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Application for Research Ethics Committee (REC) approval and the conduct of medical research is paper intensive. This retrospective study examined all applications to a single REC in the south of England over one year. It estimated the mass of paper used, comparing the proportional paper consumption of different trial types and during different stages of the research process, quantifying the consumption in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. In 2009, 68 trials were submitted to the REC. Total paper consumption for the REC process and study conduct was 176,150 sheets of A4 paper (879 kg), equivalent to an estimated 11.5 million sheets (88 tonnes, 2,100 trees) a year for the UK; the REC process accounted for 26.4%. REC applications and the conduct of approved trials generate considerable environmental impact through paper consumption contributing to the NHS's carbon footprint. Paper use might be reduced through the implementation of digital technologies and revised research methods, namely changing attitudes in both researchers and ethics committees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article charts the successes and failures of urban regeneration policies in the UK. Aspects of both continuity and change in the direction and implementation of urban policy are explored. It is argued that while New Labour's approach since 1997 has been distinctive and, in some respects, innovative, especially in relation to community engagement, it has continued to adopt a flawed conceptualisation of the urban problem which has led to a limited policy response. That legacy is likely to have a continuing influence on policy. Looking ahead, new challenges need to be faced, notably economic recession and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses environmental narratives in the legislative stages presented in UK white papers, the Prime Minister's speeches, and the Queen's speeches, all of which were released between 1997 and 2011, during the regimes either of New Labour (1997–2010) or of the currently governing Coalition (2010–). This research acknowledges that the link between risk perception and environmental policy is strong because environmental policy narratives either reflect or influence risk perceptions, or both. The findings of this research demonstrate that the risk of climate change has emerged as a key agenda due to combined risk perceptions on economy and environment. Subsequently, that risk has developed a connection to the risk of energy scarcity and energy facilities. Nuclear power has posed a possible resolution to the energy risk, but at the same time, it has posed another kind of risk too. Under the Coalition government, the risk of natural diversity loss emerged while the risks of climate change and energy continued. The dynamics of the negotiation among different risk perceptions would depend on the power relations among the groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Genealogies of life assurance have tended to focus on the governmental possibilities of actuarial calculations of mortality, but the case of foreign residence assurance draws attention to other ways in which British companies calculated climate risk between 1840 and 1940. Drawing on archival research, this paper demonstrates that the extra charges imposed on life assurance policies for foreign residence invited conversations about the risks of climate and mortality in countries beyond Britain, drawing on both contemporary climate science and other arguments about climate pathology. Climate risks, however, had to be made to work for both life assurers and policyholders through far‐reaching social‐material networks, and firms frequently tinkered with arrangements of people, ideas, and artefacts in ways that enabled a mapping and governing of such risks. Whether ideas of climate circulating in life assurance were believed or not, they had effects and policyholders submitted to them. Drawing on archival material from several British life assurance companies, including some detailed cases of assured migrant lives, the paper explores how companies made risk calculations in ways that had consequences for ordinary decisions and practices. In so doing, the paper contributes to debates about life assurance and governmentality, showing that foreign residence policies enabled businesses to secure their risks in an era of imperial expansion. But this is no simple story of power and imperialism. Businesses constantly tinkered with their policies, drawing on climate science and medical understandings, but only as part of an always messy, changing assemblage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate projections suggest that the UK will be increasingly affected by climate-induced hazards in the future, exacerbating the potential for multihazard events to occur. This paper explores the extent to which climate resilience is being embedded in current and future rail transport infrastructure projects in London through use of a multihazard approach. It concludes that a multihazard approach is a relatively new concept and is therefore not currently being considered widely. However, opportunities for decision makers to explore its value to mitigate climate risks through collaborative working and further research exist – this paper recommends that two main stages are required to achieve this. Route 1 requires climate/hazard experts to identify and characterise the different hazard interactions that could occur, including their impact on the UK/London. Following this, route 2 involves the creation of multidisciplinary workshops to identify any multihazard vulnerabilities associated with different rail assets – potentially highlighting areas where further research is required. The paper concludes that although a London rail context has been adopted in order to understand the relevance of a multihazard approach, there is opportunity for it to be considered across many different sectors in the UK and the wider civil engineering industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the optimization of FAst Met Office/UK Universities Simulator (FAMOUS) climate model's atmospheric radiation algorithm in Great Britain. The translation of Fortran code to the programming code of C and the restructuring of algorithm to the calculation of a single column are also tackled. It also notes the elements of Intel-compatible 10 processors.

Climate science depends upon accurate measurements of air temperature and humidity, the majority of which are still derived from sensors exposed within passively ventilated louvred Stevenson-type thermometer screens. It is well-documented that, under certain circumstances, air temperatures measured within such screens can differ significantly from "true" air temperatures measured by other methods, such as aspirated sensors. Passively ventilated screens depend upon wind motion to provide ventilation within the screen and thus airflow over the sensors contained therein. Consequently, instances of anomalous temperatures occur most often during light winds when airflow through the screen is weakest, particularly when in combination with strong or low-angle incident solar radiation. Adequate ventilation is essential for reliable and consistent measurements of both air temperature and humidity, yet very few systematic comparisons to quantify relationships between external wind speed and airflow within a thermometer screen have been made. This paper addresses that gap by summarizing the results of a 3-month field experiment in which airflow within a UK-standard Stevenson screen was measured using a sensitive sonic anemometer and comparisons made with simultaneous wind speed and direction records from the same site. The mean in-screen ventilation rate was found to be 0.2 m s -1 (median 0.18 m s -1), well below the 1 m s -1 minimum assumed in meteorological and design standard references, and only about 7 % of the scalar mean wind speed