Results: Searching for 'Environmental Factors'

This document is a report for STFC for the project titled 'Ammonia on-farm Life cycle assessment of different ammonia uses on a farm'.

The study found that aqueous ammonia fertiliser provided the largest environmental benefit out of the three ammonia uses. While ammonia vehicle fuel and ammonia CHP were found to provide environmental benefits across most indicators, in some areas the traditional alternative was preferred. This was not the case for ammonia fertiliser.

1. Introduction
2. Goal
3. LCA Specification
4. The LCA Model
5. Analysis of Results
6. Conclusion
7. Appendices

The two-day residential workshop brought together experts from the bioenergy community to explore bioenergy research opportunities which could benefit from financial support from the Carbon Trust using its new directed research approach.

This Working Paper presents key findings from research conducted within the Energy and Environment theme since 2009, when the second phase of UKERC activity began. Research within this theme has investigated the impacts associated with a range of marine and land-based energy production and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation technologies including bioenergy, wind, tidal, gas, nuclear and carbon capture and storage (CCS). The carbon and water footprints of these technologies have been investigated as have their social, economic and environmental impacts and their impacts on terrestrial and marine ecosystem services.

The aim was to examine the specific triggers for changes in patterns of understanding and attitude – and the conditions under which these lead to changes in behaviour. New and innovative methodologies were developed, including the preparation of authentic news broadcasts to present possible future outcomes of climate change and problems with energy security constraint. The results show how beliefs held by audiences can be affected when they receive new information. The conditions under which people believe or reject different arguments are at the heart of the study.

The following points emerged as the most important:

• There needs to be a link between physical modelling of devices and biological models or data sets
• The impact on sea-mammals, birds and fish should be urgently addressed
• Any Environmental Monitoring should be in 3 stages: before, during and after device installation, and each stage should ideally take place over at least 12 months to take into account seasonal effects. Time is not on the device developer’s side
• There is very little data available on the movement of birds and sea mammals, and nothing can be ascertained about their interactions with devices until in situ data/observations are made (e.g. at EMEC)
• Continuous monitoring is very expensive, time consuming and difficult. At present there is little funding available and what funding there is, is very difficult to release
• The boundaries of acceptability have to be defined to assist developers.
• There should be an agreed environmental monitoring programme that all developers are encouraged to follow at all sites (bearing in mind particular sensitivities of site)
• It is not clear what parameters should be measured and what is the best technology available for an environmental monitoring programme.
• A monitoring programme should concentrate on possible showstoppers for marine developers

A range of evidence supports the role of carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) in delivering the most competitive and productive UK transition to a low carbon future.

The UK government has funded appraisal work on several of the many offshore saline aquifers potentially suitable for CO₂ storage. As a result, our knowledge base relating to these stores is high, and some stores are 'ready for business'.

Injecting CO₂ into saline aquifers pressurises them, and since each store has a limiting pressure for integrity reasons, this can limit the storage capacity and CO₂ injection rate, and so affect costs.

This paper, delivered by Energy Systems Catapult for the Energy Technologies Institute, describes the efficacy of a simple technique to alleviate this constraint - pressure is relieved by releasing the native water in the aquifer as it is filled with CO₂. This is termed 'brine production'.

This analysis reports the savings to the UK from deploying brine production in line with that needed to deliver lowest-cost decarbonisation pathways would be at least £2 billion, but would most likely be more.

The main objective and deliverable of study OF0182 was to develop a model of energy inputs in organic farming systems. To illustrate the potential of the model, it was used to contrast organic with similar conventional systems and to highlight important differences. This was presented as a detailed written report (49 pages) to MAFF and is summarised in this document. The report and model were delivered to MAFF in March 2000.

Organically grown crops require around 50% of the energy input per unit area than do conventional crops, largely because of lower, or zero, fertiliser and pesticide energy inputs. However, the generally lower yields of organic crop and vegetable systems reduce the advantage to organic when energy input is calculated on a unit output basis. In stockless arable crop rotations, the inclusion of fertility building crops and winter cover crops, that have energy inputs but no direct outputs, can result in a lower whole-rotation energy efficiency from organic methods. In livestock systems, where the fall in output may be less than in arable, and there are no dedicated fertility building crops, overall energy efficiency is greater in organic than in comparable conventional systems.

