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A huge set of resources from "Three Nations" a partnershuip of three Fort Chipewyan nations in Canada - dedicated to bring clean energy projects.

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Three Nations Energy | Solar Farm In Fort Chipewyan

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Learning - Clean Energy and Climate Science For Students and Adults

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Discover educational learning material for students, adults and elders of the community on a variety of clean energy and climate science topics.

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Climate Trace - where are the sources of GHGs?

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Climate Trace - where are the sources of GHGs?

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Welcome to Climate TRACE!
Overview
This map visualizes the 352 million assets included in the Climate TRACE emissions inventory. The default view when the page first loads shows emissions sources from all sectors across all geographies for the most-recent calendar year (i.e., 2022). Total emissions appear at the bottom left corner of the page and will dynamically update as you make additional selections using the toolbar.
What am I looking at?
On this map:

Dots represent emissions sources that are human-made facilities (like refineries, power plants, or airports). There are hundreds of thousands of such assets. Clicking on one will load an emissions data "card" providing additional detailed information about that emissions source.

Gradient green and pink 'pixels' represent emitting assets from land use (like forests, farms, and crop fires) at a 1 x 1 km scale. There are hundreds of millions of such assets. To make the map easier to use, emissions source data cards are not included here, but are available for bulk download upon request.

Shaded areas represent an aggregation of many assets grouped together so that they can be represented with a single emissions data card. (Like all the forests in one county, or all the road transportation emissions in one urban area, etc).

Note: zooming in on a region with aggregated data will activate a mouseover hover effect, showing the geographic boundary for the area where emissions are being aggregated.
Using the Toolbar
The toolbar across the top of the page is the primary method for searching and filtering the data visualized in the map. It offers five ways to dig into the details:

By location, owner, or emissions source name: Start typing to generate a dynamic, smart list of possible matches to choose from. You can search by locations such as continents, country names, states and provinces, regions, and counties. You can also search by owner name* or the names of individual assets. The map will automatically zoom to a level consistent with the geographic extent of your search criteria, and show you all assets Climate TRACE knows of with that name, in that location, or owned by that company.
*Note: Due to temporary technical constraints, when searching for sources by owner, 100% of the emissions from that source will be counted toward the owner's overall emissions total. To calculate emissions based on true ownership percentage, please download the full data set using the download button on the map.

By sector: Choose from a drop-down list of 10 sectors and 50+ subsectors. The map initially loads showing all sectors and subsectors as the default. You can simultaneously select multiple sectors and subsectors to show custom combinations. At any time, you can choose "All" to return your sector selections to the inclusive default.

By year: Choose the date range for the data you want to view. The map initially loads showing 2022 data as the default. You can also switch to view 2021 data. Note: you can download additional data covering emissions from 2015-2022 on our Downloads page and view country and sector-level totals for all years on our Country Inventory page.

By gas: Choose the greenhouse gas for which you want to browse the data. The map initially loads showing as the default emissions measured in CO 2e, the total emissions across all gasses measured in units of the equivalent amount of CO 2. Options also include looking only at emissions of individual gasses: CO 2 (carbon dioxide), CH 4 (methane), or N 2 0 (nitrous oxide).

By global warming potential (GWP): CO 2e can be calculated two different ways, the equivalent over 20 years or over 100 years. If CO 2 e is selected as the gas, this toggle switches between 100- and 20-year methods. The map initially loads showing 100-year GWP data as the default.

As you build your search and filter the data, your active criteria will display across the top of the map, just below the toolbar. Individual criteria can be removed by clicking the corresponding "X". Or choose "clear all" to start over.
Additional Information and Options

Emissions totals: The box in the bottom left of the map view displays the total emissions associated with your search and filter criteria. It automatically updates as you change and refine your selection to show total emissions and the number of assets that contribute to the total.

View: Toggle the map view between aerial view shaded topography or visible spectrum satellite imagery. Both options show country borders.

Download: Click the icon (a down arrow) to download CSV files of the raw data to your computer. The CSV file's data will correspond to your search and filter criteria and the current map display. For more-detailed data, please visit the Data page.

Share: Click the icon (an up arrow) to share your filtered map and data on Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter). Or get a custom link you can share, which corresponds to your search and filter criteria.

For Additional Data
The full Climate TRACE inventory is available to download by sector and country on the Data Downloads page.