at 10 m. The implications of low in-screen ventilation on the uncertainty of air temperature and humidity measurements from Stevenson-type thermometer screens are discussed, particularly those due to the differing response times of dry- and wet-bulb temperature sensors and ambiguity in the value of the psychrometric coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares multiple gridded data sets of daily UK precipitation to evaluate structural uncertainty in our reconstructions of historical rainfall. The data sets compared reflect two different sampling strategies and three different grid interpolation methods. In order to separate the influence of sampling and interpolation uncertainties, one of the data sets (produced by the Met Office) has been recreated using the sampling strategy of stations used in the European (E‐OBS) data set. The results confirm and build upon previous studies showing that relying on a relatively sparse but homogeneous network of stations limits the ability of the resulting data set to reliably estimate extreme rainfall at the daily timescale. It is shown that gridding methods that additionally make use of reference climatological data can avoid systematic bias in both the average and extreme events even when using a relatively sparse network of observations. This is an encouraging result in terms of our potential to reliably extend such data sets further back in time where the availability of digitized data is substantially lower than the more modern era. This paper compares multiple gridded rainfall data sets for the UK to analyse structural uncertainty in historical reconstructions of rainfall. In particular, as well as highlighting the shortcomings of using a sparse network of long‐running rainfall stations (as per E‐OBS), this paper shows that gridding methods that make use of reference climatological data help avoid systematic bias. This is a promising and valuable result for purposes of extending rainfall series back in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the conclusion of the Stern Review that the cost of climate change could be as much as 20% of the global GDP. In this paper, I identify two major sources of variation in the estimates of the aggregate cost of climate change. One is the disagreement among the AOGCM models on the magnitude of climate change, and the other is the divergence among the economic models on how harmful these changes will be to the economy. The main conclusion of this paper is that only under the alarmist approach—which assumes both the most severe climate change and the most extreme estimate of climate change damage to the economy—we can be convinced that the cost of climate change is close to 20% of the global GDP in 2100. In most other cases, the cost will be under 1% of the global GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper undertakes a critical review of the literature concerning mechanisms and impacts of soil-related geohazards to UK infrastructure. The country is predicted to have drier, hotter summers and wetter, warmer winters that in turn will increase the magnitude and frequency of many soil-related geohazards - predominantly due to changes in soil moisture. Probabilistic assessment will be required given the inherent uncertainty in assessing chronic soil hazards. The aim of this paper is to recommend a national framework methodology to aid the management of future risks posed by soil geohazards to UK infrastructure. The framework will help to prioritise ground investigations in high-risk areas, help to design suitable mitigation measures and encapsulate expert knowledge to interpret risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a growing focus on uncertainty as a distinct concept in the risk literature. This paper is concerned with how those involved in the design and implementation of climate change policy conceptualize risk and uncertainty. Based on interviews with policy and industry elites in Australia, China and the UK, it finds that participants did not distinguish between "risk" and "uncertainty" in their conceptualization of climate threats. For the majority of them, politics was the most significant source of risk and uncertainty in climate policy, but delegation of otherwise political decisions to the market was seen as the best solution. The conclusion suggests that the conceptual distinction between risk and uncertainty is less important, for policy and industry elites, than the need to develop mechanisms that account for both persistent scientific uncertainties as well as interpretive and moral ambiguities in climate policy design and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to probe into the social media use by Chinese climate journalists through the examination of their professional practices on social media. Taking COP21 as a case, the study conducted a survey from Chinese COP21 journalists and analyzed WeChat and Weibo posts from Chinese journalists and tweets from their UK and US colleagues. The results show the prevalent use of WeChat among Chinese journalists and the personalization of the social media content accordingly. Compared to their Western counterparts, the use of social media for professional purposes by Chinese COP21 journalists was relatively limited. Nevertheless, several patterns of using social media were identified. Specifically, Chinese journalists tended to more frequently express personal opinions, discuss work experience and favor conventional news sources of authority than UK and US journalists. The results also suggest that climate change in Chinese media discourse will remain more a policy-related issue instead of an environmental or scientific issue, with Chinese government playing a central role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimates of the marginal value of carbon dioxide-the social cost of carbon (SCC)-were recently adopted by both the U.S. and U.K. Governments in order to satisfy requirements to value estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) changes of new federal regulations. However, the development and use of SCC estimates comes with significant challenges and controversial decisions. This paper summarizes the key issues and then derives guidance for developing, selecting, and applying the estimates that follows from the fundamental scientific nature and economic principles associated with GHGs and climate change, as well as an understanding of the state of the art for estimating the SCC. The paper evaluates recent estimates in light of the guidance and finds the estimates inconsistent with the guidance in a number of significant areas. The paper also differentiates SCC policy applications in terms of policies with incremental versus nonincremental implications for global GHGs, and identifies serious issues for application of the SCC in setting and evaluating climate policy targets. WIREs Clim Change 2012, 3:163-195. doi: 10.1002/wcc.163 For further resources related to this article, please visit the . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions and therefore effective policy interventions are required in order to mitigate these emissions. One form of intervention used within the agricultural sector is participatory extension programmes (PEPs). PEPs are advisory programmes based on voluntary participation where farmers, researchers, and rural experts collectively learn by sharing information and experiences. To evaluate the contribution of these programmes towards more climate friendly farming, this paper conducts an ex-post evaluation of a PEP focused on the voluntary uptake of on-farm emissions mitigation practices in the UK. We use a mixed-methods approach to understand both the adoption of new practices and a range of human-social outcomes such as social learning, resilience and improved decision-making. We find that participants in the PEP show a higher level of practice adoption compared to non-participants. However, the evaluation of the human-social indicators shows that the change cannot always be attributed to PEP participation. The paper contributes to the current literature by conducting the first evaluation on a climate change PEP in a developed country and by developing and applying an effective evaluation framework for climate change PEPs, in order to achieve an understanding of the change achieved by PEPs. • Understanding change due to PEP participation requires a mixed methods approach. • Holistic evaluation shows increased practice adoption cannot always be attributed to the PEP. • A wider set of measures is required to achieve a sustained change towards climate friendly farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a major issue for all levels of government, global, national and local. Local authorities' responses to climate change have tended to concentrate on their role in reducing greenhouse gases. However, the scientific consensus is that we also need to adapt to unavoidable climate change. Spatial planning at a local level has a critical anticipatory role to play in promoting robust adaptation. This paper reviews the shift in local authorities' planning policies for climate change adaptation in the UK since 2000, and provides evidence of underlying attitudes amongst planning professionals to climate change. It shows that, while the issue of climate change is becoming recognized with respect to flood risk, the wider implications (for instance, for biodiversity and water resources) are not yet integrated into plans. The reasons for this lie in lack of political support and lack of engagement of the planning profession with climate change networks. But the paper also argues there are difficulties in acknowledging the need for adaptation at the local level, with the short-term horizons of local plans at odds with perceptions of the long-term implications of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate risk management is a new and evolving area and many decisions are likely to be affected by climate risks over the long-form. This paper presents a decision-making framework designed for managing climate alongside non-climate risk factors. The framework describes a process that should help identify and manage these risks. It can be used to help decision-makers answer questions about whether adaptation is required, and, if so, which measures should be implemented. Adaptive management is recommended as a useful approach for dealing with climate and other uncertainties. This paper describes an application of the framework to a wafer resources case study. Feedback from training workshops based on four different case studies suggests the framework provides of minimum a useful (post-hoc) decision analysis tool. Potential users, who include planners, consultants and policy-makers have been largely positive about the prospective utility of the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Mobilizing climate finance for climate change mitigation is a crucial part of meeting the 'well-below' 2°C goal of the Paris Agreement. Climate finance refers to investments specifically in climate change mitigation and adaptation activities, which involve public finance and the leveraging of private finance. A large proportion of climate finance is Official Development Assistance (ODA) from OECD countries to ODA-eligible countries. The evidence shows that the largest proportion of climate finance for climate change mitigation has been channelled to the development of renewable energy, with a much smaller proportion flowing to other crucial forms of clean energy-related measures, such as demand-side management (DSM) (particularly sustainable cooling) and carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS). This forms the rationale and aim of this synthesis paper: to review the role of climate finance to develop clean energy beyond renewables. In doing so, the paper draws on practical policy and programme experiences of some donor countries, such as the UK, and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). This paper argues that a greater amount of climate finance from OECD countries to ODA-eligible fossil fuel-intensive emerging economies and developing countries is required for sustainable cooling and CCUS, particularly in the form of technical assistance and clean energy innovation. Key policy insights Demand-side management (DSM) and carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) are underfunded in climate finance compared with the promotion of renewables. Climate finance for sustainable cooling, in particular, represents just 0.04% of total ODA, despite cooling projected to represent 13% of global emissions by 2030. Public investment in CCUS is limited at US $28 billion since 2007, despite the costs of meeting the Paris Agreement estimated to be 40-128% more expensive without CCUS. Additional climate finance for these sectors should not come at the expense of funding for renewables but should be complementary to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper recounts the surprising and disastrous results of attempting to do historical photographic research at a private archive. I had travelled to the Lee Miller Archives, in Sussex, UK, in order to conduct some preliminary research on Miller’s war work between the years 1944 and 1945. My intention was to begin comparing the drafts, original manuscripts, negatives, and captions to what Vogue published in both the US and the UK. The Archives are located in the former house of Lee Miller and husband Roland Penrose and they are managed by Miller’s son Antony Penrose. While my preparatory correspondence with the employees was straightforward and I had submitted lists of what I wanted to look at, once I arrived things immediately changed. This paper details the paternalistic climate of the Archives, as it reads some of Miller’s photography in relation to questions of history and representation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The Multiple Streams Framework is applied to investigate why material efficiency solutions are a limited part of the climate policy agenda. The case study under investigation is the UK agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emission from cars. Evidence from 14 semi‐structured interviews, document analysis and academic studies is used to develop and substantiate the arguments made. In the UK, inefficient material use is only perceived as a problem in so far as it increases in‐use vehicle emissions, which disadvantages some material efficiency solutions. The appeal of material efficiency solutions is further limited by a lack of real‐world and modelling evidence, creating uncertainty around the anticipated costs and impacts of any policy intervention. Recent political developments are unlikely to make the UK government more receptive to the problem of greenhouse gases arising from inefficient material use in the future. This is further compounded by policy lock‐in. Although a small community of policy entrepreneurs are promoting material efficiency solutions, they have disparate priorities, which impacts their effectiveness. The insights from this paper can inform future research and policy entrepreneurship to increase the likelihood of material efficiency solutions becoming a larger part of the climate policy agenda. The problem of climate change is too significant for any potential solutions to remain underexplored by policy‐makers in the UK and the rest of the world. © 2017 The Authors. Environmental Policy and Governance published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand why climate information is produced differently from country to country. To do this, we critically examined and compared the social and scientific values that shaped the production of three national climate scenarios in the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK. A comparative analysis of documentary materials and expert interviews linked to the climate scenarios was performed. Our findings reveal a new typology of use-inspired