Search

Sea defence policy in England has proven contentious in the early twenty-first century, with government willing to defend the coast only where it is considered cost effective and not minded to compensate people for any resulting abandonment of homes. Additional focus is brought to this position by the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which reflect a growing emphasis on climate change effects and other environmental hazards, and the wellbeing of the current generation and those to come. This requires policy makers to seek to balance economic, social and environmental dimensions, and to tackle inequalities; with a central commitment of the goals to "leave no one behind". Subsequent to publication of the SDGs, England was promised a revolution in the government's approach to Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM). This paper seeks to understand the nature of this revolution with particular regard to extant issues around just governance. It finds that policy fails to deal with issues over the local acceptability of proposals for change and the bearing of risk, and instead lies principally in the elevation of the problematic concept of resilience and an accompanying ambivalence towards ideas of sustainability and sustainable development. International agreement that compensation should be paid to those countries suffering the worst effects of climate change, including sea level rise, suggests that adoption of a similar approach to vulnerable homeowners might be the more appropriate revolution and bring policy more into line with the aspirations of the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-stationary methods of flood frequency analysis are widespread in research but rarely implemented by practitioners. One reason may be that research papers on non-stationary statistical models tend to focus on model fitting rather than extracting the sort of results needed by designers and decision makers. It can be difficult to extract useful results from non-stationary models that include stochastic covariates for which the value in any future year is unknown. We explore the motivation for including such covariates, whether on their own or in addition to a covariate based on time. We set out a method for expressing the results of non-stationary models as an integrated flow estimate, which removes the dependence on the covariates. This can be defined either for a particular year or over a longer period of time. The methods are illustrated by application to a set of 375 river gauges across England and Wales. We find annual rainfall to be a useful covariate at many gauges, sometimes in conjunction with a time-based covariate. For estimating flood frequency in future conditions, we advocate exploring hybrid approaches that combine the best attributes of non-stationary statistical models and simulation models that can represent changes in climate and river catchments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the challenging – and frightening – times in which we now live, education is seen as playing a key role in making change for the better. However, the Department for Education's (2022) strategy on education for sustainability and climate change, applicable to schools in England, is lacking in many areas and fails to address students', teachers', and teacher educators' priorities. Crucially, the environment and climate emergency greatly concerns many children and young people and these issues should be addressed across the whole curriculum, not just in geography and science. Further, there needs to be more focus on emotions rather than facts, wellbeing rather than the economy. So, the question is: How can we 'green' art, craft and design education to ensure it is both effective and affective? Art can change the world because it is 'homeless, endless, and edgeless' – this sounds exciting but does not aid teachers in curriculum design. In this paper I will share an emergent manifesto for an environmentally responsible art, craft and design (ACD) curriculum... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to current and future climate change demands urgent, transformative adaptation, yet in many policy systems inaction continues to prevail. This paper examines apparent resistance to policy change and the persistence of business-as-usual through a 'lock-in perspective', which means that attention is paid to how reinforcing mechanisms drive stabilisation and resistance in policy systems. Offering a fresh synthesis of known lock-in mechanisms in the literature, this paper explores the role of those mechanisms in two empirical cases of coastal adaptation: England (U.K.) and Schleswig-Holstein (Germany). While several known lock-mechanisms are observable, some are newly identified in this adaptation context. We offer a critical reflection on the added value of the lock-in perspective for understanding policy stability. In turn, the identification of self- and mutually reinforcing mechanisms provides a much-needed foundation for targeted policy interventions and efforts to 'unlock' climate adaptation pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global increase in extreme weather events in recent years has spurred political scientists to examine the potential political effects of such phenomena. This paper explores effect of flooding on electoral outcomes and offers evidence that the impact of adverse events varies with changes in political context. Using a difference‐in‐differences identification strategy to analyse three consecutive general elections in the United Kingdom (2015, 2017 and 2019), the paper finds variability in partisan electoral benefit from one election to the next that calls into question the blind retrospection and rally‐round‐the‐leader explanations which are often advanced to account for electoral reactions to natural disasters. Instead, changing party positions on environmental issues appear to account more convincingly for shifts in electoral support in response to flooding. This suggests that parties can derive benefit from, or be punished for, the positions they take on environmental issues when extreme weather events affect citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scale of the decarbonisation challenge and the short timeframes over which action is required demand urgent action. This paper is set within the surface transport sector, now the largest sector of emissions with the slowest pace of change in many advanced liberal economies. It focuses on the strategies and actions of local government which is recognised to be a central player in catalysing change. Our evidence is derived from the actions of two UK local areas which claim to be at the forefront of the decarbonisation challenge. The paper focuses on the role of funding and financial mechanisms in addressing the climate crisis. In the face of an established pattern of austerity and hollowing out of local government we explore how deep transformation is being envisaged. We find a recursive set of issues which derive from a dependence on funding from outwith. This dependence means that despite comprehensive overarching strategies and goals the funding available is the core of the strategy. This means that the nature of the funds, such as the requirement for experimentation, innovation or private sector leverage, defines direction. In turn, and to maintain success in attracting funds, there is an emphasis on presenting 'premium spaces of ambition' with little evidence of attention to broader systemic change. This duality is openly recognised. This paper advances a wider point that greater emphasis should be placed on the 'financialisation' of climate policy and the reality rather than the rhetoric of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental and climate change education remains on the margins of education and climate change policy. This paper draws on Foucauldian theoretical resources to examine England's climate change education policy landscape and understand the causes of this marginalisation. Informed by policy historiography, we examine key events and shifts in climate change, education and environmental education since the turn of the millennium. Using policy archaeology, we 'excavate' the contemporary policy landscape and identify that: i) policy is lacking; ii) responding to the climate crisis is overlooked in education; iii) pro-environmental ambition is absent; and, iv) economic values dominate. In a global context where activists have called for 'more!' climate change education, the analyses reveal the complexity of the problem. A 'web of conditions' governing climate change education policy is illuminated. Foucault-informed analytical tools offer insights on how this web may be rebuilt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flooding is one of the UK's biggest risks, and changes to our climate with predictions of warmer, wetter and stormier winters will increase the risk further. The Environment Agency's National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England (2020) sets out ambitions to create climate resilience places and infrastructure for today's and tomorrow's climate. It works to the vision of 'a nation ready for, and resilient to, flooding and coastal change — today, tomorrow and to the year 2100'. Among many