Ruth Wood

The University of Manchester, School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Civil Engineering, Faculty Member

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Dr Ruth Wood is a Lecturer in Environment and Climate Change and a Research Fellow with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Her research interests include developing and applying emissions and energy accounting methods to different sectors and spatial scales; the development of scenario tools for use in interdisciplinary projects; the relationship between society and infrastructure and its effect on both resource demand and resilience to future climate change impacts.

Ruth's current research includes the RESNET (Resilient Electricity Networks for Great Britain) project funded by the EPSRC where she leads a work package to develop and apply a scenario tool to explore future scenarios of spatially resolved diurnal electricity demand profiles in Great Britain. The scenarios will be used to assess the implications for the transmission network and its resilience to future climate impacts. Ruth also leads a number of other projects examining how the representation of human behaviour can be improved in energy demand models and the impacts of climate change on energy demand.

While at Tyndall Manchester she has been involved in a number of projects including assessing the greenhouse gas impacts of food consumption, shale gas extraction, and the development of a new emissions apportionment method for aviation for application at a sub-national scale. Her work on aviation emissions accounting won a best paper prize at the European Transport Conference 2008.

Ruth originally trained as a Chemist specialising in environmental science at the University of Bristol graduating in 2001 with a 1st Class (Hons) MSci. After graduating she worked as a civil servant in policy development before joining the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia to undertake an interdisciplinary environmental science PhD. Her PhD research, completed in 2007, explored the co-benefits of greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions reduction for cities and regions.

She has published her research findings through peer reviewed journals, industry publications and conferences, more widely through public seminars and lectures and through the medium of comedy appearing at Bright Club in Manchester, the Green Man Festival 2012 and Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013.

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Papers by Ruth Wood

Batteries and beyond: Multi-vector energy storage as a tool to decarbonise energy services

Frontiers in Energy Research, Jan 12, 2023

With the 2015 Paris Agreement pursuing efforts to limit global temperature increase to below 2°C ... more With the 2015 Paris Agreement pursuing efforts to limit global temperature increase to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and the "energy trilemma" goals of energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability, decarbonisation remains a priority across all of the United Kingdom (United Kingdom) energy system, not just electricity. Electricity and thermal energy storage technologies can offer a host of benefits across the energy value chain through the abilityS to capture, store and then release electricity or thermal energy over a period of time. These benefits include helping capture the full potential of renewable generation and providing services such as frequency response and reserve to Great Britain's (GB) electricity system. In addition, with the aforementioned climate targets in mind, energy storage can also play a role in facilitating the decarbonisation of other activities and sectors. Here we delve deeper into how energy storage technologies can contribute to both energy sector transformation and more broadly, decarbonisation. Furthermore, we discuss the importance of ensuring a technology-agnostic approach to the development of policy and regulation with relevance to energy storage. This ensures that storage technologies with significant potential to contribute to the 'energy trilemma' goals are not precluded from entering the market due to unfavourable policy and regulatory frameworks.

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Written evidence to the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee on Consumption based emissions reporting

3, 6, and 9% emission reduction pathways for Wales

Commons Select Committee: Evidence for forthcoming shale gas inquiry

Reducing consumption emissions: balancing technological change with consumption

Monitoring shipping emissions via AIS data? Certainly

How little or how much climate change? Facilitating stakeholder thinking on food system futures