research in climate science for decision-making: (i) innovators, where the advancement of science is the main objective; (ii) consolidators, where knowledge exchanges and networks are prioritised; and (iii) collaborators, where the needs of users are put first and foremost. These different values over what constitutes 'good' science for decision-making are mirrored in the way users were involved in the production process: (i) elicitation, where scientists have privileged decision-making power; (ii) representation, where multiple organisations mediate on behalf of individual users; and (iii) participation, where a multitude of users interact with scientists in an equal partnership. These differences help explain why climate knowledge gains its credibility and legitimacy differently even when the information itself might not be judged as salient and usable. If the push to deliberately co-produce climate knowledge is not sensitive to the national civic epistemology at play in each country, scientist-user interactions may fail to deliver more 'usable' climate information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper investigates winter (DJF) precipitation variability over East Anglia at the daily and 2 d timescales using rain gauge data from 134 sites. The first three principal components (PCs) explain 80.2% (82.0%) of the variance in daily (2 d totals). Precipitation displays higher spatial coherence in winter, with the first three PCs of summer daily totals (Neal and Phillips, 2009, International Journal of Climatology 29: 1661-1679) explaining only 72.3% of the variance. The winter PCs for both 24- and 48-h timescales display precipitation maxima in South Essex (PC 1), NE Norfolk (PC 2), and NW Cambridgeshire (PC 3). The rainfall maximum over South Essex is more important in winter than in summer. Lamb Weather Types and synoptic charts are used to explain the causes of the PCs. A precipitation regionalization is also produced. Discharge for 11 rivers is then modelled as a linear function of the rainfall patterns (as represented by the PC scores). With the exception of the River Babingley, whose discharge is not significantly related to the PCs, these models explain on average 26.5% of the variance. For most rivers, there are significant relationships between discharge and precipitation that fell up to 4 d ago on average. In general, East Anglian river flows show persistence over 6-8 d. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Droughts are high-impact events that have substantial implications for both human and natural systems. As such, improved understanding of the hydroclimatological processes involved in drought development is a major scientific imperative of direct practical relevance. To address this research need, this paper investigates the chain of processes linking antecedent ocean-atmosphere variation to summer streamflow drought in Great Britain. Analyses are structured around four distinct drought regions (defined using hierarchical cluster analysis) for the period 1964-2001. Droughts were identified using a novel regional drought area index. Composite analysis of monthly sea surface temperature (SST) prior to drought onset reveals a horseshoe- or tripole-shaped pattern of North Atlantic SST anomalies that is similar to patterns of SST anomalies associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Patterns in geopotential height, wind, moisture vapor flux, and precipitation prior to drought onset support the influence of the NAO but also demonstrate that the atmospheric bridge linking North Atlantic SST to drought development is too complex to be described solely by indices of the NAO. In revealing new information on the chain of processes leading to the development of hydrological drought in Great Britain, this paper has the potential to inform drought-forecasting research and so improve drought preparedness and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has become a major area of concern over the past few years and consequently many governments, international bodies, businesses, and institutions are taking measures to reduce their carbon footprint. However, to date very little research has taken place on information and sustainable development in general, and on the environmental impact of information services in particular. Based on the data collected from various research papers and reports, this review article shows that information systems and services for the higher education and research sector currently generate massive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and it is argued that there is an urgent need for developing a green information service, or green IS in short, that should be based on minimum GHG emissions throughout its lifecycle, from content creation to distribution, access, use, and disposal. Based on an analysis of the current research on green information technology (IT), it is proposed that a green IS should be based on the model of cloud computing. Finally, a research agenda is proposed that will pave the way for building and managing green ISs to support education and research/scholarly activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to argue that to address the consequences of climate change and variability a greater focus on pre-emergency planning that engages a wider stakeholder group must be adopted. Design/methodology/approach - The paper discusses UK emergency management and approaches to climate change and climate variability risk. Findings - The internal focus of UK emergency management inhibits the contribution that it can make to societal resilience and public preparedness. Effective risk reduction requires that all actors, including the public, are engaged in the social learning process. From a UK emergency management perspective this requires a culture shift to an outward proactive focus. Originality/value - This paper offers insights into emergency preparedness in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK Climate Camp protests of 2007 are an important moment in an ongoing analysis of the success of ‘green protests’ in the UK. A legacy of knowledge transfer between activist groups, NGOs and UK publics is visible; in the initiation and development of recent climate-related protests, their key frames (the stakes raised), targets and forms of mobilisation, and the allies the protestors were able to attract. Defining terms (success in particular) is difficult, due to multiple differences in aims and objectives among a variety of social actors. The paper identifies a complex spectrum of green perspectives among activists and broader green networks. UK green protest success is defined and identified in terms of capacity building; protest waves spanning several activist generations have framed important sustainability citizenship stakes with broad public resonance and uptake. The use of protest tactics among broader publics is also a significant legacy. However, the mainstreaming of green stakes and their co-option — ‘green washing’ — is causing clashes between ‘strong green’ and ‘weak green’ perspectives, particularly around issues of green consumption, power relations and political economy. These struggles over green stakes and strategies re-emphasise long-standing difficulties with defining protest success. This is an ongoing narrative.British Politics (2008) 3, 92–109. doi:10.1057/palgrave.bp.4200081 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transport sector is consistently responsible for around 30 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions in developed countries and is one of few sectors where emissions continue to increase as a result of apparently insatiable demand for road and air travel. This paper examines how the formulation of transport policy fits into the exposition of UK climate policy, focusing on three principal areas of tension: policy priority (congestion and carbon reduction); strategies to reduce emissions (technological and behavioural solutions) and