A recent study carried out by CREDS researchers at the University of Leeds has found that: • Elec... more A recent study carried out by CREDS researchers at the University of Leeds has found that: • Electrically-assisted bicycles (e-bikes), if used to replace car travel, have the capability to cut car carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in England by up to 50% (about 30 million tonnes per year). • The greatest opportunities are in rural and sub-urban settings: city dwellers already have many low-carbon travel options, so the greatest impact would be on encouraging use outside urban areas. • There is scope for e-bikes to help people who are most affected by rising transport costs
The sustainability of new housing developments in the UK is assessed considering not just absolut... more The sustainability of new housing developments in the UK is assessed considering not just absolute levels of energy use, but by benchmarking consumption against existing areas with similar characteristics, both social (socio-economic/demographic) and physical (housing type/level of urbanisation/accessibility). Recent UK government datasets provide annual information from over 28 million household electricity meters, 23 million gas meters and 30 million vehicle odometers. The use of vehicle odometer readings and vehicle characteristics from annual vehicle safety inspection tests allows energy consumption from private motor vehicles to be assessed alongside domestic gas and electricity consumption, in order to develop a holistic assessment of household direct energy consumption (see Chatterton et al., 2015; Chatterton et al., 2016). This work uses year-to-year changes in the number of electricity meters to identify areas with new housing developments. Using data from the UK Census, energy consumption in these areas is benchmarked against similar areas to assess whether new housing appears to meet policy aspirations towards energy reduction. After categorising different types of areas, an assessment is then made of the extent to which social and structural variations appear to drive differences in energy consumption. Chatterton, et al. (2016) Mapping household direct energy consumption in the United Kingdom to provide a new perspective on energy justice. Energy Research & Social Science, (18) p71-87 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2016.04.013 Chatterton, et al. (2015) Use of a novel dataset to explore spatial and social variations in car type, size, usage and emissions. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, (39) p151-164 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2015.06.003
2016 marks 60 years since the first UK Clean Air Act. This presentation considers the factors con... more 2016 marks 60 years since the first UK Clean Air Act. This presentation considers the factors contributing to successful management of air quality and the factors that act as barriers to progress. The public health catastrophe of the 1952 London Smog created the political momentum for the 1956 Act to be passed. The presentation reviews the progress in meeting the air pollution challenge and comments on the weakness of the governmental and societal response to the national and global public health challenge.
Between April and June 2011, members of this project team undertook a scoping study (research gra... more Between April and June 2011, members of this project team undertook a scoping study (research grant EP/J004758/1) to investigate potential uses of the data in relation to transport, energy and climate change, and to develop techniques for manipulating and analysing the data (see Cairns et al, 2014). This led to the award of the current EPSRC project (EP/K000438/1), which began in October 2012, and will run to the end of 2016. This project is formally supported by the UK Department for Transport (DfT) and the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). It is led by the University of Leeds, and involves the Transport Research Laboratory, University of the West of England, University of Bristol, UCL and, initially, the University of Aberdeen (www.MOTproject.net).
This paper will describe a new approach to source apportionment of transport emissions that moves... more This paper will describe a new approach to source apportionment of transport emissions that moves away from traditional approaches which have allocated emissions to point of use, or by journey purpose. Instead, emissions will be attributed spatially to the people responsible for cars that cause the emissions, highlighting how both structural features (such as poor accessibility) or lifestyle choices (such as a preference for large vehicles) impact on air pollution. In 2010, the UK Department for Transport began making available data from the motor vehicle test (MOT) database. This data provides information on vehicles under 3.5 tonnes, including: make, model, engine size, fuel type and a date and odometer reading for when the test was undertaken. From these last two, it is possible to estimate an annual mileage for nearly every motor vehicle in Great Britain. Using this data it is possible to create both an emissions profile for each individual vehicle, and subsequently an estimate of the total emissions over a year. This data is then linked with a privileged-access dataset from the UK Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to allow privately owned vehicles to be separated from commercial vehicles, and then to link vehicles to the location of the registered keeper via small area census geographies (~700 households, ~1600 people). Using this data, we undertake an analysis of variations in responsibility for motor vehicle emissions both spatially, in terms of geographic spread and level of urbanisation, and socially, through income data and social profiles, created by the UK Office for National Statistics, for each area.
