This week energy-met group has a special seminar 4-5pm Thursday 25th February. This will be lead by Matt Deakin and David Greenwood from Newcastle University who work as part of the SUPERGEN Energy Network Hub. They will be talking about: 

Weather and Electrification of Heat – Impacts on Generation Capacity Adequacy

This work considers the impacts of the installation of one million domestic heat pumps on the evolution of GB peak electrical demand, particularly in the medium term (up to four years in the future, corresponding to capacity market auction timelines). Gas demand is used as a proxy for space heating demand, and weather variables known to impact on both gas and electrical systems are combined to develop a net demand hindcast based on 30 years of reanalysis data. Four years of heating demand growth increases sensitivity of demand to poor meteorological conditions by 50%; increased Bias and Variability of capacity targets could result in £100m overprocurement in ten years. Ongoing work to extend the method to consider a highly interconnected Northwest European Supergrid, whilst accounting for climate change, will also be discussed.

Please join the seminar via Microsoft Teams :

Click here to join the meeting

Or call in (audio only)

+44 20 3443 6294

Phone Conference ID: 249 893 638#

This virtual debate will be held on Tuesday 16th March 2021, 16.00 – 17.00.

While the Covid-19 pandemic is unresolved it is essential that we do not overlook the far greater existential threats of climate change and ecological breakdown. As Paul Crutzen, the Nobel Prize winning atmospheric chemist, has warned, we are in a new epoch, the Anthropocene, in which humans’ impact on the earth rivals that of nature.

Dieter Helm has proposed responses to both these existential threats in two recent books:

In Green and Prosperous Land: A Blueprint for Rescuing the British Countryside he details the policy changes needed to manage the UK’s natural resources in a way that will allow us to pass on a better environment to future generations and for us to stop depleting natural capital without, at least, recognising the value of what is being lost.

In Net Zero – How We Stop Causing Climate Change (2020) Helm reminds us that, to our shame, we have largely wasted the last 30 years. He investigates the issues of a net zero economy and approach to agriculture, transport and electricity and proposes a ‘no regrets plan’ with a focus on two key issues – a carbon tax and the principle that the polluter should pay.

This discussion will address the issue of what such a ‘no regrets plan’ should deliver and the responsibility for implementing it, from politicians, with their hesitancy over enacting the necessary policies, to the public, with their unwillingness to accept change. What are the barriers to achieving positive outcomes and how do we overcome them?

The session will pose three questions for the speakers and the Edge audience:

1. What are the policies required and how can we influence them?
2. How can we ensure that policies, once enacted, achieve their aims?
3. How do we ensure that the pace of change is sufficient?

Introduction: Robin Nicholson, CBE, the Edge

Speakers:

Sir Dieter Helm, CBE, Professor of Economic Policy, University of Oxford and Chair of the Natural Capital Committee 2012-20
Dame Fiona Reynolds, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and Chair of the National Audit Office
Shaun Spiers, Executive Tuesday 16th March 2021, 16.00 – 17.00Director, Green Alliance

To attend please register at: https://edge114-climate-ecological-emergency.eventbrite.co.uk

Further information on the debate and more about the Edge can be found here: https://edgedebate.com/edge-events/edge-conversations-114-the-climate-and-ecological-emergency-16th-march-2021

 

As our Energy system goes through an unprecedented transforamtion, we’re hosting a series of events that showcases the projects and innovation that are making it happen, and that are powering us ahead to net zero carbon emissions.

Domestic flexibility is a huge and largely untapped resource for Britain’s decarbonisation efforts. As more homes get fully integrated with smart technologies that enable domestic demand side response, we’re exploring what barriers needs to be broken and what policy framework is needed help achieve smarter, more efficient and lower carbon homes.

The session will open with a presentation from ENA and an opening keynote from Chi Onwurah MP, before we’re joined by a panel of experts.

This event will take place on Wednesday 10th February 13:00 – 14:30.

For more details and to register please click this link.

