Results: Searching for 'Environmental Factors'

The two-day residential workshop brought together experts from the bioenergy community to explore bioenergy research opportunities which could benefit from financial support from the Carbon Trust using its new directed research approach.

This Working Paper presents key findings from research conducted within the Energy and Environment theme since 2009, when the second phase of UKERC activity began. Research within this theme has investigated the impacts associated with a range of marine and land-based energy production and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation technologies including bioenergy, wind, tidal, gas, nuclear and carbon capture and storage (CCS). The carbon and water footprints of these technologies have been investigated as have their social, economic and environmental impacts and their impacts on terrestrial and marine ecosystem services.

The aim was to examine the specific triggers for changes in patterns of understanding and attitude – and the conditions under which these lead to changes in behaviour. New and innovative methodologies were developed, including the preparation of authentic news broadcasts to present possible future outcomes of climate change and problems with energy security constraint. The results show how beliefs held by audiences can be affected when they receive new information. The conditions under which people believe or reject different arguments are at the heart of the study.

The following points emerged as the most important:

• There needs to be a link between physical modelling of devices and biological models or data sets
• The impact on sea-mammals, birds and fish should be urgently addressed
• Any Environmental Monitoring should be in 3 stages: before, during and after device installation, and each stage should ideally take place over at least 12 months to take into account seasonal effects. Time is not on the device developer’s side
• There is very little data available on the movement of birds and sea mammals, and nothing can be ascertained about their interactions with devices until in situ data/observations are made (e.g. at EMEC)
• Continuous monitoring is very expensive, time consuming and difficult. At present there is little funding available and what funding there is, is very difficult to release
• The boundaries of acceptability have to be defined to assist developers.
• There should be an agreed environmental monitoring programme that all developers are encouraged to follow at all sites (bearing in mind particular sensitivities of site)
• It is not clear what parameters should be measured and what is the best technology available for an environmental monitoring programme.
• A monitoring programme should concentrate on possible showstoppers for marine developers

This working paper analyses the environmental sustainability of four electricity production systems that include carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS):

• Pulverised coal (PC)
• Pulverised coal with oxyfuel combustion (PCOC)
• Natural gas combined cycle (NGCC), and
• Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC)

The analysis is based largely on a review of relevant Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs). Thus it considers the environmental sustainability of the entire electricity generation chain from fuel extraction through electricity generation and CO2capture to CO2 storage.

There is increasing scientific evidence that natural systems are now at a level of stress globally that could have profound negative effects on human societies worldwide. In order to avoid these effects, one, or a number of technological transitions will need to take place through transforming processes of eco-innovation, which have complex political, institutional and cultural, in addition to technological and economic, dimensions. Measurement systems need to be devised that can assess to what extent eco-innovation is taking place. Environmental and eco-innovation have already led in a number of European countries to the establishment of substantial eco-industries, but, because of the general absence of environmental considerations in markets, these industries are very largely the result of environmental public policies, the nature and effectiveness of which have now been assessed through a number of reviews and case studies. The paper concludes that such policies will need to become much more stringent if eco-innovation is to drive an adequately far-reaching technological transition to resolve pressing environmental challenges. Crucial in the political economy of this change will be that eco-industries, supported by public opinion, are able to counter the resistance of established industries which will lose out from the transition, in a reformed global context where international treaties and co-operation prevent the relocation of environmentally destructive industries and encourage their transformation.

The west of Shetland region is physically a very different environment to the Gulf of Mexico, so environmental impact of a deep water spill in this area would be different, in many aspects.

A regulatory system could be enacted to compel companies to develop a shareddeep-water rapid response system to cap wells, and the levels of insurance cover companies are obliged to have could be increased.

The UKs regulatory system is robust but could be improved, though there is a limit to which increased regulation can be implemented and effective.

Scenarios which may reduce the need to exploit deepwater reserves during the transition to a low carbon economy are discussed. However, given our current reliance on oil and gas, such exploitation may be necessary.

Under free market regulations the contribution of deepwater reserves to security of supply may be limited, though there may be some economic benefits of exploitation

• Extreme temperatures
• Seismic, geological and volcanic hazards including ash deposition
• Natural hazard combinations
  
  

• Volume 3 — Extreme Wind — onshore effects;
• Volume 4 — Extreme Precipitation — onshore effects;
• Volume 6 — Coastal Flooding — offshore effects;
• Volume 11 — Marine Biological Fouling — offshore effects.
  
  

• •Volume 10 — Space Weather;
• Volume 11 — Marine Biological Fouling.

• Volume 6 — Coastal Flooding;
• Volume 8 — Hail;
• Volume 9 — Lightning.

• Flood risk
• Fluvial flooding
• Tidal influence and extreme sea level
• Astronomical tide
• Wave
• Artificial sources of flooding
  
  
  

• The background context to the project and the project outputs
• Why the subject matters and action is required
• A navigation aid to the suite of documents, what they individually contain, and how they fit together
• The target audience; infrastructure owners, operators, asset managers, developers, investors, regulators and insurers
• Broader relevance and read across into transport, the built environment, and civil emergency planning and response to the impact of natural hazards
• Learning from the execution of this 5-year project relevant to investing and realising the benefits from complex, collaborative R&D
• Guidance on where to find more

• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations and geomagnetic indices
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena; solar energetic particles and groundlevel enhancement, ionospheric scintillation effects on satellite communication and GNSS signal, GIC and pipelines, hazard combinations
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction to marine biological fouling
• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations, measurement techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena
• Regulation
li>Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations, measurement techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena
• Regulation
• Emerging trends; high winds, large waves, heavy rainfall,volcanic ash, space weather, forthcoming climate projections

• Background and motivation
• Introduction to the energy sector, potential vulnerabilities and relevant natural hazards
• List of natural hazards
• Format
• Technical primers