objectives set out, the strategy commits risk management authorities to mainstream the use and take-up of property flood resilience (PFR) — that is, those measures that aim to reduce the amount of water entering a property, and those adaptations that can be made to reduce damage if it does enter. The PFR sector has evolved over the last decade with varying success, limited uptake and perceptions of 'failure' through poor workmanship and an absence of guidance. In 2021 a new Code of Practice (CoP) was published, providing guidance on six standards: hazard assessment, property survey, options development, construction, commissioning and handover, and operation and maintenance. This paper explores the objective of the Code, its benefits and limitation, highlighting that while the Code remains voluntary, growing awareness and application by risk management authorities such as the Environment Agency (EA) and lead local flood authorities will help drive up standards. Consistent delivery to acceptable standards will meet homeowner and insurer needs, thereby building a body of evidence of successful delivery and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a succession of policy documents related to active travel published by the British government since the implementation of a National Cycle Network (NCN) in 1995. However, as the latest National Travel Survey (NTS) reveals, the number of journeys made by bike in the UK has remained steadfastly around only 2% (Department for Transport [DfT], 2018a). By using documentary analysis of the available official policy documents and statements, the aim of this paper is to make sense of the policies that have been published concerning active travel (AT) in England. This is done from a figurational sociological perspective. Three key themes emerge from the analysis: (1) the rhetorical, advisory level of the vast majority of the policies; (2) the reliance on a wide network of local authorities to implement AT policy; and (3) the focus placed on individuals to change their behaviour. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that despite a large number of policy publications from a range of government departments claiming to promote AT, little has actually changed in this time period in terms of a national agenda. Despite the successive policies, it seems there is little appetite on behalf of recent governments to make widespread infrastructural changes, where instead the focus has largely been on persuading the individual to seek more active modes of travel, increasingly for their own, individual 'health' gains. Highlights •The paper is based on documentary analysis of available official policy documents from UK government on active travel since 1996 • The findings reveal the largely rhetorical, advisory level of the vast majority of the policies, which contributes to a lack of overall success in promoting active travel • The lack of success is compounded further by a reliance on a wide network of local authorities to implement active travel policy, when most local authorities appear more concerned with transport issues related to motorised vehicles • The findings reveal that active travel policy has becoming increasingly focussed on health gains that might be made from increasing the number of trips made by bicycle • The overwhelming focus of the policy documents analysed, however, is on encouraging individuals to change their behaviour, a process regarded as 'healthism', and one most sociologists of health suggest is likely to fail as a result • We conclude by suggesting that if the government is serious about wanting to see a 'step change' in the way in which people travel, particularly over shorter distances, then there is a need to have a more forceful approach to implementing policy within local authorities at the same time as making more substantial infrastructure changes to encourage cycling [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing society and the spatial planning system plays a crucial role in ensuring that important adaptations to the built environment are evaluated. Drawing upon a mixed-methods research approach, this paper explores the progress that has been made by the planning system in England in addressing the challenge of climate change adaptation in coastal urban areas. The results indicate that the adaptation produced through the planning system remains incremental rather than transformative. It is focused on experienced hazards, especially flooding, and there is a lack of attention being paid to wider impacts of climate change, such as rising average temperatures. Furthermore, it was found that the contemporary contribution of planning to climate change adaptation is seriously limited by the government's emphasis on housing and economic growth and by the development industry's emphasis on economic viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an example of the effect of climate and environmental and, therefore, landscape change on archaeological sites this paper sets out the positions of known prehistoric and Roman salterns in Lincolnshire (Eastern England) and the present condition and archaeological potential of such sites. Their current position – some recorded as surface finds and some sealed by later sedimentation – demonstrates the dynamic nature of wetland landscapes in various parts of Lincolnshire. Both freshwater and marine deposits have at times affected the salterns, sometimes in restricted zones and sometimes over extensive areas. Also considered are methodologies for discovering such sites. The paper is a case study of one type of coastal site in Lincolnshire and serves as an example of the localised and complex chronology of sedimentation and/or erosion episodes in just one area. It may reflect wider changes around the North Sea coast and raises issues of generic importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the Upper Tigris River (UTR) drainage basin in Turkey for climate change impacted runoff estimations. Statistical downscaling method (SDM) is used by taking into consideration spatial dependence function (SDF) for the scenario precipitation projections at a set of available meteorology stations. Temporal adjustment between the climate scenarios and precipitation record time series is achieved by the white Markov (WM) stochastic process. Although various climate research center scenario data are considered, herein, only the general circulation model (GCM) A2 scenario data are adapted from the Hadley Center, England. The precipitation and runoff results are presented in decadal groups starting from 2001 to 2050 as cumulative monthly precipitation (CMP) and cumulative monthly runoff (CMR) graphs. It is observed that after 2021, precipitation decreases at about 12.5% and after 2030, it is 26%. Runoff projections indicate that they may decrease at about 30% especial after 2040. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely recognized that contemporary tourism mobility, notably flying, is incompatible with sustainability goals. Fundamental changes in travel behaviour are required. Research shows that environmental values have little impact on tourists' travel decisions and that voluntary behaviour change is unlikely. Therefore, policies encouraging transitions to sustainable tourism require a deeper and more context-specific understanding of factors influencing current carbon-intensive travel patterns. This paper responds to this need by adopting a social practice perspective to explore the gap year phenomenon, an increasingly popular activity for the British youth, often involving multiple long-haul flights. The social practice approach positions young people's travel decisions as not being simply individual, but shaped by existing conventions, normative expectations and facilitated/constrained by available resources. The paper draws on the findings from a multi-sited ethnographic study in England, which involved over 30 in-depth interviews with students and other relevant actors, content analysis of gap year materials and participant observation at gap year-related events. Social influences that shape the current long-haul character of gap year travel are examined, and a number of important actors involved in developing, sustaining and reproducing unsustainable behaviours are identified. The implications for policy strategies aimed at changing mobility behaviour are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the established climate, evaporation dominates eastern England's water regime, taking it near to desiccation in dry summers. Now, hotter drier summers are predicted - even more evaporation, coupled with less rainfall. If true, the reduction in summer water will be very large - far more than all abstractions put together, even by the 2020s. Thereafter, summer droughts will intensify and spread westwards, threatening river flows, agriculture and natural vegetation. In particular, irrigation need will escalate, with no summer water to meet it - a climate change impact that is being underperceived. This paper explores the scale of the issues and the adaptation options. It demonstrates synergy between the interests of agriculture and of water supply and calls for integrated strategic planning, with reservoirs and reuse high on the adaptation agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the