An critical introduction to 'classical' theories of behaviour, including their historical... more An critical introduction to 'classical' theories of behaviour, including their historical context - including Theory of Planned Behaviour, Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Interpersonal Bhaviour
In 2003, Mitchell and Dorling undertook the first national level environmental justice analysis o... more In 2003, Mitchell and Dorling undertook the first national level environmental justice analysis of air quality in Britain and established that there were clear inequalities in exposure to air pollution based on demography, poverty and car ownership. This paper updates and improves on their work looking at relationships between emissions and exposure a decade later. Using 2011 pollution data (NO 2 concentrations and NOx emissions from road transport) in combination with socioeconomic and demographic data from the UK Census, we present analyses of patterns of exposure at the level of small area census units. Then, using an enhanced version of the UK Department for Transport's annual vehicle safety inspection records, we spatially attribute the annual NOx emissions for private motor vehicles to the location of each vehicle's registered keeper. From this, it is possible to identify who are the highest emitters of traffic related pollution and to explore the relationships between responsibility for causing emissions and exposure to pollution. The research focuses on England and Wales and finds that despite a decade of efforts to reduce air pollution, significant inequalities still characterise exposure. Young children and adults, and households in poverty are much more likely to suffer from the effects of traffic than older people and more affluent households. Furthermore, it is these more affluent households that contribute most to traffic pollution through owning the most vehicles and generating the highest emissions.
Air pollution is a significant global issue. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declare... more Air pollution is a significant global issue. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared air pollution to be the world's largest single environmental health risk, with ambient air pollution causing 3.7 million deaths annually (WHO, 2014). The World Bank has also reported air pollution to be the fourth leading risk factor for premature deaths worldwide, resulting in 1 in 10 total deaths in 2013, at a cost to the global economy of about US$225 billion in lost labour income (World Bank and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2016). In urban areas, particularly in developed countries, road traffic is often the major contributor to local ambient air pollution and is largely responsible for elevated concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2), among other pollutants. Exceedences of the Ambient Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) (AAQD) annual mean limit value for NO 2 , derived from WHO health-based thresholds, are widespread across much of the UK (and Europe). In 2010, when the annual mean limit value for NO 2 was to be achieved (and five years after the UK's own parallel domestic NO 2 objectives should have been met), the UK was in breach of regulations in 40 (93%) of its 43 designated zones and agglomerations. The UK Government Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which is responsible for compliance reporting against the AAQD to the European Commission, applied for a Time Extension Notification (TEN) of five years for 24 of its exceeding zones and agglomerations in September 2011, leaving the remaining 16 areas of exceedence in breach of the AAQD, resulting in infraction proceedings launched by the European Commission against the UK government in February 2014. It is the European Commission's legal action against the UK government for its failure to achieve the annual mean limit value for NO 2 by 1st January 2010 st January 2010 as set in the AAQD, and the potential that this poses for the imposition of substantial fines by the European Court of Justice (CJEU) that set the policy context for the paper. Within this context, in the same year that the government applied for the TEN, the UK Localism Act 2011 (Part 2) introduced a legal framework enabling fines imposed on national government by the EU to be passed down to local government. On receipt of the
Transportation Research Part D-transport and Environment, Aug 1, 2019
This paper presents unique spatial analyses identifying substantial discrepancies in traffic-rela... more This paper presents unique spatial analyses identifying substantial discrepancies in traffic-related emissions generation and exposure by socioeconomic and demographic groups. It demonstrates a compelling environmental and social injustice narrative with strong policy implications for the UK and beyond. In the first instance, this research presents a decadal update for England and Wales to Mitchell and Dorling's 2003 analysis of environmental justice in the UK. Using 2011 UK Government pollution and emissions data with 2011 UK Census socioeconomic and demographic data based on small area census geographies, this paper demonstrates a stronger relationship between age, poverty, road NO x emissions and exposure to NO 2 concentrations. Areas with the highest proportions of under-fives and young adults, and poorer households, have the highest concentrations of traffic-related pollution. In addition, exclusive access to UK annual vehicle safety inspection records ('MOT' tests) allowed annual private vehicle NO x emissions to be spatially attributed to registered keepers. Areal analysis against Census-based socioeconomic characteristics identified that households in the poorest areas emit the least NO x and PM, whilst the least poor areas emitted the highest, per km, vehicle emissions per household through having higher vehicle ownership, owning more diesel vehicles and driving further. In conclusion, the analysis indicates that, despite more than a decade of air quality policy, environmental injustice of air pollution exposure has worsened. New evidence regarding the responsibility for generation of road traffic emissions provides a clear focus for policy development and targeted implementation.