Our second TAPAS lunchtime seminar is with SANI DIMITROULOPOULOU from Public Health England.

Sani will report on a range of PHE school projects including a literature review relating to air quality in outdoor school environments, a mapping of PM2.5 concentrations and inequality analysis and the development of a tool to assess the cumulative risks from indoor air pollutants in public settings for children, with the World Health Organisation.

The Seminar will run from 12:30-13:30 (GMT) on Thursday February 11 2021.

The same link can be used to join all seminars (https://maths-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/93099829011?pwd=WkREQUhQYmhpbEo5R3h0Tnowalc3Zz09).

Future seminar speakers are as follows:

Feb 18th – Prashant Kumar, Surrey, schools work at the Global Centre for Clean Air Research

Feb 25th – Sophie Laggan & Colleagues, UWE, citizen science approaches to sustainability work in schools

March 4th – Matt Croucher, WSP, the London Mayor’s schools and nurseries programmes

March 11th – Douglas Booker, NAQTS, prelim results from a study monitoring indoor air quality in 20 schools around the country for five months

This virtual event will be hosted on the 25th February 2021 from 14:00—17:00.

This joint webinar, organised by the IEA’s Digital Demand-Driven Electricity Networks (3DEN) Initiative, with the generous support of the Italian Ministry for the Environment, and the CEM’s Power System Flexibility Campaign, will compare the approaches taken in the development of emerging digitalisation strategies around the world and discuss key principles and practices for countries currently shaping their own.

To find out more and register please click this link.

This talk is hosted by the Oxford Martin Programme on Post-Carbon Transition on Friday 5th February 2021 at 12:30.

In December 2020 the UK Climate Change Committee published the Sixth Carbon Budget report, which provides ministers with advice on the volume of greenhouse gases the UK can emit during the period 2033-2037. This report is based on an extensive programme of analysis, consultation and consideration by the CCC and its staff, building on the evidence published the previous year when advising on a new ‘Net Zero’ target for the UK. 

Chris Stark, Chief Executive of the UK Committee on Climate Change, will provide an overview of the CCC’s advice in this landmark report, which sets out for the first time a detailed pathway to achieving Net Zero in the UK by 2050 including the first ever detailed assessment of the changes that will result – and the key milestones that must be met.

Please register here.

 

Please Join Webinar Online @ CWTS, Leiden University on 5th February 2021, 14:00-16:45 CET (8.00-10:45 EST)

https://www.cwts.nl/events

Numbers are at the core of the nexus between technoscience, society and the new media. The potential of numbers to inflict harm is on par or superior to those of any other technologies, when we consider both visible and invisible numbers, e.g. the use of artificial intelligence and big data algorithms. And yet, numbers are so deeply entrenched in our existence that we barely reflect on them critically any more.

Following the publication of the Nature commentary last June on ‘Five ways to ensure that models serve society’, which was focused on modelling, we propose a broader discussion on the ethics and politics of quantification. How can we develop frameworks for observation, critique and improvement of the social uses of quantification? (See WP: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2021/jan/why-ethics-quantification-needed-now)

Programme

Chair: Ismael Rafols (CWTS, Leiden Univ.)

14:00 Presentations

Andrea Saltelli (Open Evidence, Open Univ. Catalonia (UOC)):

Do we need an ethics of quantification?

Wendy Espeland (Dept. Sociology, Northwestern Univ.):

Why numbers that make up people and mediate their interests require an ethics

Andy Stirling (SPRU, Univ. Sussex):

From ethics of quantities to politics of qualities: mitigating power-driven closures

15:30 Break

15:45 Discussion

Comments to presentations followed by open discussion.

Discussants:

Gaby Umbach (Global Stat, European Univ. Institute)

Sarah De Rijcke (CWTS, Leiden Univ.)

Niels Mejlgaard (Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy, Aarhus Univ.)

Wolfgang Drechsler (Nurkse Dept. Innov. & Gov., Tallin Tech, & IPP, UCL)

16:45 Closing