These conclusions were made using average yield data in the model and need to be interpreted with caution. On more fertile soil, where the yield difference with conventional arable production is smaller, organic systems would perform relatively better. The converse would occur on poorer soils. Also, in practice, energy inputs for cultivations and weed control will vary with soil type, weather, weed spectrum and population. The average data presented in the report are illustrative and are not definitive. The strength of the model is that it can be used to simulate many different management systems and yield expectations.

The project did not identify any significant opportunities for replacement of energy inputs by labour. This may be possible for weed control in some situations but, apart from the use of flame weeders, this is only a small proportion of the total energy input. More importantly, weed control is time sensitive; therefore for large-scale production it must be mechanised. There is also a shortage of suitable and willing labour for this type of work in many places.

This report is divided into the following sections:

1. Introduction
2. Energy and Agriculture
3. Method
4. Results
5. Conclusions
6. References

This working paper analyses the environmental sustainability of four electricity production systems that include carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS):

• Pulverised coal (PC)
• Pulverised coal with oxyfuel combustion (PCOC)
• Natural gas combined cycle (NGCC), and
• Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC)

The analysis is based largely on a review of relevant Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs). Thus it considers the environmental sustainability of the entire electricity generation chain from fuel extraction through electricity generation and CO2capture to CO2 storage.

There is increasing scientific evidence that natural systems are now at a level of stress globally that could have profound negative effects on human societies worldwide. In order to avoid these effects, one, or a number of technological transitions will need to take place through transforming processes of eco-innovation, which have complex political, institutional and cultural, in addition to technological and economic, dimensions. Measurement systems need to be devised that can assess to what extent eco-innovation is taking place. Environmental and eco-innovation have already led in a number of European countries to the establishment of substantial eco-industries, but, because of the general absence of environmental considerations in markets, these industries are very largely the result of environmental public policies, the nature and effectiveness of which have now been assessed through a number of reviews and case studies. The paper concludes that such policies will need to become much more stringent if eco-innovation is to drive an adequately far-reaching technological transition to resolve pressing environmental challenges. Crucial in the political economy of this change will be that eco-industries, supported by public opinion, are able to counter the resistance of established industries which will lose out from the transition, in a reformed global context where international treaties and co-operation prevent the relocation of environmentally destructive industries and encourage their transformation.

This document is a summary review statement of the report for phase 2 of the project titled 'Exploring the relationship between environmental regulation and competitiveness'.

The role of external review is to provide an independent challenge to the science commissioned by Defra, to ensure that policy is informed by a high-quality, robust evidence base and to raise the perceived standard of Defra-funded science among stakeholders. The Advisory Group on SCP evidence has a role in quality assurance of research commissioned under the SCP evidence base research programme. This has been undertaken through expert sub-groups of the Advisory Group, including experts from beyond the Group's membership where appropriate.

Objective of the research project:

This document is the final report for the project titled 'Impact of the Climate Change Programme on Industrial Carbon Dioxide Emissions'.

The UK has a legally binding target under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. The UK government has also set a domestic goal of a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions below 1990 levels by 2010. A key requirement of the Kyoto Protocol is that countries show demonstrable progress in meeting their commitments. The work presented in this report contributes to meeting this requirement by providing estimates of the likely impact of selected policies and measures aimed at reducing the direct and indirect emission of CO₂ resulting from industrial energy consumption. The report also extends the availability of industrial sectors for which technologically disaggregated carbon abatement cost curves exist. Entec UK Ltd and Cambridge Econometrics have worked together to undertake this study.

In order to estimate the likely impact of the policies and measures to be analysed, a combination of 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' modelling was employed. ENUSIM (Industrial Energy End-Use Simulation Model), a technology-based, 'bottom up' industrial energy end-use simulation model, was used to partially evaluate the effect of the Climate Change Levy (CCL) on selected industrial sectors. ENUSIM is designed to model the uptake or retrofit of energy saving and/or fuel switching technologies in selected industrial sectors, taking into account both economic factors and assumptions about investment in new technology. The industry-specific abatement cost curves contained in ENUSIM do not, however, include combined heat and power (CHP) stations. The estimated impact of the selected policies and measures on CHP, and the resulting emissions savings, thus had to be estimated using the MDM-E3 (Multi-sectoral Dynamic Model Energy-Environment-Economy) model, which is a 'top-down' model of the UK economy, with fully integrated energy-environment sub-models. Likewise, the impact of the Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) on carbon emissions was calculated 'off-model' using ENUSIM data. Every effort was made to ensure consistency between the different modelling approaches, but care should still be exercised when aggregating the estimates from the different policy measures.