timescale (short- and long-term vision). We suggest that in overcoming such tensions government ministers will need to devolve significant policy formulation and implementation powers to an appropriate scale of governance – in this case the city-region – to fashion a ‘convergence space’ capable of promoting meaningful action with regard to transport's climate impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pressure to prove that anthropogenic global warming is real, and happening now has become so strong, that in spite of major and irresolvable uncertainties in climate models, there is a daily renewal and re-inforcement of the idea of scientific certainty in the mainstream media. Whilst uncertainties are often acknowledged in the body of scientific reports, they are rarely seen in press releases and executive summaries. This paper examines how an almost mass acceptance of imminent and potentially catastrophic global warming by politicians, the media and the public, has come about and highlights the role of various UK agencies such as the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the Met Office in producing this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, the UK government published advice to planning authorities on ways in which the planning system might respond to climate change. This paper provides an account of the process of the formulation of that advice and the subsequent policy guidance, analysing the tensions revealed and offering an explanation of why the process took some time. It argues that the story can be understood in institutionalist terms, which recognize the different perspectives of planning policy communities and climate change policy communities. The decision to publish advice provided a policy arena in which these different interests sought to influence the agenda, employing competing policy discourses of discretionary enablement and more urgent prescription. These discourses partly reflected different approaches to the role of government, but also revealed the complexities of climate change as a new and uncharted issue facing the planning system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the climate change adaptation measures in the construction industry in Great Britain. Development of government policy to encourage the required adaptation in the building industry; Dimensions of climate change impact; Governance of adaptation; Justification of government intervention; Choice of instruments for the adaptation; Uncertainty about climate change.

Climate science depends upon accurate measurements of air temperature and humidity, the majority of which are still derived from sensors exposed within passively-ventilated louvred Stevenson-type thermometer screens. It is well-documented that, under certain circumstances, air temperatures measured within such screens can differ significantly from 'true' air temperatures measured by other methods, such as aspirated sensors. Passively-ventilated screens depend upon wind motion to provide ventilation within the screen, and thus airflow over the sensors contained therein. Consequently, instances of anomalous temperatures occur most often during light winds when airflow through the screen is weakest, particularly when in combination with strong or low-angle incident solar radiation. Adequate ventilation is essential for reliable and consistent measurements of both air temperature and humidity, yet very few systematic comparisons to quantify relationships between external wind speed and airflow within a thermometer screen have been made. This paper addresses that gap by summarising the results of a three month field experiment in which airflow within a UK-standard Stevenson screen was measured using a sensitive sonic anemometer, and comparisons made using simultaneous wind speed and direction records from the same site. The average in-screen ventilation rate was found to be 0.2 m s-1, well below the 1 m s-1 minimum assumed in meteorological and design standard references, and only about 7 % of the scalar mean wind speed at 10 m. The implications of low in-screen ventilation on the uncertainty of air temperature and humidity measurements from Stevenson-type thermometer screens are discussed, particularly those due to the differing response times of dry- and wet-bulb temperature sensors, and ambiguity in the value of the psychrometric coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-surface models (LSMs) are crucial components of the Earth system models (ESMs) that are used to make coupled climate-carbon cycle projections for the 21st century. The Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) is the land-surface model used in the climate and weather forecast models of the UK Met Office. JULES is also extensively used offline as a land-surface impacts tool, forced with climatologies into the future. In this study, JULES is automatically differentiated with respect to JULES parameters using commercial software from FastOpt, resulting in an analytical gradient, or adjoint, of the model. Using this adjoint, the adJULES parameter estimation system has been developed to search for locally optimum parameters by calibrating against observations. This paper describes adJULES in a data assimilation framework and demonstrates its ability to improve the model-data fit using eddy-covariance measurements of gross primary production (GPP) and latent heat (LE) fluxes. adJULES also has the ability to calibrate over multiple sites simultaneously. This feature is used to define new optimised parameter values for the five plant functional types (PFTs) in JULES. The optimised PFT-specific parameters improve the performance of JULES at over 85% of the sites used in the study, at both the calibration and evaluation stages. The new improved parameters for JULES are presented along with the associated uncertainties for each parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International assessments of evidence on climate change (e.g. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC) or national climate change risk assessments (e.g. UK Climate Change Risk Assessment, CCRA) do not offer a sufficiently granular perspective on climate impacts to adequately inform governance of resilience to climate risks at the local level. Using an analysis of UK decision-makers managing and responding to heatwaves and flood risks, this paper argues how more robust local evidence is needed to inform decision-making regarding adaptation options for enhancing local resilience. We identify evidence gaps and issues relating to local climate change impacts, including sources and quality of evidence used, adequacy and accessibility of evidence available, ill-communicated evidence and conflicting or misused evidence. A lack of appreciation regarding how scientific evidence and personal judgement can mutually enhance the quality of decision-making underpins all of these gaps. Additionally, we find that the majority of evidence currently used is reductively based upon socio-economic and physical characteristics of climate risks. We argue that a step change is needed in local climate resilience that moves beyond current physical and socio-economic risk characterisation to a more inclusive co-constitution of social and politically defined climate risks at the local scale that are better aligned with the local impacts felt and needs of stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible summary Little is known about how the prison environment may impact upon the mental health of adult prisoners., This paper highlights that prisoners perceive that the prison environment has a negative influence upon their mental health. However, a small number regarded prison as a place of respite, which afforded structure and an opportunity to access health services., There is a need for more research in this area specifically relating to the impact the prison climate may have upon those from black and minority ethic groups., Nurses must recognize the aspects