One of the key reasons why efforts to improve air quality have not been more successful across Eu... more One of the key reasons why efforts to improve air quality have not been more successful across Europe has been the failure to elicit more political support at both national and local levels. This can be seen as being due, in no small part, to a failure to capture sufficient public engagement to create the democratic mandate for significant action on air pollution. This has happened for a number of reasons. Partially, the ‗successful‘ development of legislation through the Air Quality Framework and Daughter Directives and subsequent EU and national policies, has led to a set of numeric ―g/m3‖ limit and target values that, whilst based on health evidence. In turn this has led to approaches to AQM based on abstract numbers, rather than realworld impacts. A second reason may lie in the absence of ‗people‘ in models and scenarios used to estimate and predict air pollution concentrations. For example, these models represent the flows of cars along roads, and it requires a great leap of imagination to link these to the reasons for actual journeys that people make. The modelling of emission sources, not the human activity that results in them, leads to a bias in policy that focuses on mitigating emissions through technological change, not through human behaviour, and a reliance on technological innovation not social innovation.
The transport sector represents roughly 18% of the CO 2 emissions in the EU and is the only secto... more The transport sector represents roughly 18% of the CO 2 emissions in the EU and is the only sector that has continued to increase emissions. As most people live and work in cities in the EU, it is important to identify the leaders and laggards with regard to efforts to decrease CO 2 emissions from transport. Further, to help support change, identification of correlations between transport emissions and other policy levels would be beneficial. Yet,until recently, there was no city-level results available related to emissions across the EU. Now, the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) inventory of diffuse sources allows for analysis of a range of atmospheric emissions at a 5 km resolution. However, before applying this data to inform practitioners and policymakers, validation of the data would be required by having it compared to the CO 2 emissions estimated by an alternative methodology. The UK government maintains a higher (1 km) resolution emissions inventory based on a ‗bottom-up' methodology. The UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) has been used to assess the reliability of the new E-PRTR data. This paper first confirms the reliability of the E-PRTR data at city scales, and then gives examples of ranking and finally associations with other indicators in both transport and other policy areas.
Globally, poor air quality is the most significant environmental health concern. Across Europe, 4... more Globally, poor air quality is the most significant environmental health concern. Across Europe, 400,000 deaths were attributed to air pollution in 2012, whilst in the UK over 50,000 deaths per year are due to a combination of gaseous and particulate matter air pollution. The deadline for achieving the EU limit value for NO 2 was the 1st of January 2010, yet the UK remains non-compliant in 38 of 43 zones and agglomerations. As a consequence, in April 2015, the government was ordered by the UK Supreme Court to draw up new air quality plans to achieve the EU limit values in the shortest time possible. In response the UK government consulted on a draft national air quality plan, which estimated compliance with the EU Air Quality Directive by 2020 in all zones and agglomerations except London (compliance by 2025). The plan introduces the concept of a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) to address the non-compliant zones but overall has significant weaknesses in many zones and agglomerations and compliance by 2020 (and 2025 in London) is considered to be overly optimistic. The plan's predictive models use vehicle emission factors that are not considered representative of actual driving conditions, and transparency in the data underlying vehicle fleet turnover calculations is lacking. The suitability of CAZ as a cornerstone of the plan is of particular concern. This contribution examines new evidence that challenges the robustness of the UK government's air quality plan. If air quality within the UK is to improve within the shortest time possible, significant improvements in the analysis and proposed solutions will be required.
In the European project ClairCity (www.claircity.eu), we apply a societal approach to behaviour c... more In the European project ClairCity (www.claircity.eu), we apply a societal approach to behaviour change towards reducing air pollution and carbon emissions in cities. The project is engaging with citizens and policymakers from six European cities/regions. Several public engagement strategies are being employed, including crowdsourcing issues and solutions in each city, an interactive policy game, a mobile app for businesses, schools competitions and workshops for action. The project doesn’t aim to change individual behaviour in its lifetime, but is instead aiming to influence city development in order to ensure that low emission patterns of behaviour are encouraged, enabled and supported sufficiently for them to become new normals. Policy packages will be generated for each city that will reflect how changes can be made to the social and structural organisation of the city to ensure that low emission options can become embedded in citizens’ everyday lives. This presentation shows the process and challenges in this approach, so that others can learn from the project developments.