The overall effect of the policies and measures modelled to date is anticipated to be about a 4.5 MtC reduction in 2010 from a baseline (with none of these policies in place). CHP contributes approximately 1.7 MtC to this figure. To put these estimates in context, the estimated impact of a similar set of policies and measures targeted at reducing carbon emissions from business, as presented in the Climate Change Programme (CCP) and Third National Communication (3NC), were 7.0 MtC and 5.8 MtC, respectively.

1. Introduction
2. Modelling Techniques
3. Policy Impacts
4. Cost Curves and Structural Change in the Economy
5. Conclusions and Discussion
6. Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations

The west of Shetland region is physically a very different environment to the Gulf of Mexico, so environmental impact of a deep water spill in this area would be different, in many aspects.

A regulatory system could be enacted to compel companies to develop a shareddeep-water rapid response system to cap wells, and the levels of insurance cover companies are obliged to have could be increased.

The UKs regulatory system is robust but could be improved, though there is a limit to which increased regulation can be implemented and effective.

Scenarios which may reduce the need to exploit deepwater reserves during the transition to a low carbon economy are discussed. However, given our current reliance on oil and gas, such exploitation may be necessary.

Under free market regulations the contribution of deepwater reserves to security of supply may be limited, though there may be some economic benefits of exploitation

• Extreme temperatures
• Seismic, geological and volcanic hazards including ash deposition
• Natural hazard combinations
  
  

• Volume 3 — Extreme Wind — onshore effects;
• Volume 4 — Extreme Precipitation — onshore effects;
• Volume 6 — Coastal Flooding — offshore effects;
• Volume 11 — Marine Biological Fouling — offshore effects.
  
  

• •Volume 10 — Space Weather;
• Volume 11 — Marine Biological Fouling.

• Volume 6 — Coastal Flooding;
• Volume 8 — Hail;
• Volume 9 — Lightning.

• Flood risk
• Fluvial flooding
• Tidal influence and extreme sea level
• Astronomical tide
• Wave
• Artificial sources of flooding
  
  
  

• The background context to the project and the project outputs
• Why the subject matters and action is required
• A navigation aid to the suite of documents, what they individually contain, and how they fit together
• The target audience; infrastructure owners, operators, asset managers, developers, investors, regulators and insurers
• Broader relevance and read across into transport, the built environment, and civil emergency planning and response to the impact of natural hazards
• Learning from the execution of this 5-year project relevant to investing and realising the benefits from complex, collaborative R&D
• Guidance on where to find more

• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations and geomagnetic indices
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena; solar energetic particles and groundlevel enhancement, ionospheric scintillation effects on satellite communication and GNSS signal, GIC and pipelines, hazard combinations
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction to marine biological fouling
• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations, measurement techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena
• Regulation
li>Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations, measurement techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena
• Regulation
• Emerging trends; high winds, large waves, heavy rainfall,volcanic ash, space weather, forthcoming climate projections

• Background and motivation
• Introduction to the energy sector, potential vulnerabilities and relevant natural hazards
• List of natural hazards
• Format
• Technical primers

• Context and impact
• Description of the main phenomena; maximum temperatures, heat waves, and minimum temperatures
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena including water temperature, frazil ice formation, very rapid changes in air temperatures, wildfires and enthalpy
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena; key influences on UK weather and climate, extreme winds, tornadoes
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena including sandstorms
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena; key influences on UK weather and climate, UK rainfall mechanisms and extremes, potential interactions with other natural hazards
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools• Methodologies
• Related phenomena including snow, snowpack and avalanches, ice, impacts of extreme snowfall and ice on the energy sector, humidity, fog and mist, impacts of humidity and fog on the energy sector
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena; causes and types of flooding, some examples of river flooding, flood risk and vulnerability classification,definition of flood zones, Government’s strategy and policy, organisations responsible for flood risk management
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena, where coastal flooding is related to extreme weather events (e.g. high winds/hurricanes) and seismic and geological events (e.g. earthquakes and landslides leading to tsunamis)
• Regulation
• Emerging trends
  