development and application of a bespoke modelling and scenario tool to quantify the full greenhouse gas (CO2e) footprint associated with visitor activity and consumption. Designed for use by destination decision-makers, it helps understand the full CO2e impact of visitors, explores potential mitigation strategies and identifies emissions reduction possibilities. REAP Tourism can calculate direct and indirect supply chain emissions related to accommodation, travel, food, shopping, services, attractions, activities and events. This paper demonstrates the tool at a range of different geographic levels in South West England. Initial results show overseas visitors to have an impact of 196 kg CO2e per day, domestic overnight visitors having 49 kg and day visitors 48 kg. Further exploration shows the tool's ability to show the impact of different marketing/development scenarios on CO2e emissions including holidaying locally strategies, encouraging longer stays, buying local goods and encouraging low meat diets. Comparisons show that luxury weekend visitors have five times the daily impact of family holiday visitors and ten times those of back-packers. The strengths and weaknesses of the tool's methodologies and its range of outputs able to inform tourism policy and decision-making are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Climate change is a global problem and across the world the transport sector is finding it difficult to break projected increases in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions; there are very few contexts where deep reductions in transport CO2 emissions are being made. A number of research studies are now examining the potential for future lower CO2 emissions in the transport sector. This paper develops this work to consider some of the wider sustainability impacts (economic, social and local environmental) as well as the lower CO2 transport impacts of different policy trajectories. Hence the central argument made is for an integrated approach to transport policy making over the longer term – incorporating scenario analysis and multi-criteria assessment (MCA) – to help assess likely progress against a range of objectives. The analysis is based on work carried out in Oxfordshire, UK. Different packages of measures are selected and two scenarios developed which satisfy lower CO2 aspirations, one of which also provides wider positive sustainability impacts. A simulation model has been produced to help explore the strategic policy choices and tensions evident for decision-makers involved in local transport planning. The paper argues for a ‘strategic conversation’ () at the sub-regional and city level, based upon future scenario analysis and MCA, discussing the priorities for intervention. Such an approach will help us examine the scale of change and trade-offs required in moving towards sustainable transport futures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Planning in England1 represents an important arena for the development and contestation of environmental discourses. Over the last century the changing assumptions about human-nature relationship have led to numerous meanings of “the environment” in planning. These have in turn influenced the choices made between: preserving, enhancing, protecting, compromising, trading, exploiting or guarding against, the environment. While recognizing the nuances of the environmental discourses, this paper identifies eight distinct meanings of the environment in contemporary plans including the environment: as local amenity, as heritage landscape, as nature reserve, as storehouse of resources, as tradable commodity, as problem, as sustainability and as risk. The latter has emerged as a result of growing climate change awareness. The paper argues that, while the emphasis on climate change mitigation has reinforced some aspects of the sustainability discourse, the adaptation agenda has introduced a new meaning of the environment as risk. This portrays the environment not so much in terms of assets to be sustained for human benefit, but in terms of threats against which human well-being should be safeguarded. Framed in the language of risk and security, this new discourse is bringing to the fore some of the outmoded approaches to planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Results from the UK were reviewed to quantify the impact on climate change mitigation of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks as a result of (1) a change from conventional to less intensive tillage and (2) addition of organic materials including farm manures, digested biosolids, cereal straw, green manure and paper crumble. The average annual increase in SOC deriving from reduced tillage was 310kg C±180kgCha−1 yr−1. Even this accumulation of C is unlikely to be achieved in the UK and northwest Europe because farmers practice rotational tillage. N2O emissions may increase under reduced tillage, counteracting increases in SOC. Addition of biosolids increased SOC (inkgCha−1 yr−1 t−1 dry solids added) by on average 60±20 (farm manures), 180±24 (digested biosolids), 50±15 (cereal straw), 60±10 (green compost) and an estimated 60 (paper crumble). SOC accumulation declines in long-term experiments (>50 yr) with farm manure applications as a new equilibrium is approached. Biosolids are typically already applied to soil, so increases in SOC cannot be regarded as mitigation. Large increases in SOC were deduced for paper crumble (>6tCha−1 yr−1) but outweighed by N2O emissions deriving from additional fertiliser. Compost offers genuine potential for mitigation because application replaces disposal to landfill; it also decreases N2O emission. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Climate change is a global problem and across the world there are major difficulties being experienced in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The transport sector in particular is finding it difficult to reduce CO2 emissions. This paper reports on two studies carried out by the authors in London (UK) and Delhi (India). It considers the common objectives for transport CO2 reduction, but the very different contexts and baselines, potentials for change, and some possible synergies. Different packages of measures are selected and scenarios developed for each context which are consistent with contraction and convergence objectives. CO2 reduction potentials are modelled and quantified by package and scenario. London is considering deep reductions on current transport CO2 emission levels; Delhi is seeking to break the huge projected rise in transport CO2 emissions. The scale of policy intervention required to achieve these goals is huge and there is certainly little public discussion of the magnitude of the changes required. The paper argues for a ‘strategic conversation’ at the city level, using scenario analysis, to discuss the priorities for intervention in delivering low carbon transport futures. A greater focus is required in developing participatory approaches to decision making, alongside network investments, urban planning, low emission vehicles and wider initiatives. Aspirations towards equitable target emissions may assist in setting sufficiently demanding targets. Only then is a wider awareness and ownership of potential carbon efficient transport futures likely to take place. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Winter weather can be a significant cause of road traffic accidents. This paper uses UKCIP climate change scenarios and a temporal analogue to investigate the relationship between temperature and severe road accidents in the West Midlands, UK. This approach also allows quantification of the changes in the severity of the winter season over the next century in the region. It is demonstrated that the predicted reduction in the number of frost days should in turn reduce the number of road accidents caused due to slipperiness by approximately 50%. However, the paper concludes by warning against complacency in winter maintenance regimes. A warmer climate may result in budget cuts for highway maintenance which in turn may well reverse declining accident trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the energy efficiency of the building sector is regarded as a key mitigation response to climate change in the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU). The building sector represents the largest source of relatively quick and inexpensive CO2 emission reductions of any economic sector. Realising this potential also provides additional economic benefits, particularly in terms of increased energy security. This paper examines the implementation of the EU's Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) in England and Wales. It questions the potential effectiveness of the EPBD to deliver substantial emission reductions based upon shortcomings of the two main regulatory tools within the EPBD framework. The paper also draws from literature on the 'behavioural barrier' to energy efficiency that suggests that emission reductions will be unlikely in the absence of widespread change in the way in which energy is currently used by building occupants. The analysis is timely because transitioning this sector to low to zero carbon is regarded as integral to meeting emission reduction targets set