A recent study carried out by CREDS researchers at the University of Leeds has found that: • Elec... more A recent study carried out by CREDS researchers at the University of Leeds has found that: • Electrically-assisted bicycles (e-bikes), if used to replace car travel, have the capability to cut car carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in England by up to 50% (about 30 million tonnes per year). • The greatest opportunities are in rural and sub-urban settings: city dwellers already have many low-carbon travel options, so the greatest impact would be on encouraging use outside urban areas. • There is scope for e-bikes to help people who are most affected by rising transport costs
The sustainability of new housing developments in the UK is assessed considering not just absolut... more The sustainability of new housing developments in the UK is assessed considering not just absolute levels of energy use, but by benchmarking consumption against existing areas with similar characteristics, both social (socio-economic/demographic) and physical (housing type/level of urbanisation/accessibility). Recent UK government datasets provide annual information from over 28 million household electricity meters, 23 million gas meters and 30 million vehicle odometers. The use of vehicle odometer readings and vehicle characteristics from annual vehicle safety inspection tests allows energy consumption from private motor vehicles to be assessed alongside domestic gas and electricity consumption, in order to develop a holistic assessment of household direct energy consumption (see Chatterton et al., 2015; Chatterton et al., 2016). This work uses year-to-year changes in the number of electricity meters to identify areas with new housing developments. Using data from the UK Census, energy consumption in these areas is benchmarked against similar areas to assess whether new housing appears to meet policy aspirations towards energy reduction. After categorising different types of areas, an assessment is then made of the extent to which social and structural variations appear to drive differences in energy consumption. Chatterton, et al. (2016) Mapping household direct energy consumption in the United Kingdom to provide a new perspective on energy justice. Energy Research & Social Science, (18) p71-87 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2016.04.013 Chatterton, et al. (2015) Use of a novel dataset to explore spatial and social variations in car type, size, usage and emissions. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, (39) p151-164 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2015.06.003
2016 marks 60 years since the first UK Clean Air Act. This presentation considers the factors con... more 2016 marks 60 years since the first UK Clean Air Act. This presentation considers the factors contributing to successful management of air quality and the factors that act as barriers to progress. The public health catastrophe of the 1952 London Smog created the political momentum for the 1956 Act to be passed. The presentation reviews the progress in meeting the air pollution challenge and comments on the weakness of the governmental and societal response to the national and global public health challenge.
Between April and June 2011, members of this project team undertook a scoping study (research gra... more Between April and June 2011, members of this project team undertook a scoping study (research grant EP/J004758/1) to investigate potential uses of the data in relation to transport, energy and climate change, and to develop techniques for manipulating and analysing the data (see Cairns et al, 2014). This led to the award of the current EPSRC project (EP/K000438/1), which began in October 2012, and will run to the end of 2016. This project is formally supported by the UK Department for Transport (DfT) and the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). It is led by the University of Leeds, and involves the Transport Research Laboratory, University of the West of England, University of Bristol, UCL and, initially, the University of Aberdeen (www.MOTproject.net).
This paper will describe a new approach to source apportionment of transport emissions that moves... more This paper will describe a new approach to source apportionment of transport emissions that moves away from traditional approaches which have allocated emissions to point of use, or by journey purpose. Instead, emissions will be attributed spatially to the people responsible for cars that cause the emissions, highlighting how both structural features (such as poor accessibility) or lifestyle choices (such as a preference for large vehicles) impact on air pollution. In 2010, the UK Department for Transport began making available data from the motor vehicle test (MOT) database. This data provides information on vehicles under 3.5 tonnes, including: make, model, engine size, fuel type and a date and odometer reading for when the test was undertaken. From these last two, it is possible to estimate an annual mileage for nearly every motor vehicle in Great Britain. Using this data it is possible to create both an emissions profile for each individual vehicle, and subsequently an estimate of the total emissions over a year. This data is then linked with a privileged-access dataset from the UK Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to allow privately owned vehicles to be separated from commercial vehicles, and then to link vehicles to the location of the registered keeper via small area census geographies (~700 households, ~1600 people). Using this data, we undertake an analysis of variations in responsibility for motor vehicle emissions both spatially, in terms of geographic spread and level of urbanisation, and socially, through income data and social profiles, created by the UK Office for National Statistics, for each area.