  

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena; seismicity, volcanicity, geological instability including landslides, ground dissolution, shrink-swell clays, mining
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena; seismicity, volcanicity, geological instability
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• Introduction
• Description of the main phenomena
• Observations, measurements techniques and modelling tools
• Methodologies
• Related phenomena; seismicity
• Regulation
• Emerging trends

• the natural hazards which are relevant for the energy sector, classified by hazard categories;
• the available mature methodologies for regional and localised characterisation, as well as expert judgement regarding these methodologies;
• some comments on the impact(s) of climate change on natural hazards;
• the sectors where each natural hazard characterisation is relevant;
• the existing guidelines and regulatory frameworks impacting the UK;
• some examples of industry applications, including the estimation of climate change impacts;
• some trends in R&D in the characterisation of the Natural hazard;
• the gaps in natural hazard analysis and prediction (i.e., for example, the gaps in understanding the hazard combinations or the difficult in estimating the ligthning intensity) and the priority level of the gaps to be addressed by future work, with justification for why these gaps should be filled.

This document is a summary for the project titled 'Optimising the location of bioenergy sources: where should we grow bioenergy crops?'.

In order for the UK to meet its ambitious targets for energy production from renewable sources (10% of electricity by 2010, 15% by 2020) it needs to expand its capacity to generate all forms of renewable energy and marine energy is a big part of this. These internationally agreed targets are born out of the need to reduce CO₂ emissions, to minimize the impacts of climate change, and to come up with a renewable alternative to dwindling fossil fuel supplies. Generating energy from biomass, which is biological material derived from living or recently living organisms, is a solution which meets both these objectives. The term biomass can apply to both animal and vegetable derived materials but this project is focused on the growth of high yield crops. These crops can then be converted into energy using one of the numerous forms of either thermal or chemical conversion technologies. Biomass is low carbon, the crops take carbon out of the air as they grow, and can be re-grown relatively quickly.

This project has two main objectives: to gauge the willingness of land-owners to plant bioenergy / biomass crops and to develop a GIS (Geographical Information System) enabled 'land use potential and stakeholder analysis' for bioenergy in Cumbria. GIS is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, manipulating, analysing and displaying data related to geographic position. The GIS enabled 'land use potential and stakeholder analysis' will take the form of a pilot study for this project and extended later on. The willingness of land owners to grow bioenergy / biomass crops will be gauged by conducting semi-structured interviews or group meetings with stakeholders and experts, looking at existing research and developing a best practice for biomass crop management in partnership with land owners.

This document is a report for the project titled 'Outline Feasibility of Centralised Anaerobic Digestion Plants linked to Dairy Supply Chain'.

Dairy UK and AEA Energy & Environment have undertaken a high level assessment of the feasibility of centralised anaerobic digestion (CAD) in the dairy processing sector. This was based on the identification of 10 potential sites that could host centralised anaerobic digestion plants. The work comprised technical, economic and environmental assessments.

This work has confirmed our previous findings that centralised anaerobic digestion plants, based at or close to industrial dairy sites, have the potential to be economically attractive, as several positive factors would combine in their favour, with payback periods as low as 3 years. This is because they can be designed to co-treat organic wastes from industrial dairy sites along with animal wastes from nearby livestock farms and other food manufacturing wastes. As the cost of landfilling will continue to rise due to the Landfill tax, producers of industrial food waste will increasingly need outlets such as AD plants. Inclusion of these will help to increase the viability of the CAD by providing a diverse feedstock and by providing an additional income stream to the plant operator.

