing hormone beta) and ERalpha in C and T fetal pituitary glands quantified using dual-labeling immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Fetuses exposed in utero to the EDC mixture showed reduced KiSS-1 mRNA expression across three hypothalamic regions examined (rostral, mid, and caudal) and had fewer kisspetin immunopositive cells colocalized with both LHbeta and ERalpha in the pituitary gland. In contrast, treatment had no effect on parameters measured in the adult ewe hypothalamus or pituitary. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that the developing fetus is sensitive to real-world mixtures of environmental chemicals, which cause significant neuroendocrine alterations. The important role of kisspeptin/GPR54 in regulating puberty and adult reproduction means that in utero disruption of this system is likely to have long-term consequences in adulthood and represents a novel, additional pathway through which environmental chemicals perturb human reproduction

Sexually dimorphic impact of preconceptional and gestational exposure to a real-life environmental chemical mixture (biosolids) on offspring growth dynamics and puberty in sheep

Humans are ubiquitously exposed to complex mixtures of environmental chemicals (ECs). This study characterised changes in post-natal and peripubertal growth, and the activation of the reproductive axis, in male and female offspring of sheep exposed to a translationally relevant EC mixture (in biosolids), during pregnancy. Birthweight in both sexes was unaffected by gestational biosolids exposure. In contrast to females (unaffected), bodyweight in biosolids males was significantly lower than controls across the peripubertal period, however, they exhibited catch-up growth eventually surpassing controls. Despite weighing less, testosterone concentrations were elevated earlier, indicative of early puberty in the biosolids males. This contrasted with females in which the mean date of puberty (first progesterone cycle) was delayed. These results demonstrate that developmental EC-mixture exposure has sexually dimorphic effects on growth, puberty and the relationship between body size and puberty. Such programmed metabolic/reproductive effects could have significant impacts on human health and wellbeing