This paper focuses upon the methodological challenges of deepening understanding of howagricultur... more This paper focuses upon the methodological challenges of deepening understanding of howagricultural and food sectors can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, whilst at the same timeadapting to the impacts of climate change. Agriculture and food systems are inherently complex,and exploring uncertainty in this context requires an approach that presents the reality of anuncertain future in a manner that does not paralyse, but rather facilitates strategic planning. Aparticipatory scenario process is presented which developed quantitative and qualitative foodsystem scenarios, articulating pathways to 2�C and 4�C futures framed within a cumulativeemissions budget, accounting for emissions along the supply chain from production toconsumption. The process addresses four key challenges, namely: the need to re-frame policydiscourse away from end-point targets and towards cumulative emissions budgets; the need toconsider adaptation to higher levels of climate change than is currently considered; the importanceof supply chain emissions; and how to work with stakeholders to consider the level of changeimplicit within this policy re-framing.Whilst mitigation policies reducing emissions from the agricultural sector are commonly framedby end-point targets, mitigation efforts need to be placed within the context of wider emissionsof greenhouse gases and consider cumulative emissions of greenhouse gases. Under a cumulativeemissions approach, for certain levels of climate change, a limited amount of greenhouse gasescan be emitted [1], thus global temperatures rise as cumulative emissions rise. For the sameclimate impact, if emissions are not cut sufficiently in the early years, more rapid rates of reductionare needed in later years to remain in budget, also affecting long-term targets [1]. For instance,the UK's 2050 target of reducing emissions by 80% from 1990 levels (70% for agriculture) willneed to be strengthened if emissions are not cut sufficiently early on. The profile of agriculturalemissions differs vastly to that of other sectors, dominated by emissions of methane (CH4) andharder to reduce emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O); the cumulative emissions framing in thiscontext points to the importance of mitigation measures which can be deployed within a shorttimeframe such as changes to consumption and away from technological solutions.Mitigation efforts also continue to be framed in terms of avoiding ?dangerous' climate change[2], yet the reality is that in the absence of meaningful reductions to date, and uncertainty overa future global agreement to cap greenhouse gas emissions, it is increasingly unlikely that globalmean temperatures will remain below the 2�C threshold associated with ?dangerous' climatechange. Even at this level of global warming there is a high likelihood of increased risks ofextreme weather events, increased water stress, wildfire frequency and floods [3]. A moreextreme, but still not a worst-case outcome of rising greenhouse gas emissions, would be a 4�Ctemperature rise over a similar timescale (by 2100) [4]. Studies suggest that with 4�C as a globalaverage, impacts include temperature increases of 6 to 10�C compared with the current hottestdays within cities such as Rome or Chicago. Examples of other impacts include drought eventsoccurring twice as frequently across southern Africa and the Mediterranean basin; a 40%reduction in the maize and wheat yields in low latitudes and a 30% decrease in rice yields inIndia, China and South East Asia [5]. Thus, nowhere will the impacts of climate change be morekeenly felt than in the agricultural sector where depending on the level of future climate impacts,important food producing regions may no longer be able to sustain production. Responses tomore difficult growing conditions include increasing agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers, orprotecting growing environments from extreme weather, measures which potentially increasegreenhouse gas emissions exacerbating the risk of more severe climate change [6].The third challenge when thinking about food system futures is the highly globalised food supplysystem; 40% of food consumed in the UK is sourced from outside the UK [7], accounting foremissions on a territorial (or production) basis excludes emissions associated with the overseas239/639production, processing and transportation of food. Supply chain emissions can be more readilyconsidered using a consumption approach to emission's accounting; supply chain emissions fromUK food supply chains are 11% of total consumption based emissions [8]. When developingscenarios along a whole supply chain, with mitigation efforts required across many differentsectors such as agricultural production, retailers and processors, the benefits of involvingstakeholders in the research are clear. Although a project team may bring together appropriateexpertise, scenarios can be made richer and more plausible through the inclusion of many differentforms of knowledge and…

Quantifying Shipping Emissions

Mainstreaming Climate Change Education in UK Higher Education Institutions

• Mainstreaming Climate Change Education (CCE) across all learning and operational activities ena... more • Mainstreaming Climate Change Education (CCE) across all learning and operational activities enables Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to better serve their core purpose of preparing learners for their roles in work and wider society, now and in the future. • Student and employer demand for climate change education is growing, not just in specialist subjects but across all degree pathways. • The attitudes, mindsets, values and behaviours that graduates need to engage with climate change include the ability to deal with complexity, work collaboratively across sectors and disciplines and address challenging ethical questions. • The complexity of the climate crisis means all disciplines have a role to play in delivering education for the net-zero transition. Embedding interdisciplinarity is crucial to ensuring that our response to climate change makes use of all of the expertise HEIs have to offer and promotes knowledge exchange and integration for students and staff.

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Estimating 2°C Carbon Budgets for Wales’. A research briefing commissioned by the Climate Change Commission for Wales

Sensitivity analysis of cooling demand applied to a large office building

Energy and Buildings, 2021

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

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How little or how much climate change? Facilitating stakeholder thinking on food system futures

In Esee 2013 Conference Ecological Economics and Institutional Dynamics 10th Biennial Conference of the European Society of Ecological Economics 18 Jun 2013 21 Jun 2013 Lille 2013, Jun 18, 2013

A carbon budget for Manchester

with Sustainable Change Co-operative

Shale gas: a provisional assessment of climate change and environmental impacts

3, 6 and 9% Emission reduction pathways for Wales. Tyndall Centre Manchester for the Welsh Assembly Government

The development of scenarios to examine the role of technology change and consumers in delivering cumulative emission reductions and adapting to clima

Developing weighting system for refurbishment building assessment scheme in Malaysia through analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach

Energy Policy, 2018

The building industry has an undeniable impact on the natural environment. Evidence shows that ex... more The building industry has an undeniable impact on the natural environment. Evidence shows that existing buildings make a significant contribution to energy demand and CO2 emissions. Refurbishing existing buildings offers significant opportunities to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The Malaysian government has set a target to retrofit 100 government buildings in order to contribute to the country's commitment to reduce the CO2 emissions intensity of gross domestic product by 45% by 2030. However, there is no specific sustainability assessment scheme targeted at building refurbishment in Malaysia. Thus, this research aims to support the development of a refurbishment sustainability assessment scheme for Malaysia. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was adopted in order to rank assessment themes and identify the priorities of the study's participating stakeholders. The outcome is the Malaysian Refurbishment Assessment Scheme (MRAS), which includes a set of weightings and a classification system for the selected assessment themes and subthemes. The methods and findings can be adapted for use by other practitioners to develop building assessment schemes in order to pursue the goals of sustainable development through refurbishment.