The successful exploitation of CAD depends on gaining the full economic benefit of the outputs combined with full exploitation of ancillary benefits. Generation and utilisation of biogas is one of the key benefits of adopting anaerobic digestion process for treating biodegradable wastes. The Government already provides incentives that contribute to improving the economics of biogas utilisation, through the Renewable Obligation, Climate Change Levy (CCL) exemption and Enhanced Capital Allowance. There is potential for additional energy income from the sale of heat generated from the combined heat and power (CHP) scheme, but this would depend on the development of infrastructure to deliver the heat to where it is needed within a few hundred meters. Assessment of land use around the 10 identified potential CAD sites showed that there would be sufficient area to return digestate to land within a 7.5 km radius.

The CAD schemes can provide the industrial dairies with several environmental benefits that will also help them to consolidate or secure new market outlets. For instance, a significant proportion of their carbon footprint could be reduced -which will help those dairies to link up favourably with C-labelling schemes which are being planned by retail chains and the Carbon Trust.

1. Introduction
2. Assessment of CAD plants
3. Potential CAD schemes
4. CAD scheme development
5. Conclusions and recommendations

• Appendix 1 - Questionnaire - Confidential
• Appendix 2 - Techno-economic assumptions

This document is the final report for 'Phase 2 Exploring the relationship between environmental regulation and competitiveness'

SQW was commissioned in October 2006 to carry out a study to "gather and analyse evidence on the impact of the design of environmental regulation on competitiveness". Specifically, it was to consider:

There were three components to the review method:

1. Introducing the study purpose and method
2. Laying the foundations: Key concepts and distinctions
3. Reviewing the case studies: An overview
4. Assessing the influence of regulatory form on innovation and competitiveness
5. Conclusions and policy design principles

SQW was commissioned by DEFRA in 2006 to conduct a literature review of the available evidence on the relationship between environmental regulation and competitiveness to establish the robustness of the conclusions from the available evidence and their relevance to the UK. This study highlighted the need to conduct further research on the impact of regulatory design & implementation and regulatory form on competitiveness

As a result, SQW were commissioned to conduct Phase Two of the research, which sought to 'gather and analyse evidence on the impact of the design of environmental regulation on competitiveness' through the undertaking of a set of case studies. The research examined the following policy issues:

This case study discusses 'Energy Labelling on particular household appliances; with a particular focus on the impact of the EU Energy Labelling Directive and the associated Minimum Efficiency Performance Standards on specific household appliances in the UK. Comparator evidence is also drawn from Labelling and MEPS schemes used in different countries, with a focus on the US experience'. This case study was selected, as it provides a cross-board comparison of the design and implementation of energy labels and also attempts to assess the competitiveness (and trade) impacts of the labels.

1. Introduction
2. The Energy Labelling Directive
3. Effectiveness of policy
4. Evidence on the influence of regulatory form on innovation, productivity and competitiveness
5. Concluding statements

• Annex A: List of Consultees

SQW was commissioned by DEFRA in 2006 to conduct a literature review of the available evidence on the relationship between environmental regulation and competitiveness to establish the robustness of the conclusions from the available evidence and their relevance to the UK. This study highlighted the need to conduct further research on the impact of regulatory design & implementation and regulatory form on competitiveness

As a result, SQW were commissioned to conduct Phase Two of the research, which sought to 'gather and analyse evidence on the impact of the design of environmental regulation on competitiveness' through the undertaking of a set of case studies. The research examined the following policy issues:

This case study discusses 'the relationship between the Renewables Obligation Order (RO) in the UK and the influence is has played on stimulating innovation and the competitiveness/productivity of the renewables energy sector. Comparison is also made to an alternative instrument used to reach similar environmental goals - The Renewable Energy Feed- in Tariff, with a particular focus on the German experience'. This case study was selected as the RO acts as one of the key instruments currently used by the UK to tackle climate change, with a particular focus on the commercialisation of renewable technology and energy policy, a topic which is of interest to a wide range of policy makers. The study also allowed us to compare two different instruments with similar environmental aims.

1. Introduction
2. The Renewables Obligation
3. Effectiveness of policy
4. Evidence on the influence of regulatory form on innovation, productivity and competitiveness
5. Concluding statements

• Annex A: List of Consultees

This document is a case study on Transco National Logistics in Birmingham made by the Department for Transport.