for 2020 and 2050, and protecting against the risk of severe shortages in energy supply. The potential effectiveness of the EPBD is also significant because it is representative of the forefront of regulatory techniques to address a problem of the magnitude of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the current state of public debate concerning the problems of 'climate change' and 'peak oil'. Following a short analysis of what is at stake, a number of documents are reviewed, together with the public reception which some of these have encountered. There is still almost no admission that effective action to halt global warming will mean putting the global economy into sharp reverse and that peak oil will in any case have the same effect. As the political process gradually comes to acknowledge at least the basic facts, so an increasing literature of denial is appearing to reassure the public that there is nothing to worry about. Nevertheless, the 'Transition Towns/Cities' movement, that does acknowledge the challenge, is spreading rapidly amongst a certain segment of the population and involving many local authorities. However, the academic world of urban concern has yet to open its eyes to what lies in store. The paper ends with a brief analysis of the current planning process in London showing that the challenges are apparently accepted but what this will mean in terms of altered future reality and how to plan in that context is still absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dune slack habitats are highly dependent on the availability of water to support flora and fauna. Typically this is provided by shallow groundwater. This paper describes the seasonal and long term variation in groundwater levels in part of the Sefton coastline between 1972 and 2007. The effects of climate change, vegetation management and coastline realignment on groundwater levels are modelled. The observed annual water table levels rise and fall with an amplitude of 1.5 m, but longer term variations and trends are apparent. A stochastic water balance model was used to describe the changes in water table levels in slack floors in the open dunes and also in areas afforested with pine trees. It was found that the pine trees evaporated 214 mm/year more than open dunes vegetation, resulting in the water table being 0.5–1.0 m lower under the trees than under the open dunes. The effects of climate change on the ground water was simulated using predictions of future climate conditions based on the UKCIP02 medium high emissions scenario. The increase in temperature and change in rainfall patterns will result in a decrease in mean ground water levels by 1.0–1.5 mm in the next 90 years. Typical patterns consist of sequences of 5–10 years of low water table levels interspersed by infrequent sequences consisting of 2–5 years of relatively high or “normal” levels. These results indicate that that flora and fauna that cannot survive a 5–10 year period of water table levels >2.5 m below ground level are unlikely to survive or persist in many slack areas and a change in the ecology of these slack may become inevitable. Other effects of climate change include sea level rise which will result in a gradual rise in water table levels. Coastal erosion will increase the water table gradient to the sea and result in a slight lowering of the ground water levels. Conversely coastal accretion will reverse this process. The spatial distribution of coastal erosion and accretion along the Sefton coastline and its likely impacts on groundwater levels are discussed. The modelling work described in this paper has identified the factors which have the largest effect on groundwater levels in temperate coastal dune systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his paper in Climate Monitor, TML Wigley uses basic probability arguments to illustrate how a slowly changing climate could potentially affect the frequency of extreme events. In the time since the paper appeared, there has been increased interest in assessing how weather extremes may be altered by climate change. Much of the work has been conducted using extreme value analysis, which is the branch of statistics developed specifically to characterize extreme events. This commentary discusses the advantages of an EVA approach and reviews some EVA techniques that have been used to describe climate change’s potential impact on extreme phenomena. Additionally, this commentary illustrates basic EVA techniques in an analysis of temperatures for central England. In parallel to Wigley’s analysis, a time-varying EVA analysis is compared to a stationary one, and furthermore, the trend from the EVA analysis is compared to the trend in means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are now strong grounds for thinking that the rates of coastal processes will increase in the future, and that this speeding up is at least partly due to the impact of climate change on the coastline. The focus of this paper is on England only, primarily the impact of coastal change specifically upon archaeology rather than on the wider historic environment, but acknowledging, though not referencing here, the work of colleagues in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on coastal and marine survey which contributes so much to our understanding of the processes and impacts of coastal change. The paper discusses the different climate change impacts on the coastal and maritime historic environment, including direct physical impacts, indirect impacts that are a consequence of decisions taken now by coastal managers anticipating future climate change, and indirect impacts related to attempts at climate change mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Are you going to tell me off for flying?' This question was asked three times by a lady in South Manchester, England, when we asked her to participate in our qualitative in-home study on flying. She asked it once when we approached her in the street to ask if we may interview her. She asked again when we phoned to confirm the time and address of the interview, and she asked it a third time while serving tea and biscuits at the beginning of the interview. Needless to say we had given absolutely no indication that the interview would pass 'judgment' on her flying activities. The lady had undertaken six return trips by air for leisure in the previous year, and in the final section of the interview commented 'I will have a conscience, but I won't not fly to Miami...'. As this one example shows, the frequent flying/environmental impact question is currently a hot topic. It brings forth a cocktail of rich unprompted discussion and a mixed bag of responses, it has become emotionally charged and polemic. Accounts and justifications concerning frequent flying range from surprise that a taken-for-granted everyday activity which until very recently had been considered a culturally desirable thing to do, has suddenly become frowned upon; to a sense of almost guilty pleasure, apology and, at its extremes, defiance. What the significance and explanation for this might be in sociological terms is the focus of this paper. The answers are important, in particular for policy stakeholders seeking to curb consumption behaviours as one of a portfolio of emissions reduction strategies. It is to the policy audience that this paper primarily speaks. It also provides a quite different - out of the box - insight and contribution to the aviation and emissions debate, which complements the more 'supply side' technology and research and development focused papers which dominate the aviation and emissions-reduction literature currently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the ways in which citizens negotiate responsibility in relation to various environmental and technological risks, It focuses on the role of agency and the way that this figures in constructions of relations of responsibility between individuals and institutions. A central argument is that, across the different issue contexts, patterns of perceived agency are crucial to understanding the apparent contradiction in citizens' attributions of role-responsibilities for the management of risk. The empirical basis of the paper is a series of twelve reconvened focus groups conducted at locations around England, giving a total of twenty-four meetings, in which citizens discussed six different areas of technological risk: genetically modified (GM) crops, genetic testing, mobile-phone handsets; mobile-phone masts; radioactive waste; and climate change. The authors highlight the problem of citizen ambivalence towards responsibility, tracing it to perceived tensions affecting both citizen and state performances of responsibility, and conclude by discussing the implications for policy and by outlining an agenda for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an assessment of the ways in which water supply companies in England and Wales are adapting to climate change, evaluated in the context of a model of the adaptation process. The four components of the model are (i) awareness of and concern about the potential impacts of climate change, (ii) adaptation strategy, (iii) the concept of an adaptation space from which options are selected, and (iv) the notion that three groups of factors influence