of the prison environment that may impact upon the mental health of prisoners and demonstrate innovation and imagination in their application of interventions., Abstract Little is known regarding how the prison environment may affect the mental health of adult prisoners. Consequently, there is a need to investigate how this setting may exacerbate mental distress among this community. This literature review explores how the prison climate influences the mental health of adult prisoners. A thematic synthesis approach was used to elicit data relating to the aspects of the prison climate, which influence the mental health of prisoners. Four primary themes emerged from the synthesis: social, emotional, organizational and physical aspects. Prisoners perceive the prison climate to have a negative influence upon their mental health. However, perceived positively, prison was regarded as a place of respite, which afforded structure and an opportunity to access health services. There is limited research available specifically exploring the potential impact of the prison climate upon those from black and ethnic minorities groups. Nurses must recognize the aspects of the prison environment that may impact upon the mental health of prisoners and demonstrate innovation and imagination in their application of interventions. Additionally nurses need to take an active role in influencing and structuring the political agenda, which governs the clinical setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the same weather or climate simulation is run on different high-performance computing (HPC) platforms, model outputs may not be identical for a given initial condition. While the role of HPC platforms in delivering better climate projections is to some extent discussed in the literature, attention is mainly focused on scalability and performance rather than on the impact of machine-dependent processes on the numerical solution. Here we investigate the behaviour of the Preindustrial (PI) simulation prepared by the UK Met Office for the forthcoming CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6) under different computing environments. Discrepancies between the means of key climate variables were analysed at different timescales, from decadal to centennial. We found that for the two simulations to be statistically indistinguishable, a 200-year averaging period must be used for the analysis of the results. Thus, constant-forcing climate simulations using the HadGEM3-GC3.1 model are reproducible on different HPC platforms provided that a sufficiently long duration of simulation is used. In regions where El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) teleconnection patterns were detected, we found large sea surface temperature and sea ice concentration differences on centennial timescales. This indicates that a 100-year constant-forcing climate simulation may not be long enough to adequately capture the internal variability of the HadGEM3-GC3.1 model, despite this being the minimum simulation length recommended by CMIP6 protocols for many MIP (Model Intercomparison Project) experiments. On the basis of our findings, we recommend a minimum simulation length of 200 years whenever possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Analyse the impact of climate change on road transport systems. • Develop a risk prediction tool to reduce climate impact on roads. • Conduct economic analysis of various measures to reduce climate impact on roads. • Conduct an empirical study to provide useful insights for rational risk based climate adaptation. This paper aims to analyse the impacts of climate change to the current and predicted future situations of road transportation in the UK and evaluate the corresponding adaptation plans to cope with them. A conceptual framework of long-term adaptation planning for climate change in road systems is proposed to ensure the resilience and sustainability of road transport systems under various climate risks such as flooding and increased temperature. To do so, an advanced Fuzzy Bayesian Reasoning (FBR) model is first employed to evaluate the climate risks in the UK road transport networks. This modelling approach can tackle the high uncertainty in risk data and thus facilitate the development of the climate adaptation framework and its application in the UK road sector. To examine the feasibility of this model, a nationwide survey is conducted among the stakeholders to analyse the climate risks, in terms of the timeframe of climate threats, the likelihood of occurrence, the severity of consequences, and infrastructure resilience. From the modelling perspective, this work brings novelty by expanding the risk attribute "the severity of consequence" into three sub-attributes including economic loss, damage to the environment, and injuries and/or loss of life. It advances the-state-of-the-art technique in the current relevant literature from a single to multiple tier climate risk modelling structure. Secondly, an Evidential Reasoning (ER) approach is used to prioritise the best adaptation measure(s) by considering both the risk analysis results from the FBR and the implementation costs simultaneously. The main new contributions of this part lie in the rich raw data collected from the real world to provide useful practical insights for achieving road resilience when facing increasing climate risk challenges. During this process, a qualitative analysis of several national reports regarding the impacts posed by climate change, risk assessment and adaptation measures in the UK road sector is conducted for the relevant decision data (i.e. risk and cost). It is also supplemented by an in-depth interview with a senior planner from Highways England. The findings provide road planners and decision makers with useful insights on identification and prioritisation of climate threats as well as selection of cost-effective climate adaptation measures to rationalise adaptation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volunteering is a ubiquitous and distinct feature of the British retired community in Spain, and for many older migrants volunteering constitutes a significant part of their post-retirement life abroad. Especially in the management and organisation of health and age-related problems voluntary organisations have come to play a crucial role not only for the British community but also for the Spanish host society and public health-care system. Furthermore, volunteering represents a valuable sphere of activity offering personal benefits for those who are actively engaged. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a charity organisation in the province of Alicante on the northern Costa Blanca, this paper examines the extensive functions that volunteering and charitable activities can offer British older migrants. The implementation of voluntary work within the specific context of retirement migration is identified as a multi-functional individual and societal resource. Volunteering for the retirees is described as a true means of adaptation to a new life context, and as a highly reflexive strategy of risk minimisation and self-realisation. This implies individual benefits and opens up possibilities of active ageing. Finally, volunteering will be analysed as a performative expression of transmigrants' cultural bifocality, reflecting both a high level of commitment to Spain as well as a specific feature of British community spirit and traditionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This paper explores the progress of UK local authorities and the barriers they face in developing and implementing climate policy initiatives. The UK local greenhouse gas emissions statistics are reviewed and the effectiveness of a national scheme of knowledge transfer on sustainable energy development delivered by peer mentoring is evaluated. Local carbon dioxide estimates are now available in the UK and longitudinal data can be used to partly assess the progress of local