An critical introduction to 'classical' theories of behaviour, including their historical... more An critical introduction to 'classical' theories of behaviour, including their historical context - including Theory of Planned Behaviour, Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Interpersonal Bhaviour
In 2003, Mitchell and Dorling undertook the first national level environmental justice analysis o... more In 2003, Mitchell and Dorling undertook the first national level environmental justice analysis of air quality in Britain and established that there were clear inequalities in exposure to air pollution based on demography, poverty and car ownership. This paper updates and improves on their work looking at relationships between emissions and exposure a decade later. Using 2011 pollution data (NO 2 concentrations and NOx emissions from road transport) in combination with socioeconomic and demographic data from the UK Census, we present analyses of patterns of exposure at the level of small area census units. Then, using an enhanced version of the UK Department for Transport's annual vehicle safety inspection records, we spatially attribute the annual NOx emissions for private motor vehicles to the location of each vehicle's registered keeper. From this, it is possible to identify who are the highest emitters of traffic related pollution and to explore the relationships between responsibility for causing emissions and exposure to pollution. The research focuses on England and Wales and finds that despite a decade of efforts to reduce air pollution, significant inequalities still characterise exposure. Young children and adults, and households in poverty are much more likely to suffer from the effects of traffic than older people and more affluent households. Furthermore, it is these more affluent households that contribute most to traffic pollution through owning the most vehicles and generating the highest emissions.
Air pollution is a significant global issue. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declare... more Air pollution is a significant global issue. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared air pollution to be the world's largest single environmental health risk, with ambient air pollution causing 3.7 million deaths annually (WHO, 2014). The World Bank has also reported air pollution to be the fourth leading risk factor for premature deaths worldwide, resulting in 1 in 10 total deaths in 2013, at a cost to the global economy of about US$225 billion in lost labour income (World Bank and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2016). In urban areas, particularly in developed countries, road traffic is often the major contributor to local ambient air pollution and is largely responsible for elevated concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2), among other pollutants. Exceedences of the Ambient Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) (AAQD) annual mean limit value for NO 2 , derived from WHO health-based thresholds, are widespread across much of the UK (and Europe). In 2010, when the annual mean limit value for NO 2 was to be achieved (and five years after the UK's own parallel domestic NO 2 objectives should have been met), the UK was in breach of regulations in 40 (93%) of its 43 designated zones and agglomerations. The UK Government Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which is responsible for compliance reporting against the AAQD to the European Commission, applied for a Time Extension Notification (TEN) of five years for 24 of its exceeding zones and agglomerations in September 2011, leaving the remaining 16 areas of exceedence in breach of the AAQD, resulting in infraction proceedings launched by the European Commission against the UK government in February 2014. It is the European Commission's legal action against the UK government for its failure to achieve the annual mean limit value for NO 2 by 1st January 2010 st January 2010 as set in the AAQD, and the potential that this poses for the imposition of substantial fines by the European Court of Justice (CJEU) that set the policy context for the paper. Within this context, in the same year that the government applied for the TEN, the UK Localism Act 2011 (Part 2) introduced a legal framework enabling fines imposed on national government by the EU to be passed down to local government. On receipt of the
Transportation Research Part D-transport and Environment, Aug 1, 2019
This paper presents unique spatial analyses identifying substantial discrepancies in traffic-rela... more This paper presents unique spatial analyses identifying substantial discrepancies in traffic-related emissions generation and exposure by socioeconomic and demographic groups. It demonstrates a compelling environmental and social injustice narrative with strong policy implications for the UK and beyond. In the first instance, this research presents a decadal update for England and Wales to Mitchell and Dorling's 2003 analysis of environmental justice in the UK. Using 2011 UK Government pollution and emissions data with 2011 UK Census socioeconomic and demographic data based on small area census geographies, this paper demonstrates a stronger relationship between age, poverty, road NO x emissions and exposure to NO 2 concentrations. Areas with the highest proportions of under-fives and young adults, and poorer households, have the highest concentrations of traffic-related pollution. In addition, exclusive access to UK annual vehicle safety inspection records ('MOT' tests) allowed annual private vehicle NO x emissions to be spatially attributed to registered keepers. Areal analysis against Census-based socioeconomic characteristics identified that households in the poorest areas emit the least NO x and PM, whilst the least poor areas emitted the highest, per km, vehicle emissions per household through having higher vehicle ownership, owning more diesel vehicles and driving further. In conclusion, the analysis indicates that, despite more than a decade of air quality policy, environmental injustice of air pollution exposure has worsened. New evidence regarding the responsibility for generation of road traffic emissions provides a clear focus for policy development and targeted implementation.
