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Living in a Low-Carbon Society in 2050 PDF

239 Pages·2012·2.36 MB·English
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Energy, Climate and the Environment Series Series Editor: David Elliott, Emeritus Professor of Technology, Open University, UK Titles include: Luca Anceschi and Jonathan Symons (editors) ENERGY SECURITY IN THE ERA OF CLIMATE CHANGE The Asia-Pacific Experience Ian Bailey and Hugh Compston (editors) FEELING THE HEAT The Politics of Climate Policy in Rapidly Industrializing Countries Mehmet Efe Biresselioglu EUROPEAN ENERGY SECURITY Turkey’s Future Role and Impact David Elliott (editor) NUCLEAR OR NOT? Does Nuclear Power Have a Place in a Sustainable Future? David Elliott (editor) SUSTAINABLE ENERGY Opportunities and Limitations Horace Herring and Steve Sorrell (editors) ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION The Rebound Effect Horace Herring (editor) LIVING IN A LOW-CARBON SOCIETY IN 2050 Matti Kojo and Tapio Litmanen (editors) THE RENEWAL OF NUCLEAR POWER IN FINLAND Antonio Marquina (editor) GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE Prospects and Policies in Asia and Europe Catherine Mitchell THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SUSTAINABLE ENERGY Ivan Scrase and Gordon MacKerron (editors) ENERGY FOR THE FUTURE A New Agenda Gill Seyfang SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION, COMMUNITY ACTION AND THE NEW ECONOMICS Seeds of Change Joseph Szarka WIND POWER IN EUROPE Politics, Business and Society Joseph Szarka, Richard Cowell, Geraint Ellis, Peter Strachan and Charles Warren (editors) LEARNING FROM WIND POWER Governance, Societal and Policy Perspectives on Sustainable Energy David Toke ECOLOGICAL MODERNISATION AND RENEWABLE ENERGY Xu Yi-chong (editor) NUCLEAR ENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA Problems and Prospects Xu Yi-chong THE POLITICS OF NUCLEAR ENERGY IN CHINA Energy, Climate and the Environment Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–00800–7 (hardback) 978–0–230–22150–5 (paperback) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a s tanding order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of diffi culty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBNs quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Living in a Low-Carbon Society in 2050 Edited by Horace Herring Visiting Research Fellow, Energy & Environment Research Unit, The Open University, UK Editorial matter, selection, introduction and conclusion © Horace Herring 2012 All remaining chapters © respective authors 2012 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-28225-4 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-32815-4 ISBN 978-1-137-26489-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137264893 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 Contents List of Tables and Figures vii Series Editor Preface ix Notes on Contributors xii 1 Introduction 1 Horace Hering Part I Policy 2 What is a Low-Carbon Society? 15 Stephen Peake 3 Low-Carbon Living in 2050 28 Nicola Hole 4 What is the Carbon Footprint of a Decent Life? 41 Angela Druckman and Tim Jackson 5 Transport and Mobility Choices in 2050 60 Stephen Potter 6 A Low-Carbon Transition 75 Neil Strachan and Timothy J. Foxon Part II Case Studies 7 Case Studies in Low-Carbon Living 95 Robin Roy 8 Designing and Creating my Low-Carbon Home 121 Catherine Mitchell 9 Land Use Scenario 2050 129 Grace Crabb and Adam Thorogood 10 Zero-Carbon Britain: Time to say ‘we will’ 149 Tanya Hawkes 11 Low-Carbon Society in Switzerland 164 Bastien Girod v vi Contents Part III Stories 12 Little Greenham 183 James Goodman 13 The Housing Ladder 190 Roger Levett 14 The Refugee 198 Tanya Hawkes 15 The Gun and the Sun 210 Horace Hering 16 Conclusion 218 Horace Herring Index 229 List of Tables and Figures Tables 4.1 Housing specifications and heating regimes 44 4.2 D istribution of minimum acceptable standard of living budget family types 47 5.1 UK CO2 emissions by source 61 5.2 Indices of transport trends 66 5.3 Current energy use of transport modes 69 7.1 The low-carbon living cases compared 113 9.1 A nnual quantity of product range from the South-East lowland farm 138 9.2 Land practice carbon flux at South-East lowland farm 139 9.3 A nnual quantity of product range from the Cambrian farm 141 9.4 Land practice carbon flux at the Cambrian farm 142 16.1 London-Cyprus return by fast and slow travel 224 Figures 2.1 The direction of evolution of carbon and energy in society 16 2.2 Summary of 22 ‘test-bed’ low-carbon community projects in the UK 23 2.3 Growthist, peakist and environmentalist perspectives on low-carbon societies 24 3.1 A multi-level perspective for addressing the factors that affect energy consumption 32 4.1 Comparison of JRF expenditure budgets against expenditure 46 4.2 Comparison of mean GHG emissions per household for UK mean in 2004 against the minimum income standard emissions 48 vii viii List of Tables and Figures 4.3 M inimum income standard GHG emissions compared against UK GHG reductions targets 49 6.1 P ossible transition pathways and the factors that influence them 83 6.2 A co-evolving model of the relationship between policy, behaviour change and technology 85 7.1 B reakdown of all the direct and indirect carbon dioxide emissions 96 7.2 (a–c) Oxford eco-renovated house 99 7.3 A nnual gas and electricity use in the Yellow House have halved since eco-renovation 101 7.4 (a–d) Front of the Yellow House 102 7.5 (a–b) One of the larger houses at Millennium Green 105 7.6 (a–c) Cross-section of the Autonomous House 106 7.7 (a–d) The Hockerton Housing project 109 7.8 (a–c) BedZED, South London 111 9.1 Hectares required for each system 137 11.1 S wiss greenhouse gas and CO emissions for 2 different sectors 165 11.2 T he Forum Chriesbach, a five-storey office and research building for EAWAG 167 11.3 CO emissions of different transportation modes 169 2 Series Editor Preface Concerns about the potential environmental, social and economic impacts of climate change have led to a major international debate over what could and should be done to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, which are claimed to be the main cause. There is still a scientific debate over the likely scale of climate change, and the complex interactions between human activities and climate systems, but, in the words of no less than the (then) Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, ‘I say the debate is over. We know the science, we see the threat, and the time for action is now.’ Whatever we now do, there will have to be a lot of social and economic adaptation to climate change – preparing for increased flooding and other climate-related problems. However, the more fundamental response is to try to reduce or avoid the human activities that are seen as causing cli- mate change. That means, primarily, trying to reduce or eliminate emis- sion of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels in vehicles, houses and power stations. Given that around 80 per cent of the energy used in the world at present comes from these sources, this will be a major technological, economic and political undertaking. It will involve reducing demand for energy (via lifestyle choice changes), producing and using whatever energy we still need more efficiently (getting more from less), and supplying the reduced amount of energy from non-fossil sources (basically switching over to renewables and/or nuclear power). Each of these options opens up a range of social, economic and environmental issues. Industrial society and modern consumer cul- tures have been based on the ever-expanding use of fossil fuels, so the changes required will inevitably be challenging. Perhaps equally inevitable are disagreements and conflicts over the merits and demerits of the various options and in relation to strategies and policies for pur- suing them. These conflicts and associated debates sometimes concern technical issues, but there are usually also underlying political and ideological commitments and agendas, which shape, or at least colour, the ostensibly technical debates. In particular, at times, technical asser- tions can be used to buttress specific policy frameworks in ways which subsequently prove to be flawed. The aim of this series is to provide texts which lay out the techni- cal, environmental and political issues relating to the various proposed ix

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