awareness, strategy and option selection: susceptibility to change, internal characteristics of the organisation, and regulatory and market context. Public water supply in England and Wales is provided by private sector companies, subject to environmental and economic regulation. Hydrological simulations suggest that climate change has the potential to reduce the reliability of supply sources over the next few decades. The industry in December 2004 completed a review of investment requirements over the next five years. Awareness of climate change is high in the water industry, but by developing assessment procedures and incorporating them into the investment review the regulators forced companies to consider explicitly the potential impacts of climate change in a consistent and rigorous manner. These analyses combined climate change with other pressures on water resources, and in practice companies did not attribute specific investment decisions or proposals to climate change or indeed any other individual drivers. The broad strategy adopted by all water supply companies - to maintain standards of service - is determined by regulatory controls and market considerations, but the degree of concern about the impacts of climate change and precise adaptation options necessary to address supply-demand imbalances varied between water supply companies, reflecting local geographic conditions. The water supply companies and regulators have different perspectives on the relative merits of supply-side and demand-side measures, reflecting different organisational priorities. The 2004 investment review determined that no specific actions were necessary to deal with future climate change, but that measures set in place - in terms of methodologies and investment in investigations into specific resource developments - provided a sound foundation for more specific actions in the next investment review in five years time. The paper concludes by summarising the factors assisting and constraining adaptation over the next few decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disentangling the role of nutrient pollution and climate change on lake ecosystem functioning is paramount to protect water quality in lake catchments worldwide. For more effective management, however, we need to determine whether these two forcing factors interact at different spatial and temporal scales., This study compares centennial-scale archival data and lake sediment records of eutrophication from Blelham Tarn and previously published data from Lake Windermere's North Basin in the English Lake District. We aimed to quantify how lake morphometry, catchment characteristics and landscape position influence the relationship between climate, local land use and algal community change., Redundancy analysis revealed that increases in cyanobacterial pigments and stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon in sediments of Blelham Tarn from the 1970s onwards correlate strongly with rising densities of sheep and cattle in the catchment. Concomitant installation of piped water and sewage processing facilities appeared to lead to the expansion of filamentous cyanobacteria. In contrast, elevated fossil pigments from siliceous algae after 1990 were related inversely to winter precipitation, suggesting seasonal changes in hydraulic flushing also influenced the algal community response to centennial-scale fertilisation., Abundance of vernal algae increased synchronously in Blelham Tarn and Lake Windermere's North Basin after regional agricultural intensification in the mid-nineteenth century. In contrast, differences in timing of wastewater disposal and treatment at each site led to asynchronous changes in summer taxa such as filamentous cyanobacteria., This study highlights that lake catchments can act as local filters to regional climate change, both due to differences in localised land-use and intrinsic hydrological features (e.g. catchment:lake area, flushing rate). Further, this paper highlights the ability of palaeolimnology to aid identification of significant nutrient sources over different spatial scales for effective catchment water management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper presents an assessment of the effects of climate change on river flow regimes in representative English catchments, using the UKCP09 climate projections. These comprise a set of 10,000 coherent climate scenarios, used here (i) to evaluate the distribution of potential changes in hydrological behaviour and (ii) to construct relationships between indicators of climate change and hydrological change. The study uses six catchments, and focuses on change in average flow, high flow (Q5) and low flow (Q95). There is a large range in hydrological change in each catchment between the plausible UKCP09 climate projections, with differences between catchments largely due to differences in catchment geology and baseline water balance. The range in change between the UKCP09 projections is in most catchments smaller than the range between changes with scenarios based on the CMIP3 ensemble of climate models (although the shape of the distribution of changes is different), and earlier UK scenarios produce changes that tend towards the lower (drier) end of the UKCP09 range. The difference between emissions scenarios is small compared to the range across the 10,000 scenarios. Changes in high flows are largely driven by changes in winter precipitation, whilst changes in low flows are determined by changes in summer precipitation and temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

West Cornwall is the most south westerly part of mainland United Kingdom with a strong maritime climate. This paper analyses the earliest archived instrumental meteorological records collected in West Cornwall (SW England). Observations were obtained from the Met Office archive (Camborne 1957-2010; Culdrose 1985-2011), Trengwainton Garden (1940-2010), and from the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, (data for Falmouth (1880-1952) and Helston (1843-1888)). Homogeneity tests were used (Levene and Brown-Forsythe tests) to exclude any trends not related to climate variability. The data exhibit trends in annual mean and maximum temperatures over the timescales analysed, and show a general temperature increase in the 20th and 21st century. Annual and seasonal temperature change was found to vary locally with strongly positive trends in autumn, spring and summer seasons. Trends in precipitation are positive only for the 19th century and only for one station. Correlation with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index gives negative results for precipitation data. However correlation with the NAO index is positive with temperature, especially in the winter season. Return period analysis shows a decrease in intensity and frequency of extreme precipitation events in the post-1975 period (Camborne and Trengwainton Garden stations). Climate change in the 20th century and future continued warming is likely to have major implications on biodiversity in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe droughts have affected much of Europe over the last 40 years. A limitation to current understanding of droughts is based around drought characteristics (e.g. frequency, severity and duration) as there are limited long series (>100 years) with well documented severe droughts. This is further complicated with future climate projections, and the potential implications that these will have on drought characteristics. This paper presents reconstructed drought series from 1697, 1726 and 1767 to 2011 for three sites in southeast England. Precipitation and temperature series are reconstructed to generate long drought series using the self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index, enabling determination of drought characteristics. The reconstructions identify multiple drought-rich periods, 1730–1760 and 1890-present, with an increasing tendency towards more severe droughts during the latter period. Prolonged rainfall deficiencies are found to be the primary cause of severe droughts, with rising temperatures increasing soil moisture deficit, therefore intensifying drought conditions. Cycles at the 6–10 year period identify a sub-decadal to decadal signal during drought-rich periods. Analysis of the spatial variability of droughts finds that whilst severe events are predominantly regionally coherent, there are notable variations in severity and duration between sites, which are attributed to localised rainfall variability. This study extends the temporal range of previous drought studies and places recent drought events in a longer context improving upon existing ‘benchmark’ drought analyses in southeast England; with far-reaching implications for local, national and continental scale reduction of drought vulnerability and risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the 29th New Phytologist Symposium: Stomata in Manchester, England in July 2012 on the global impact of stomatic pores and guard cells is presented. Topics include stomatal development and evolution, climate models and improved crop production. Its logo is also provided which shows the role of such cells in regulating worldwide issues such as climate change and breeding of sustainable crop.