One of the key reasons why efforts to improve air quality have not been more successful across Eu... more One of the key reasons why efforts to improve air quality have not been more successful across Europe has been the failure to elicit more political support at both national and local levels. This can be seen as being due, in no small part, to a failure to capture sufficient public engagement to create the democratic mandate for significant action on air pollution. This has happened for a number of reasons. Partially, the ‗successful‘ development of legislation through the Air Quality Framework and Daughter Directives and subsequent EU and national policies, has led to a set of numeric ―g/m3‖ limit and target values that, whilst based on health evidence. In turn this has led to approaches to AQM based on abstract numbers, rather than realworld impacts. A second reason may lie in the absence of ‗people‘ in models and scenarios used to estimate and predict air pollution concentrations. For example, these models represent the flows of cars along roads, and it requires a great leap of imagination to link these to the reasons for actual journeys that people make. The modelling of emission sources, not the human activity that results in them, leads to a bias in policy that focuses on mitigating emissions through technological change, not through human behaviour, and a reliance on technological innovation not social innovation.
The transport sector represents roughly 18% of the CO 2 emissions in the EU and is the only secto... more The transport sector represents roughly 18% of the CO 2 emissions in the EU and is the only sector that has continued to increase emissions. As most people live and work in cities in the EU, it is important to identify the leaders and laggards with regard to efforts to decrease CO 2 emissions from transport. Further, to help support change, identification of correlations between transport emissions and other policy levels would be beneficial. Yet,until recently, there was no city-level results available related to emissions across the EU. Now, the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) inventory of diffuse sources allows for analysis of a range of atmospheric emissions at a 5 km resolution. However, before applying this data to inform practitioners and policymakers, validation of the data would be required by having it compared to the CO 2 emissions estimated by an alternative methodology. The UK government maintains a higher (1 km) resolution emissions inventory based on a ‗bottom-up' methodology. The UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) has been used to assess the reliability of the new E-PRTR data. This paper first confirms the reliability of the E-PRTR data at city scales, and then gives examples of ranking and finally associations with other indicators in both transport and other policy areas.
Globally, poor air quality is the most significant environmental health concern. Across Europe, 4... more Globally, poor air quality is the most significant environmental health concern. Across Europe, 400,000 deaths were attributed to air pollution in 2012, whilst in the UK over 50,000 deaths per year are due to a combination of gaseous and particulate matter air pollution. The deadline for achieving the EU limit value for NO 2 was the 1st of January 2010, yet the UK remains non-compliant in 38 of 43 zones and agglomerations. As a consequence, in April 2015, the government was ordered by the UK Supreme Court to draw up new air quality plans to achieve the EU limit values in the shortest time possible. In response the UK government consulted on a draft national air quality plan, which estimated compliance with the EU Air Quality Directive by 2020 in all zones and agglomerations except London (compliance by 2025). The plan introduces the concept of a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) to address the non-compliant zones but overall has significant weaknesses in many zones and agglomerations and compliance by 2020 (and 2025 in London) is considered to be overly optimistic. The plan's predictive models use vehicle emission factors that are not considered representative of actual driving conditions, and transparency in the data underlying vehicle fleet turnover calculations is lacking. The suitability of CAZ as a cornerstone of the plan is of particular concern. This contribution examines new evidence that challenges the robustness of the UK government's air quality plan. If air quality within the UK is to improve within the shortest time possible, significant improvements in the analysis and proposed solutions will be required.
In the European project ClairCity (www.claircity.eu), we apply a societal approach to behaviour c... more In the European project ClairCity (www.claircity.eu), we apply a societal approach to behaviour change towards reducing air pollution and carbon emissions in cities. The project is engaging with citizens and policymakers from six European cities/regions. Several public engagement strategies are being employed, including crowdsourcing issues and solutions in each city, an interactive policy game, a mobile app for businesses, schools competitions and workshops for action. The project doesn’t aim to change individual behaviour in its lifetime, but is instead aiming to influence city development in order to ensure that low emission patterns of behaviour are encouraged, enabled and supported sufficiently for them to become new normals. Policy packages will be generated for each city that will reflect how changes can be made to the social and structural organisation of the city to ensure that low emission options can become embedded in citizens’ everyday lives. This presentation shows the process and challenges in this approach, so that others can learn from the project developments.
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Papers by Tim Chatterton