8 December 2009

News from the inside

Pay As You Save in Sutton or sulphur? Either way, everyone’s talking about solutions

"Copenhagen starts at home" was the headline that caught my attention this morning. The UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have just announced the partners of a UK pilot of the Pay As You Save concept whereby homeowners receive a whole house low carbon retrofit to the value of around £10,000 which they then pay back over the course of 25 years whilst benefitting from significantly lower energy bills.

Much to my delight, B&Q and the London Borough of Sutton, two of our One Planet initiative partners, have been selected as one of the five consortiums that will be funded by DECC to retrofit 100 homes in the Sutton area. The application was spearheaded by BioRegional and we’ll be working as part of the consortium to manage the two-year pilot, and in particular we’ll be marketing the scheme to local households and monitoring the barriers and successes of this concept.

Freya, Jennie (my COP15 co-bloggers) and I attended the IPCC event today where Chair of the IPCC Dr. Pachauri along with co-chairs of IPCC working groups went through the key findings from the Fourth IPCC Assessment Report. Given the recent controversy of climate scientists’ private emails discussing how to present data to make the climate change argument look convincing being illegally posted on the internet, the IPCC felt it was important to stand firmly behind the fourth report in which observations and paleoclimatic information shows unprecedented changes in the climate system. They also set out what they intend to focus on during the Fifth Assessment Report, which will be released in 2013. It was encouraging to hear the Chair, Dr. Pachauri, say that the Fifth Assessment will include a lot more information about solutions as it is felt that the Fourth Assessment and those that preceded it present unequivocal warnings in the climate system and if certain targets are chosen urgent action will be needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change. He stated that the next report will: "move from 'it's real' to 'here is the information you need to make good decisions that support good policy' ".

The report will also involve some clear assessments to understand the climatic variables surrounding geo-engineering proposals for tackling climate change. The example was given of emitting 10 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere over a 20 year period. Due to the effects of reflecting some sunlight away from the earth’s surface this is projected to reduce global temperatures down to early 20th century levels within 20 years. However, once sulphur is no longer being emitted to the atmosphere, temperatures will return to their former levels within a couple of years. Therefore although geo-engineering may be seen as one solution, and it would be short sighted to overlook ideas such as this completely, arguably simpler measures using known methodology such as used by our own one planet projects are more sustainable for the long term.

Hayley Bell
Sustainable Business Manager