To explore emissions by country and sector from 2015-2022, visit the Country Inventory page.

To make custom comparisons between assets, countries, and sectors, visit the Compare Tool page.

To access the most detailed version of the data, which is billions of data points on over 352 million assets, please reach out via our Contact page.

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Climate TRACE makes climate action faster and easier by mobilizing the global tech community to track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

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UHI mtigation and Singapore - planning for the future

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UHI mtigation and Singapore - planning for the future

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A novel UK satellite has returned its first pictures of heat variations across the surface of the Earth.

HotSat-1 carries the highest resolution commercial thermal sensor in orbit, enabling it to trace hot and cold features as small as 3.5m across.

In the initial imagery, a Chicago train is observed moving through the night and the flame fronts of Canadian wildfires are precisely mapped.

London operator SatVu plans to launch seven additional spacecraft.

This will increase the volume of data it can acquire but also reduce the time between passes over particular locations, meaning changes in a scene can be detected more rapidly.

HotSat-1, with its mid-wave infrared camera, was assembled by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) in Guildford and launched in June on a SpaceX rocket flying out of California.

The spacecraft manufacturer is due to complete its in-orbit testing and commissioning phase in the next week.

"At that point 'we get the keys', so to speak, and we'll then be able to task the satellite ourselves and get the data down for our customers," Tobias Reinicke, the chief technology officer at SatVu, told BBC News.

HotSat-1's heat maps - still imagery and short videos - should have wide application, but especially in climate-related matters.

They'll permit urban planners, for example, to see roof tops and walls. This will enable them to understand the temperature profiles of individual buildings, offices and factories. It's information that can identify infrastructure that's wasting energy and is in need of better insulation.

"We've got 28 million homes in the UK, most of which are quite poorly insulated," commented Prof Emily Shuckburgh.

"Being able to identify those buildings with this sort of information, prioritising them for better insulation and then assessing the quality of that is really, really important," the director of Cambridge Zero, the University of Cambridge's climate change initiative, said.

Alternatively, the maps will show the "heat islands", such as large, open car parks, which add to the heat stress in cities and will need to be cooled, perhaps with a line of trees.

The data is also sure to provide intelligence to the financial and insurance sectors - and even the military - by revealing how temperatures in a scene change over time. It's possible, for example, to get a sense of the volume and type of output from a factory just from its heat signature.

In the imagery on this page - the redder the colour, the warmer the surface; the bluer the colour, the cooler it is.

Las Vegas, Nevada, US: See how the tarmac and concrete in roads and parking zones builds heat during the day to then slowly release it at night. This retained energy will make hot nights even more uncomfortable for residents.

Albuquerque, New Mexico, US: Look at the airport. You can count the number of planes around the terminal. A standard optical satellite, which views the ground in light similar to what our eyes sense, cannot see this night-time detail.

Cushing, Oklahoma, US: Companies wanting to know how much oil is moving through storage depots will fly remote-sensing drones to gather intelligence. But regular satellite overflights can gather this data far more efficiently and be global in view.

Northwest Territories, Canada: This image acquired on 27 July shows the active fronts of wildfires. A video of the scene could be used to help predict the speed of fire progression and the potential paths of impact.

SatVu had pre-launch commitments worth £100m from users who plan to use the thermal data - both within the UK and internationally.

About 60 entities are part of an early access programme and will now get to play with imagery to determine whether it meets their requirements.

The technology in HotSat-1 was funded with R&D money from the UK and European space agencies (UKSA & Esa).

Independent remote-sensing expert Dr Simon Proud commented: "The prospects of HotSat-1 for urban planning and agriculture are exciting. But we need to assess how accurate the data is, especially during the day when the satellite sees sunlight on top of the actual temperature.

"It's also key to have stable measurements over time - essential for monitoring the success of interventions like adding roof insulation to a house or trees to a car park," the RAL Space and National Centre for Earth Observation scientist told BBC News.

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HotSat-1: UK spacecraft maps heat variations across Earth

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A new British satellite is showing the world's hot and cold spots in extremely fine detail.

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Live map showing realtime renewable energy generation in Great Britain

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MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Two of humanity's most ubiquitous historical materials, cement and carbon black (which resembles very fine charcoal), may form the basis for a novel, low-cost energy storage system, according to a new study. The technology could facilitate the use of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and tidal power by allowing energy networks to remain stable despite fluctuations in renewable energy supply.