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A systems framework for national assessment of climate risks to infrastructure

Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences, Jan 13, 2018

Extreme weather causes substantial adverse socio-economic impacts by damaging and disrupting the ... more Extreme weather causes substantial adverse socio-economic impacts by damaging and disrupting the infrastructure services that underpin modern society. Globally, $2.5tn a year is spent on infrastructure which is typically designed to last decades, over which period projected changes in the climate will modify infrastructure performance. A systems approach has been developed to assess risks across all infrastructure sectors to guide national policy making and adaptation investment. The method analyses diverse evidence of climate risks and adaptation actions, to assess the urgency and extent of adaptation required. Application to the UK shows that despite recent adaptation efforts, risks to infrastructure outweigh opportunities. Flooding is the greatest risk to all infrastructure sectors: even if the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 2°C is achieved, the number of users reliant on electricity infrastructure at risk of flooding would double, while a 4°C rise could triple UK flo...

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CHAPTER 4. Climate Change Impacts of Shale Gas Production

Issues in Environmental Science and Technology, 2014

The climate change impacts of shale gas are considered from a number of perspectives. When normal... more The climate change impacts of shale gas are considered from a number of perspectives. When normalised per unit of energy produced, greenhouse gas emissions from production and combustion appear to be comparable to, or marginally higher than conventional sources of natural gas, with direct CO2 from combustion dominating. Substantial uncertainties in such estimates remain, and recent atmospheric studies of methane emissions suggest that on-site measurements and emissions inventories from the US oil and gas industry may be significant underestimates. Shale gas is not a low-carbon energy source, and in the absence of an effective climate regime new gas reserves could have a substantial impact on cumulative CO2 emissions and hence the extent of climate change. The quantity of emissions that will likely cause 2 °C of mean surface temperature rise is very low relative to current emissions and trends, with a restricted time period within which it is prudent to burn natural gas. The position of shale gas as a ‘transition fuel’ and the relevance of comparison with coal as a fuel source rely upon the assumptions that: (1) it completely displaces the use of an alternative more-carbon-intensive fuel; (2) growth in energy demand does not outpace carbon intensity savings; and (3) it does not jeopardise the development of low- and zero-carbon energy systems. It is not clear that these criteria are currently being met. Without a global carbon cap, the unconstrained use of shale gas is inconsistent with the carbon budgets necessary to avoid dangerous climate change.

Submission to Energy and Climate Change Committee inquiry into consumption-based emissions reporting

Batteries and beyond: Multi-vector energy storage as a tool to decarbonise energy services

Frontiers in Energy Research, Jan 12, 2023

Download

Written evidence to the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee on Consumption based emissions reporting

3, 6, and 9% emission reduction pathways for Wales

Commons Select Committee: Evidence for forthcoming shale gas inquiry

Reducing consumption emissions: balancing technological change with consumption

Monitoring shipping emissions via AIS data? Certainly

How little or how much climate change? Facilitating stakeholder thinking on food system futures

Quantifying Shipping Emissions

Mainstreaming Climate Change Education in UK Higher Education Institutions

Download

Estimating 2°C Carbon Budgets for Wales’. A research briefing commissioned by the Climate Change Commission for Wales

Sensitivity analysis of cooling demand applied to a large office building

Energy and Buildings, 2021

Download

How little or how much climate change? Facilitating stakeholder thinking on food system futures

In Esee 2013 Conference Ecological Economics and Institutional Dynamics 10th Biennial Conference of the European Society of Ecological Economics 18 Jun 2013 21 Jun 2013 Lille 2013, Jun 18, 2013

A carbon budget for Manchester

with Sustainable Change Co-operative

Shale gas: a provisional assessment of climate change and environmental impacts

3, 6 and 9% Emission reduction pathways for Wales. Tyndall Centre Manchester for the Welsh Assembly Government

The development of scenarios to examine the role of technology change and consumers in delivering cumulative emission reductions and adapting to clima

Developing weighting system for refurbishment building assessment scheme in Malaysia through analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach

Energy Policy, 2018

Download

A systems framework for national assessment of climate risks to infrastructure

Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences, Jan 13, 2018

Download

CHAPTER 4. Climate Change Impacts of Shale Gas Production

Issues in Environmental Science and Technology, 2014

Submission to Energy and Climate Change Committee inquiry into consumption-based emissions reporting

Ruth Wood

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