Transco's National Logistics team stores and delivers engineering materials and meters for National Grid Transco's gas supply business. Their National Distribution Centre in Birmingham operates 35 articulated vehicles. Every year the fleet delivers £120 million worth of goods to 14 smaller warehouses and over 200 customer locations across the UK. In order to achieve this, the vehicle fleet travels approximately 2.5 million miles, consuming around 1.4 million litres of diesel. This distribution costs approximately £3.5 million a year, a significant element of which is the cost of fuel.

Transco's National Logistics team is an excellent example of how improving the efficiency of a transport operation can realise significant environmental benefits that contribute to a company's overall EMS. Their experience highlights that these benefits can be achieved with relatively straightforward solutions. A collection of ideas from the workforce as a whole has delivered impressive environmental and cost benefits.

Transco has demonstrated that good environmental practices will both enhance your reputation and save you money. The implementation of three initiatives has had the combined, annual environmental benefit of:

This Consultation Response to the Energy and Climate Change Committee's Inquiry on Electricity Demand Side Measures explores whether the Governments and Ofgems current proposals for incentivising the development of demand reduction measures are enough to ensure the potential energy savings outlined in the 2012 Energy Efficiency Strategy are achieved.

UKERC have submitted a reponse to the Scottish GovernmentFinance and Constitution Committee's call for evidence on the Financial Memorandum that accompanies the Climate Change Bill.

This bill was introduced in May 2018 andamends the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 to make provision for setting targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions and to make provision about advice, plans and reports in relation to those targets.

Over the last decade, the development of Offshore Wind Farms (OWF) has received significant attention. In March 2002, a FEPA licence was granted for the development of the first UK OWF, within coastal waters, at Scroby Sands, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. This site was regarded at the time as the worst-case scenario in terms of potential impacts on coastal processes, involving the emplacement of 30 turbines situated upon monopile foundations 4.2 m in diameter in an environment with fast tidal currents and mobile bed sediments. During this licensing process, two environmental issues arose of major potential importance to the development of the adjacent inshore region, namely:

A programme of research and monitoring was undertaken at the Scroby Sands OWF, to observe, measure and quantify potential impacts of OWFs on coastal processes. This was achieved by a series of seabed surveys (side-scan sonar, swathe bathymetry) and deployment of seabed landers (Cefas 'MiniLanders') before, during and after construction of the OWF. These have been used to provide evidence of changes in seabed bathymetry, bedforms, currents, waves and suspended sediment concentrations that may lead to disturbance of sedimentary environments or sediment transport pathways.

One of the main aims of this work was to assist in the creation of a generic framework for use by both regulators and developers in assessing coastal processes issues within the EIA process and relating to any consequent FEPA licence conditions, particularly those related to monitoring.

The recommendations of this report are:

1. Background
2. Survey Methods
3. Results
4. Analysis
5. Conclusions
6. References
7. Acknowledgements

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be allocated to a country in different ways, territorial-, production- and consumption-based emission reporting. There is a marked difference in end results depending on the chosen system. For example, the UK territorial-based emissions have shown a 19% reduction between 1990-2008. Conversley, consumption-based emissions show a 20% increase during the same period, which is driven by GHG embodied in imported products.

It is possible to develop a robust methodology for measuring GHG emissions on a consumption-based approach. In the past 10-years there have been multiple independent studies published on this subject that display consistent results. The methodology of choice is Environmentally Extended Multi-Region Input-Output (EE-MIRO) Analaysis. Whilst there are uncertainties relating to the large and often incoherent datasets, it is believed that standard error estimates can be used to provide confidence in the results.There is significant expertise in EE-MIRO in the UK.

Consumption-based emission inventories are not a silver-bullet for climate policy. Different emission inventories contain complementary information, and thus, consumption-, production-, and territorial-based emission inventories should be considered together.

That said, consumption-based emission modelling does have speciific advantages, in that:

1. It may reveal policy approaches specific to different products.
2. It enables the possibility of standard carbon accounting for organisations globally.

The main disadvantage to consumption-based emission modelling is that it requires additional accounting and analysis.

It is desirable to adopt emission reduction targets based on consumption, in addition to production, for three reasons:

1. It would incorporate options to address ‘weak carbon leakage’ (carbon embodied in imports).
2. It encourages reduction of emissions at least cost, even if the most cost effective option addresses non-territorial emissions.
3. Consumption-based emissions are increasing and as such are undermining UK domestic climate policy.