• Context and impact
• Description of the main phenomena; maximum temperatures, heat waves, and minimum temperatures
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena including water temperature, frazil ice formation, very rapid changes in air temperatures, wildfires and enthalpy
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena; key influences on UK weather and climate, extreme winds, tornadoes
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena including sandstorms
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena; key influences on UK weather and climate, UK rainfall mechanisms and extremes, potential interactions with other natural hazards
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools• Methodologies
• Related phenomena including snow, snowpack and avalanches, ice, impacts of extreme snowfall and ice on the energy sector, humidity, fog and mist, impacts of humidity and fog on the energy sector
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena; causes and types of flooding, some examples of river flooding, flood risk and vulnerability classification,definition of flood zones, Government’s strategy and policy, organisations responsible for flood risk management
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena, where coastal flooding is related to extreme weather events (e.g. high winds/hurricanes) and seismic and geological events (e.g. earthquakes and landslides leading to tsunamis)
• Regulation
• Emerging trends
  
  

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena; seismicity, volcanicity, geological instability including landslides, ground dissolution, shrink-swell clays, mining
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena; seismicity, volcanicity, geological instability
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena; seismicity
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• the natural hazards which are relevant for the energy sector, classified by hazard categories;
• the available mature methodologies for regional and localised characterisation, as well as expert judgement regarding these methodologies;
• some comments on the impact(s) of climate change on natural hazards;
• the sectors where each natural hazard characterisation is relevant;
• the existing guidelines and regulatory frameworks impacting the UK;
• some examples of industry applications, including the estimation of climate change impacts;
• some trends in R&D in the characterisation of the Natural hazard;
• the gaps in natural hazard analysis and prediction (i.e., for example, the gaps in understanding the hazard combinations or the difficult in estimating the ligthning intensity) and the priority level of the gaps to be addressed by future work, with justification for why these gaps should be filled.

This Consultation Response to the Energy and Climate Change Committee's Inquiry on Electricity Demand Side Measures explores whether the Governments and Ofgems current proposals for incentivising the development of demand reduction measures are enough to ensure the potential energy savings outlined in the 2012 Energy Efficiency Strategy are achieved.

UKERC have submitted a reponse to the Scottish GovernmentFinance and Constitution Committee's call for evidence on the Financial Memorandum that accompanies the Climate Change Bill.

This bill was introduced in May 2018 andamends the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 to make provision for setting targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions and to make provision about advice, plans and reports in relation to those targets.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be allocated to a country in different ways, territorial-, production- and consumption-based emission reporting. There is a marked difference in end results depending on the chosen system. For example, the UK territorial-based emissions have shown a 19% reduction between 1990-2008. Conversley, consumption-based emissions show a 20% increase during the same period, which is driven by GHG embodied in imported products.

It is possible to develop a robust methodology for measuring GHG emissions on a consumption-based approach. In the past 10-years there have been multiple independent studies published on this subject that display consistent results. The methodology of choice is Environmentally Extended Multi-Region Input-Output (EE-MIRO) Analaysis. Whilst there are uncertainties relating to the large and often incoherent datasets, it is believed that standard error estimates can be used to provide confidence in the results.There is significant expertise in EE-MIRO in the UK.

Consumption-based emission inventories are not a silver-bullet for climate policy. Different emission inventories contain complementary information, and thus, consumption-, production-, and territorial-based emission inventories should be considered together.

That said, consumption-based emission modelling does have speciific advantages, in that:

1. It may reveal policy approaches specific to different products.
2. It enables the possibility of standard carbon accounting for organisations globally.

The main disadvantage to consumption-based emission modelling is that it requires additional accounting and analysis.

It is desirable to adopt emission reduction targets based on consumption, in addition to production, for three reasons:

1. It would incorporate options to address ‘weak carbon leakage’ (carbon embodied in imports).
2. It encourages reduction of emissions at least cost, even if the most cost effective option addresses non-territorial emissions.
3. Consumption-based emissions are increasing and as such are undermining UK domestic climate policy.

UKERC proposes three-steps the UK Government could pursue should they wish to move towards consumption-based emissionreporting:

1. The UK Government, in conjunction with UNFCCC and Eurostat, could establish standards for the harmonisation of consumption-based emission reporting methods to ensure robustness and consistency between country estimates.
2. The UK Government should commission a report to assess all the UK demand-side strategies contributing to emission reduction within and without of the UK.
3. The UK Government could assess the cost-effectiveness of demand-side strategies to understand whether they are revenue generating or a cost.

This document is a joint response from the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Community Network (UKCCSC) and the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) to the Select Committee inquiry on EPS. The UKCCSC is a collective of over 200 engineering, technological, natural, environmental, social and economic academic members, whose biannual meetings and other knowledge sharing events and activities are funded by a grant from the Research Councils UK Energy Programme. The UKERC carries out world-class research into sustainable future energy systems and is also funded by a grant from the Research Councils UK Energy Programme. The text has been discussed and drafted by a self-selected group of UKCCSC and UKERC academics and researchers, each contributing according to their own particular interests and expertise, and also submitted to the whole membership for further comments. The final version was then circulated for members to sign up to if they wished; it should be noted that signatories below are signing as individuals.

This response addresses the first two questions of the call for evidence on the impact of shale gas on energy markets: firstly what estimates exist for the amount of shale gas in place in the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world, and what proportion is recoverable; and secondly why estimates for shale gas are so changeable.

UKERC recently conducted a comprehensive review of 62 studies that provide original estimates of regional and global shale gas resources [1

The UK Energy Research Centre welcomes this opportunity to provide input to the Scottish Governments Consultation on proposals for a Scottish Climate Change Bill. We have addressed a number of the questions posed in the consultation document calling on all UKERC members for input.