The two materials, the researchers found, can be combined with water to make a supercapacitor - an alternative to batteries - that could provide storage of electrical energy. As an example, the MIT researchers who developed the system say that their supercapacitor could eventually be incorporated into the concrete foundation of a house, where it could store a full day's worth of energy while adding little (or no) to the cost of the foundation and still providing the needed structural strength. The researchers also envision a concrete roadway that could provide contactless recharging for electric cars as they travel over that road.

The simple but innovative technology is described this week in the journal PNAS, in a paper by MIT professors Franz-Josef Ulm, Admir Masic, and Yang-Shao Horn, and four others at MIT and at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

Capacitors are in principle very simple devices, consisting of two electrically conductive plates immersed in an electrolyte and separated by a membrane. When a voltage is applied across the capacitor, positively charged ions from the electrolyte accumulate on the negatively charged plate, while the positively charged plate accumulates negatively charged ions. Since the membrane in between the plates blocks charged ions from migrating across, this separation of charges creates an electric field between the plates, and the capacitor becomes charged. The two plates can maintain this pair of charges for a long time and then deliver them very quickly when needed. Supercapacitors are simply capacitors that can store exceptionally large charges.

The amount of power a capacitor can store depends on the total surface area of its conductive plates. The key to the new supercapacitors developed by this team comes from a method of producing a cement-based material with an extremely high internal surface area due to a dense, interconnected network of conductive material within its bulk volume. The researchers achieved this by introducing carbon black - which is highly conductive - into a concrete mixture along with cement powder and water, and letting it cure. The water naturally forms a branching network of openings within the structure as it reacts with cement, and the carbon migrates into these spaces to make wire-like structures within the hardened cement. These structures have a fractal-like structure, with larger branches sprouting smaller branches, and those sprouting even smaller branchlets, and so on, ending up with an extremely large surface area within the confines of a relatively small volume. The material is then soaked in a standard electrolyte material, such as potassium chloride, a kind of salt, which provides the charged particles that accumulate on the carbon structures. Two electrodes made of this material, separated by a thin space or an insulating layer, form a very powerful supercapacitor, the researchers found.

The two plates of the capacitor function just like the two poles of a rechargeable battery of equivalent voltage: When connected to a source of electricity, as with a battery, energy gets stored in the plates, and then when connected to a load, the electrical current flows back out to provide power.

"The material is fascinating," Masic says, "because you have the most-used manmade material in the world, cement, that is combined with carbon black, that is a well-known historical material - the Dead Sea Scrolls were written with it. You have these at least two-millennia-old materials that when you combine them in a specific manner you come up with a conductive nanocomposite, and that's when things get really interesting."

As the mixture sets and cures, he says, "The water is systematically consumed through cement hydration reactions, and this hydration fundamentally affects nanoparticles of carbon because they are hydrophobic (water repelling)." As the mixture evolves, "the carbon black is self-assembling into a connected conductive wire," he says. The process is easily reproducible, with materials that are inexpensive and readily available anywhere in the world. And the amount of carbon needed is very small - as little as 3 percent by volume of the mix - to achieve a percolated carbon network, Masic says.

Supercapacitors made of this material have great potential to aid in the world's transition to renewable energy, Ulm says. The principal sources of emissions-free energy, wind, solar, and tidal power, all produce their output at variable times that often do not correspond to the peaks in electricity usage, so ways of storing that power are essential. "There is a huge need for big energy storage," he says, and existing batteries are too expensive and mostly rely on materials such as lithium, whose supply is limited, so cheaper alternatives are badly needed. "That's where our technology is extremely promising, because cement is ubiquitous," Ulm says.

The team calculated that a block of nanocarbon-black-doped concrete that is 45 cubic meters (or yards) in size - equivalent to a cube about 3.5 meters across - would have enough capacity to store about 10 kilowatt-hours of energy, which is considered the average daily electricity usage for a household. Since the concrete would retain its strength, a house with a foundation made of this material could store a day's worth of energy produced by solar panels or windmills and allow it to be used whenever it's needed. And, supercapacitors can be charged and discharged much more rapidly than batteries.