UKERC proposes three-steps the UK Government could pursue should they wish to move towards consumption-based emissionreporting:

1. The UK Government, in conjunction with UNFCCC and Eurostat, could establish standards for the harmonisation of consumption-based emission reporting methods to ensure robustness and consistency between country estimates.
2. The UK Government should commission a report to assess all the UK demand-side strategies contributing to emission reduction within and without of the UK.
3. The UK Government could assess the cost-effectiveness of demand-side strategies to understand whether they are revenue generating or a cost.

This document is a joint response from the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Community Network (UKCCSC) and the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) to the Select Committee inquiry on EPS. The UKCCSC is a collective of over 200 engineering, technological, natural, environmental, social and economic academic members, whose biannual meetings and other knowledge sharing events and activities are funded by a grant from the Research Councils UK Energy Programme. The UKERC carries out world-class research into sustainable future energy systems and is also funded by a grant from the Research Councils UK Energy Programme. The text has been discussed and drafted by a self-selected group of UKCCSC and UKERC academics and researchers, each contributing according to their own particular interests and expertise, and also submitted to the whole membership for further comments. The final version was then circulated for members to sign up to if they wished; it should be noted that signatories below are signing as individuals.

This response addresses the first two questions of the call for evidence on the impact of shale gas on energy markets: firstly what estimates exist for the amount of shale gas in place in the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world, and what proportion is recoverable; and secondly why estimates for shale gas are so changeable.

UKERC recently conducted a comprehensive review of 62 studies that provide original estimates of regional and global shale gas resources [1

The UK Energy Research Centre welcomes this opportunity to provide input to the Scottish Governments Consultation on proposals for a Scottish Climate Change Bill. We have addressed a number of the questions posed in the consultation document calling on all UKERC members for input.

This executive summary describes work on the project AFM248Br, which involved CCFRA and Bristol University as a research consortium and the collaboration of Shipston Mill, Kerry Aptunion, Kraft Europe, Kellogg's UK, Warburtons, Unilever, RHM Culinary Brands, Greencore, Weetabix and Glaxo Smith Kline Nutritionals.

AFM248Br was a one year Bridge-LINK project that finished in October 2007. The project identified sources of waste thermal energy from food processes that could be recovered to produce mechanical power using Stirling engine technology. In the context of the project 'waste thermal energy' implied any source of heat released from a process that was rejected to the environment. Flue gases from combustion processes, hot air from baking ovens, steam or steam condensate from cooking operations were a few examples found in the food industry.

The project proposed the assessment of Stirling engine technology to achieve this purpose. Stirling engines are external combustion heat engines, with several advantages that make them suitable for waste heat streams (no contact between heat source and moving parts, scalable to application, low maintenance). They have high theoretical efficiencies and have been developed for several applications (micro CHP systems, biomass and solar powered), although they have not reached yet full commercial development except for very specific niche applications.

Ten different food factories were visited to gather information on waste energy streams released from processing operations. The nature of manufacturing operations studied was varied because the companies chosen for collaboration in the study belonged to different food sub-sectors. These included bread and cereal manufacturing, wheat processing, fruit processing, production of coffee, elaborated and prepared foods and soft drinks.

The project showed that although a significant amount of energy was lost through food manufacturing operations, the range of temperatures at which it was released (typically in the range between 30 and 200°C maximum) did not allow for an efficient and cost effective transformation into mechanical power. It concluded that exploitation of this potential was constrained by the lack of suitable technology. Attractive alternatives to the Stirling are now emerging: for example rotary scroll compressors for refrigeration and automotive air-conditioning. Together with new methods of manufacturing compact heat exchangers and reactors (direct laser deposition, DLD), these could form the basis of a new rotary heat engine using a recuperated rotary Ericsson cycle. This "scroll" engine will have the same theoretical efficiency as the Stirling, but will achieve a higher proportion of it in practice, at commercially acceptable costs. A research proposal on this concept was submitted to Defra following the finalisation of this project.

However, another potential application for heat engines within food processing facilities was identified. This comprised the concept of utilising high grade primary energy (from gas burning) to run a Stirling engine and produce electricity, and then use the remaining thermal energy to run the food process (e.g. baking oven).