In this paper we show how a seemingly unremarkable object - a cattle grid - has come to presence climate change in partial and contingent ways on the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall, UK. We identify the cattle grid as an 'anticipatory object' through which conservation organisations seek to manage the future and adapt to climate change, but which at the same time presences that unthought-of future for others in the landscape. We explore the ways in which the cattle grid acts to presence something that is not only absent - climate change - but has uncertain imminence. We investigate the ways in which the cattle grid make climate relevant as an embodied and experiential process, a physical and intellectual artefact, and the means to imagine climate and the ways it might change. Drawing upon interpretative approaches informed by theorisations of materiality, presence and absence to understand climate change as a social phenomenon, we go beyond a consideration of this ordinary object defined by its function to consider how the object is experienced, the processes and practices through which people relate to it, and the ways in which social meaning accumulates around it. The empirical basis for this argument is provided by in-depth interviews with local representatives of Natural England, residents and farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Health and social care systems (including the care needs of the population and infrastructures providing health and social care) are likely to be influenced by climate change, in particular by the increasing frequency and severity of weather-related hazards such as floods and heatwaves. Coldwaves will also continue to be challenging in the foreseeable future. Protecting people’s health and wellbeing from the impacts of climate change is especially important for older people, as they are particularly vulnerable to climate-related hazards. In addition, the proportion of people aged 65 and over is projected to increase significantly. This paper addresses these issues through a discussion of our work to map variations across England in future hazards, vulnerability and risk. We explain how this mapping has been used to identify areas of the country where the built infrastructure serving the older age group might be most severely impacted by climate-related events over the next 20–30 years and where planning for adaptation and resilience is most urgently required. Based on a review of research on the links between extreme weather events and their impacts on older people’s health and the care services on which they depend, we developed operational definitions of extreme weather-related hazards likely to place particular pressure on health and social care systems that are essential for older people’s health and wellbeing. We consider ways to relate these to the latest climate projections for the 2030s from the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCP09); river and coastal flooding projections for the 2050s from the 2004 UK Government’s Foresight Flood and Coastal Defence Project (); and demographic projections for 2031 produced by the Office for National Statistics, UK. The research highlights the complexity of undertaking future hazard and vulnerability assessments. Key challenges include: how to define future hazards associated with climate change; how to predict and interpret future socio-demographic conditions contributing to vulnerability; and how geographical variability in hazards and vulnerabilities may combine to produce risks at the local level. In contrast to a number of more local studies which have focused on the vulnerability of urban populations to the impact of climate change (particularly heatwaves), the findings highlight the potential vulnerability of older populations in more rural regions (often in coastal areas) to a range of extreme weather-related hazards in both the North and South of England. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Climate change could have dramatic consequences for the earth's environment, especially its hydrology, yet the 'noise' of natural climate variability can mask the impacts of climate change on shorter time scales, and can act (in an unpredictable way) to enhance or reduce its effect in any given period in the future. Thus, impact studies based on time slices, which look at modelled differences between baseline (e.g. 1961-1990) and future (e.g. 2070-2099) periods, can be misleading. This paper makes use of three new transient climate projections, from a perturbed parameter ensemble of a regional climate model (RCM) covering the period 1950-2099, to investigate transient changes in flood frequency and timing for two example catchments in England. Annual maximum (AM) time series are extracted from modelled flow timeseries (for hourly, daily mean and running 30-day mean flows). The AM series are analysed in terms of flood frequency (using a fitted generalised logistic distribution) and timing in a 30-year moving window. A non-linear trend analysis is performed on the derived time series, with permutation testing to estimate statistical significance. The results show that changes over the period are often non-linear, and vary considerably in size and statistical significance according to catchment, flow time step and RCM ensemble member. The relative effects of the three RCM ensemble members are consistent with their relative climate sensitivities. A nationwide analysis, using daily mean flows from a grid-based runoff and routing model for the UK with one of the RCM ensemble members, was consistent with the catchment results in terms of direction of trends, but generally gave trends of a higher magnitude, indicating the presence of some hydrological model structure uncertainty. The nationwide results suggest increased flood risk across much of the country. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A computer based building simulation model was developed to examine the energy load and environmental management in The National Archives Q1 repository building in Kew, UK to optimise environmental management and examine the impacts of climate change. The need to accurately simulate the hygrothermal environment inside the archive building which houses mainly paper-based records led to the choice of EnergyPlus as the modelling software. The study presents the simulation results of five environmental strategies which predict energy saving potential as high as 43% without significantly affecting the quality of the preservation environment. The effect of climate change is predicted to have little impact on the archive environment due to the filtering effect of the air conditioning system. On the other hand, an increase in total energy load by 15% and 24% is predicted under the worst case climate change scenario in 2050 and 2080, respectively, if the current environmental management practice is continued into the future. However, the identified energy saving strategies could represent possible mitigative solutions in reducing future energy load against the impact of climate change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Extreme weather events can have severe consequences for the local environment and population. Projected future changes in climate (e.g. UKCP09) indicate that North West England is likely to experience an increasing frequency and intensity of meteorological extremes, leading to flooding, heat waves and storms. Consequently, it is important that the region enhances its preparedness for such events. This paper explores the possibility of developing quantifiable climate risk indices for the case study area of Greater Manchester, using a combination of archival research and statistical analysis of past climate data. For extremes which are the function of a single meteorological variable (e.g. heat waves, pluvial flooding and heavy snowfall) the thresholds proved to be reliable and skillful. Days with maximum daily temperature greater than or equal to 29.2 °C, daily snowfall amount greater than or equal to 6 cm or maximum gust speed greater than or equal to 60 knots are found to be indicative of weather-related impacts which have in the past affected human health/well-being, have caused damage to the urban infrastructure or have severely disrupted services. Extreme events which are the result of a more complex interaction between variables (e.g. drought, freezing conditions) were less well captured by applying the thresholds associated with a single variable in isolation. Such critical threshold indices can be used in conjunction with future projections of climate change to establish weather-related risk for the future. This risk-based approach can subsequently be integrated to climate change adaptation strategies and development planning to ensure future preparedness. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly at the scale of cities, strategies and plans to respond to the challenges of climate change and constrained resources are being developed. A range of climate change plans, low-carbon strategies, peak oil preparations and so on have been developed, often with ambitious aspirations. At the same time, new and reconstituted “intermediary” organizational forms are working between the priorities of these plans and the contexts of their “application”. This is the movement between the “what” of the plans, strategies and preparations and the priorities they embody and the “how” of attempts at their accomplishment. Drawing on research in Greater Manchester, in this paper we examine the organizational contexts constituted for such a purpose and ask fundamental questions about whose priorities are being advocated, where and how this is organized and what the implications of this are for forms of urban transition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates changes in shoreline evolution caused by changes in wave climate. In particular, a number of nearshore wave climate scenarios corresponding to a 'present' (1961-1990) and a future time-slice (2071-2100) are used to drive a beach evolution model to determine monthly and seasonal statistics. To limit the number of variables, an idealised shoreline segment is adopted. The nearshore wave climate scenarios are generated from wind climate scenarios through point wave hindcast and inshore transformation. The original wind forcing comes from regional climate change model experiments of different resolutions and/or driving global climate models, representing different greenhouse-gas emission scenarios. It corresponds to a location offshore the south central coast of England. Hypothesis tests are applied to map the degree of evidence of future change in wave and shoreline statistics relative to the present. Differential statistics resulting from different global climate models and future emission scenarios are also investigated. Further, simple, fast, and straightforward methods that are capable of accommodating a great number of climate change scenarios with limited data reduction requirements are proposed to tackle the problem under consideration. The results of this study show that there are statistically significant changes in nearshore wave climate conditions and beach alignment between current and future climate scenarios. Changes are most notable during late summer for the medium-high future emission scenario and late winter for the medium-low. Despite frequent disagreement between global climate change models on the statistical significance of a change, all experiments agreed in future seasonal trends. Finally, a point of importance for coastal management, material shoreline changes are generally linked to significant changes in future wave direction rather than wave height. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper a generic methodology is presented that allows the impacts of climate change on wave energy generation from a wave energy converter (WEC) to be quantified. The methodology is illustrated by application to the Wave Hub site off the coast of Cornwall, UK. Control and future wave climates were derived using wind fields output from a set of climate change experiments. Control wave conditions were generated from wind data between 1961 and 2000. Future wave conditions were generated using two IPCC wind scenarios from 2061 to 2100, corresponding to intermediate and low greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC scenarios A1B and B1 respectively). The quantitative comparison between future scenarios and the control condition shows that the available wave power will increase by 2–3% in the A1B scenario. In contrast, the available wave power in the B1 scenario will decrease by 1–3%, suggesting, somewhat paradoxically, that efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may reduce the wave energy resource. Meanwhile, the WEC energy will yield decrease by 2–3% in both A1B and B1 scenarios, which is mainly due to the relatively low efficiency of energy extraction from steeper waves by the specific WEC considered. Although those changes are relatively small compared to the natural variability, they may have significance when considered over the lifetime of a wave energy farm. Analysis of downtime under low and high thresholds suggests that the distribution of wave heights at the Wave Hub will have a wider spread due to the impacts of climate change, resulting in longer periods of generation loss. Conversely, the estimation of future changes in joint wave height-period distribution provides indications on how the response and power matrices of WECs could be modified in order to maintain or improve energy extraction in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Although no single weather-related event can be directly attributed to climate change, new techniques make it possible to estimate how much the chance of an event has been altered by anthropogenic emissions. This paper looks at the floods that occurred in England in Autumn/Winter 2000, by using large ensembles of 1-year climate model simulations representing April 2000–March 2001. These represent an industrial climate and four estimates of an hypothetical non-industrial climate (without historical greenhouse gas emissions), and are used to drive hydrological models for eight catchments in England. The simulated flows are used to assess the impact of historical emissions on the chance of occurrence of extreme floods in each catchment, through calculation of the fraction of attributable risk (FAR). Combining results for the four non-industrial climates, positive median values of FAR indicate that, for all but one catchment, emissions are likely to have led to an increased chance of flooding in the October–December period. Definitive conclusions are difficult however, as there are wide bands of uncertainty in FAR, with distributions generally spanning no attributable difference in risk (FAR =0). One catchment shows a decreased flood chance (negative median FAR), due to its high permeability, but an analysis of the effect of antecedent conditions shows that a longer period of climate data than 1year is probably required to obtain more representative values of FAR for such catchments. The inclusion of snowfall/snowmelt is also shown to be important for floods over the October–March period, as the reduced likelihood of snowmelt-induced floods in the warmer temperatures of the industrial climate moderates the increased flood chance due to other sources of flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses social movement theory (SMT) as a theoretical 'gymnasium' to explore the limits and possibilities of climate activism in the UK. The core SMT concepts are used to explore why climate activism emerged when it did, and how conceptions of there being a problem were translated into arguments about what should be done. If something should be done, is contentious politics or policy change the most appropriate strategy? At what scale should action take place: a local politics of prefiguration, through direct action, or in more visible mass mobilisations? It is argued that climate activism takes place in a diverse range of political spaces and scales and works actively to produce knowledges about the dangers of anthropogenic climate change and responsibilities for it, but it is unclear that it has the motive power to move to more sustainable ways of organising human society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A homogenized 76-year daily-mean temperature series is presented for Moor House, an upland peatland meteorological station in northern England, which provides the longest instrumental temperature record in the UK uplands. This paper assesses trends in the temperature record over time compared to the nearby lowland temperature record at Durham. Overall warming for 1991-2006 compared with 1931-1960 and 1961-1990 was approximately the same at the upland site (0.53 °C and 0.73 °C for the two time periods, respectively) as at Durham (0.61 °C and 0.71 °C), maintaining a similar lapse rate. However, winter warming is dominant at Moor House and more pronounced and concentrated over a shorter period than at Durham; summer warming is more prominent at Durham. Therefore, seasonal lapse rates have changed and become more divergent between winter and summer half-years. Rather than changes in the dominance of particular air-masses over the study area accounting for seasonal lapse rate changes, there had been significant steepening of lapse rates over time for some air flow types. Minimum temperatures have increased more than maximum temperatures at Moor House with a consequent significant reduction in diurnal range. At Durham minimum and maximum temperatures have changed in approximate tandem so that there is no significant change in diurnal temperature range. The frequency of air frosts reduced by approximately 23% (from 129 days per year to 99) at Moor House from 1991-2006 compared to 1953-1980, and this may have major implications for the functioning of terrestrial and aquatic systems in the region. These results demonstrate that while overall annual warming in the uplands and lowlands within particular regions may be similar, even where annual lapse rates have been maintained, the seasonal distribution of that warming may be quite different even over short distances and so lowland records are not a reliable indicator of regional upland temperature change. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regeneration policy in the UK has failed to deliver real gains for many of the inner-city neighbourhoods that it was meant to help, but particularly those on the margins of our most prosperous and affluent city centres. In Leeds in 2008 an independent group of professionals came together through a project called 'Margins within the City' to challenge thinking about regeneration in the city. We wanted to find new ways of understanding the neighbourhoods in the rim around the city centre, uncover the potential of these neighbourhoods for future resilience and well-being and suggest ways forward. A year-long programme of action research was undertaken to pilot an approach to investigating the social networks, skills and enterprise, and under-utilised land and buildings in a case study neighbourhood. This paper shows the approach and method for the research, the cross-cutting themes within the findings and the recommendations for future policy development. It suggests that if social and physical connections are mended, established and extended, then perceptions can be radically changed, resource and ecological leaks plugged, and under-utilised potential more fully realised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical examination of London's governmental and planning structures and its commitments to creating a sustainable city. Governing a world city like London has always been a difficult process. Legislative commitments to address London's sustainable future have sometimes been undermined by different policy interpretations by different key players over different time periods. This has created a fluid and diverse structure of governance that enables short-term policy shifts but which threatens longer term strategic sustainability policy commitments. These interpretations have occurred against an ongoing and contentious political debate over powers and responsibilities between different scales of the state, and the rights to make key decisions affecting London's future. This has resulted in a policy and governmental structure that is highly dependent on negotiation and compromise and one that employs a variety of policy tools, information and persuasion, financial incentives, and collaboration, to achieve a balanced form of governance. This flexible arrangement enables divergent public attitudes towards sustainability and climate change to be harnessed but may not deliver long term urban sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the importance of urban gardens to biodiversity is presented. It highlights that the garden space in London, England is not proportionate to the other cities in Great Britain. Noted are the benefits associated urban gardens which include providing habitat for wildlife and adapting to impacts of climate change. It cites several native plant and animal species supported by urban gardens such as black redstart, stag beetle and garden trees.

Climate change differs from conventional environmental challenges in that it bridges spatial scales in unprecedented ways: anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are emitted from very local activities, but impacts are transmitted through processes at the global level to distant 'elsewheres.' This makes it particularly difficult for the individual observer, actor, or victim to recognize mechanisms of cause and effect. The irreducible complexity of the transmission processes involved makes it difficult to allocate responsibility and establish policy responses. Cities and the urban scale are particularly relevant in this context as they are hosting most GHG-emitting activities. While urban centers cover only about 2 percent of the terrestrial surface and harbor half of the global population, it is estimated that about three-quarters of the fossil fuel-related emissions are caused by cities. Cities are, consequentially, a most relevant focus for mitigation initiatives as re-engineering our energy systems will require changes in the fabric and maybe even function of urban areas. Moreover, cities are also an important scale for innovation and adaptation. They host crucial nodes of research and economic infrastructure and are usually early adopters of new technology. They are characterized by high-energy density and heterogeneity in energy use profiles which allow potential for better integration and provide economies of scale and agglomeration. Still most of the coordinated and international action in climate change abatement and mitigation occurs at the national level, and it is only poorly understood and articulated how national-level policies and reduction targets will actually be downscaled to measures and activities at the local level. Given the large regional variation in activities causing climate change and differences in vulnerability towards impacts of climate change, we need to better understand the implications and leverage available at the sub-national and local level. This paper focuses on the metropolitan region of Greater London and describes the evolution and structure of current energy consumption patterns as well as projections under various assumptions on policy initiatives. It presents a series of policy measures taken and critically discusses their likelihood of success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most widespread depositional landforms in many of the upland valleys of the British Isles which have undergone glaciation during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are so-called solifluction sheets. These form a landform-sediment association consisting of smoothed-slopes underlain by poorly-sorted deposits. The timing and nature of sediment deposition is unclear in the absence of a dating framework within which solifluction sheet development can be placed. This paper presents the first dates from these landforms in the British Isles. We used optical dating on deposits exposed at Linhope Burn in the Cheviot Hills of North East England. The results suggest that the bulk of sediment deposition at this site happened over a period spanning the Younger Dryas. We argue that both paraglacial and periglacial processes can account for the main periods of deposition and that the timing of sediment deposition reflects the rapidity with which landform development responded to climatic shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Whilst much effort has been made to communicate to the public the importance of reducing carbon footprints in the home, one area where emissions are growing rapidly and little attempt has been made to increase consumer understanding of the impacts is holidays, particularly those involving air travel. Using focus group research, this paper explores tourists’ awareness of the impacts of travel on climate change, examines the extent to which climate change features in holiday travel decisions and identifies some of the barriers to the adoption of less carbon-intensive tourism practices. The findings suggest that many tourists do not consider climate change when planning their holidays. The failure of tourists to engage with the climate change impact of holidays, combined with significant barriers to behavioural change, presents a considerable challenge in moving the tourism industry onto a sustainable emissions path. The findings are discussed in relation to theoretical perspectives from psychology and sociology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]