authorities in implementing climate policy initiatives. However, there are currently insufficient years of reliable data for an historical analysis. The paper identifies the main barriers towards taking greater local action to reduce greenhouse gases as lack of time, lack of resources and difficulties in engaging with the wider community. It shows that the sharing of knowledge between local authorities is an effective way of encouraging stronger local action on climate change and that the effectiveness of these policies can now be monitored more closely through UK sub-national statistics data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Interest in the impacts of climate change is ever increasing. This is particularly true of the water sector where understanding potential changes in the occurrence of both floods and droughts is important for strategic planning. Climate variability has been shown to have a significant impact on UK climate and accounting for this in future climate change projections is essential to fully anticipate potential future impacts. In this paper a new resampling methodology is developed which includes the variability of both baseline and future precipitation. The resampling methodology is applied to 13 CMIP3 climate models for the 2080s, resulting in an ensemble of monthly precipitation change factors. The change factors are applied to the Eden catchment in eastern Scotland with analysis undertaken for the sensitivity of future river flows to the changes in precipitation. Climate variability is shown to influence the magnitude and direction of change of both precipitation and in turn river flow, which are not apparent without the use of the resampling methodology. The transformation of precipitation changes to river flow changes display a degree of non-linearity due to the catchment's role in buffering the response. The resampling methodology developed in this paper provides a new technique for creating climate change scenarios which incorporate the important issue of climate variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five years of UK Met Office global model analyses from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2008 have been used to generate a global hail climatology at 1° latitude by 1° longitude resolution. Hail has been diagnosed from model vertical profiles of temperature and humidity using a simple algorithm based on a paper by Fawbush and Miller (). Results have been compared with published observational climatologies on both a global and regional basis. The model diagnoses compare favourably with the observed data with both orographic and seasonal signals. However, there are differences, and possible reasons for these are discussed. These include limitations of the simple algorithm, the difficulty of observing hail in sparsely populated areas and the problem of population growth influencing the number of hail reports. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society and Crown Copyright [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Meat and milk production generally gets a bad press when it comes to discussions around climate change and food production. However, with a rising population, a balance has to be found between the environmental cost of producing and the benefits in terms of food security. Consequently, sustainable production is the byword. The beef, sheep meat, pig meat and dairy industries all have specific challenges in work to reduce their environmental impact. This paper examines some of these challenges, the research which has been undertaken into their scale, routes being exploited to improve efficiency and what gains have already been achieved. It also looks at some of the mitigating factors of dairy and livestock production that help mitigate any environmental costs and ensure we are making the most efficient use of available land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes numerical experiments using a climate--storm surge simulation system for the coast of the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on the southern North Sea and the Thames estuary in southeastern England. Time series of surges simulated in the southern North Sea by a surge model driven by atmospheric data from a regional climate model and surges simulated by the same surge model driven by atmospheric data from a global climate model are compared. A strong correspondence is demonstrated, and a linear scaling factor relating them is derived. This factor varies slowly with location. Around the Thames estuary, extreme surges are compared in the same way, and the linear scaling factor for the extremes is found to be similar to that for the full time series. The authors therefore assert that in seeking significant trends in surge at this location using this model arrangement, the regional model downscaling stage could be avoided, if observations were used to establish a suitable scaling factor for each location. The influence of the tide--surge phase relationship is investigated, and extreme sea levels at the mouth of the River Thames from regional-model-driven simulations are compared to the extreme event of 1953. Although the simulated levels are slightly lower, they are found to be comparable given the observational uncertainty. The assumption that time-mean sea level changes can be added linearly to surge changes is investigated at this location for large changes in time-mean sea level. The authors find that the primary effect of such an increase is on the speed of propagation of tide and surge, supporting the case for a simple linear addition of mean and extreme sea level changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides case study analysis of the workplace experiences of British scientists working in the field of climatology. In the context of the restructuring of work organisation brought about by the interplay between the commercialisation of science and state modernisation policies, the paper provides evidence of a deterioration in scientists' quality of working life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In 1986, the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO) developed and published an eleven point Hailstorm Intensity Scale and this has been used to characterise more than 2500 hailstorms known to have occurred in Britain and Ireland since the first documented hailstorm event of 1141 AD; this scale has recently (2005) been revised with additional parameters. Most analyses relate to Great Britain, but reference is made to the more extreme recorded events in Ireland. The most intense hailstorm in these Islands reached intensity H8 on the TORRO international scale which extends from intensities H0 to H10. For the 75 years 1930 to 2004 this paper examines significant, damaging (H2 or more intensity) storms in respect of seasonal frequency and geographical distribution. This paper also discusses the climatology (including diurnal incidence) of the less common, but potentially devastating storms of H5 intensity or more, using the much longer period 1800 to 2004 and with particular attention to hail swath lengths and widths. The synoptic origins for these major events, where known, are discussed, with particular reference to Lamb''s classification of weather types across the British Isles from 1861 onwards. More than 2500 British and Irish hailstorms are recorded in TORRO''s database of which over 1300 are of hailstorm intensity H2 or more, including 156 British storms since 1800 that reached intensity H4–5 or more on the TORRO H scale. The geographical distribution of hailstorms in the British Isles shows that the highest frequency of significant, damaging storms (H2 or more intensity with hailstones usually over 15 mm diameter) is in central and eastern England, with the East Midlands, East Anglia and the lower Thames Valley most conspicuous when the incidences are mapped. Since 1870 the severest (H5 intensity or greater) events have been predominantly associated with cyclonic, southerly or south-easterly weather types; however a significant minority (19%) occurred with an anticyclonic element in the classification. For storms of this severity (e.g. with potential for severe structural damage, pitting of aircraft bodywork and even the risk of serious injuries), reporting will have been more consistent over a longer period. These destructive storms, (the most recent “cluster” of which was between 1992 and 1997) have typically followed a track from the S, SSW or SW to the N, NNE or NE with a swath length often 25 km or more (reaching 335 km in one case) and a swath width sometimes in excess of 10 km. Analysis of the database since 1800 indicates a very conspicuous July maximum for these more extreme (H5 intensity plus) events. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The first part of this paper demonstrated the existence of bias in GCM-derived precipitation series, downscaled using either a statistical technique (here the Statistical Downscaling Model) or dynamical method (here high resolution Regional Climate Model HadRM3) propagating to river flow estimated by a lumped hydrological model. This paper uses the same models and methods for a future time horizon (2080s) and analyses how significant these projected changes are compared to baseline natural variability in four British catchments. The UKCIP02 scenarios, which are widely used in the UK for climate change impact, are also considered. Results show that GCMs are the largest source of uncertainty in future flows. Uncertainties from downscaling techniques and emission scenarios are of similar magnitude, and generally smaller than GCM uncertainty. For catchments where hydrological modelling uncertainty is smaller than GCM variability for baseline flow, this uncertainty can be ignored for future projections, but might be significant otherwise. Predicted changes are not always significant compared to baseline variability, less than 50% of projections suggesting a significant change in monthly flow. Insignificant changes could occur due to climate variability alone and thus cannot be attributed to climate change, but are often ignored in climate change studies and could lead to misleading conclusions. Existing systematic bias in reproducing current climate does impact future projections and must, therefore, be considered when interpreting results. Changes in river flow variability, important for water management planning, can be easily assessed from simple resampling techniques applied to both baseline and future time horizons. Assessing future climate and its potential implication for river flows is a key challenge facing water resource planners. This two-part paper demonstrates that uncertainty due to hydrological and climate modelling must and can be accounted for to provide sound, scientifically-based advice to decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we compare the Central England Temperature (CET) and England and Wales Precipitation (EWP) series with temperature and precipitation records from 24 individual meteorological stations throughout the UK over a 41-year period 1964-2004. With a single exception, the correlation of CET monthly means with those of all local stations was highly significant ( p < 0.001). Correlations with EWP were not as large, but for the most part were highly significant; exceptions occurring increasingly in the most northerly stations. Because of their general availability, the CET and EWP series will continue to be popular, and their use in a range of broad studies of UK climate appears to be justified. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the skepticism in climate. This paper features the report of Sir Nicholas Stern to the United Kingdom's Chancellor of the Exchequer and to the Prime Minister. The report is based on a lecture entitled "What is the Economics of Climate Change," which was part of a lecture series. It discusses the skeptisms about the climate change as pointed by Stern and his team. The scientific aspects are reviewed as well as the uncertainties. The debates are briefly featured in this paper.

Considerable attention has been given to the impact of climate change on avian populations over the last decade. In this paper we examine two issues with respect to coastal bird populations in the UK: (1) is there any evidence that current populations are declining due to climate change, and (2) how might we predict the response of populations in the future? We review the cause of population decline in two species associated with saltmarsh habitats. The abundance of Common RedshankTringa totanusbreeding on saltmarsh declined by about 23% between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, but the decline appears to have been caused by an increase in grazing pressure. The number of TwiteCarduelis flavirostriswintering on the coast of East Anglia has declined dramatically over recent decades; there is evidence linking this decline with habitat loss but a causal role for climate change is unclear. These examples illustrate that climate change could be having population-level impacts now, but also show that it is dangerous to become too narrowly focused on single issues affecting coastal birds. Making predictions about how populations might respond to future climate change depends on an adequate understanding of important ecological processes at an appropriate spatial scale. We illustrate this with recent work conducted on the Icelandic population of Black-tailed GodwitsLimosa limosa islandicathat shows large-scale regulatory processes. Most predictive models to date have focused on local populations (single estuary or a group of neighbouring estuaries). We discuss the role such models might play in risk assessment, and the need for them to be linked to larger-scale ecological processes. We argue that future work needs to focus on spatial scale issues and on linking physical models of coastal environments with important ecological processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A modelling framework for studying the combined effects of climate and land-cover changes on the distribution of species is presented. The model integrates land-cover data into a correlative bioclimatic model in a scale-dependent hierarchical manner, whereby Artificial Neural Networks are used to characterise species’ climatic requirements at the European scale and land-cover requirements at the British scale. The model has been tested against an alternative non-hierarchical approach and has been applied to four plant species in Britain: Rhynchospora alba, Erica tetralix, Salix herbacea and Geranium sylvaticum. Predictive performance has been evaluated using Cohen's Kappa statistic and the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve, and a novel approach to identifying thresholds of occurrence which utilises three levels of confidence has been applied. Results demonstrate reasonable to good predictive performance for each species, with the main patterns of distribution simulated at both 10 km and 1 km resolutions. The incorporation of land-cover data was found to significantly improve purely climate-driven predictions for R. alba and E. tetralix, enabling regions with suitable climate but unsuitable land-cover to be identified. The study thus provides an insight into the roles of climate and land-cover as determinants of species’ distributions and it is demonstrated that the modelling approach presented can provide a useful framework for making predictions of distributions under scenarios of changing climate and land-cover type. The paper confirms the potential utility of multi-scale approaches for understanding environmental limitations to species’ distributions, and demonstrates that the search for environmental correlates with species’ distributions must be addressed at an appropriate spatial scale. Our study contributes to the mounting evidence that hierarchical schemes are characteristic of ecological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]