After a series of tests used to determine the most effective ratios of cement, carbon black, and water, the team demonstrated the process by making small supercapacitors, about the size of some button-cell batteries, about 1 centimeter across and 1 millimeter thick, that could each be charged to 1 volt, comparable to a 1-volt battery. They then connected three of these to demonstrate their ability to light up a 3-volt light-emitting diode (LED). Having proved the principle, they now plan to build a series of larger versions, starting with ones about the size of a typical 12-volt car battery, then working up to a 45-cubic-meter version to demonstrate its ability to store a house-worth of power.

There is a tradeoff between the storage capacity of the material and its structural strength, they found. By adding more carbon black, the resulting supercapacitor can store more energy, but the concrete is slightly weaker, and this could be useful for applications where the concrete is not playing a structural role or where the full strength-potential of concrete is not required. For applications such as a foundation, or structural elements of the base of a wind turbine, the "sweet spot" is around 10 percent carbon black in the mix, they found.

Another potential application for carbon-cement supercapacitors is for building concrete roadways that could store energy produced by solar panels alongside the road and then deliver that energy to electric vehicles traveling along the road using the same kind of technology used for wirelessly rechargeable phones. A related type of car-recharging system is already being developed by companies in Germany and the Netherlands, but using standard batteries for storage.

Initial uses of the technology might be for isolated homes or buildings or shelters far from grid power, which could be powered by solar panels attached to the cement supercapacitors, the researchers say.

Ulm says that the system is very scalable, as the energy-storage capacity is a direct function of the volume of the electrodes. "You can go from 1-millimeter-thick electrodes to 1-meter-thick electrodes, and by doing so basically you can scale the energy storage capacity from lighting an LED for a few seconds, to powering a whole house," he says.

Depending on the properties desired for a given application, the system could be tuned by adjusting the mixture. For a vehicle-charging road, very fast charging and discharging rates would be needed, while for powering a home "you have the whole day to charge it up," so slower-charging material could be used, Ulm says.

"So, it's really a multifunctional material," he adds. Besides its ability to store energy in the form of supercapacitors, the same kind of concrete mixture can be used as a heating system, by simply applying electricity to the carbon-laced concrete.

Ulm sees this as "a new way of looking toward the future of concrete as part of the energy transition."

The research team also included postdocs Nicolas Chanut and Damian Stefaniuk at MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, James Weaver at the Wyss Institute, and Yunguang Zhu in MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering. The work was supported by the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, with sponsorship by the Concrete Advancement Foundation.

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MIT engineers create an energy-storing supercapacitor from ancient materials

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MIT engineers created a carbon-cement supercapacitor that can store large amounts of energy. Made of just cement, water, and carbon black, the device could form the basis for inexpensive systems that store intermittently renewable energy, such as solar or wind energy.

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Many northern countries including the UK must adapt homes to cope with hot weather, a study warns - but there are ways to do this without increasing energy use

Windows with external shutters can help keep homes cooler in hot weather

roland brack/hecke/Panther Media GmbH/Alamy

Homes in many parts of the world will have to be changed to help residents cope with a hotter climate, a study on the global demand for cooling makes clear. A big expansion in the use of air conditioning could be environmentally ruinous - but there are other ways to keep homes cooler without increasing energy use.

The study estimates how often helpful interventions, such as additional ventilation or air conditioning, would be needed to keep populations comfortable.

It warns ...

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How can we keep homes cool in extreme heat without air conditioning?

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Many northern countries including the UK must adapt homes to cope with hot weather, a study warns - but there are ways to do this without increasing energy use

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People in Freetown, Sierra Leone, are increasingly exposed to extreme heat due to climate change and the urban heat island effect, but covering homes in a reflective film significantly cut indoor temperatures

Reflective film installed on the roofs of two buildings in Freetown, Sierra Leone

MEER

Tens of thousands of people in Freetown, Sierra Leone, live in informal settlements dense with metal and concrete buildings that trap heat and make heatwaves more dangerous. An experiment has shown that covering such buildings with a cheap mirrored film can substantially reduce the temperature inside.

Since becoming the chief heat officer of Freetown in Sierra Leone, Eugenia Kargbo has experimented with all kinds of ways to protect the city from heat. When a group of researchers ...

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City in Sierra Leone covers buildings in mirrors to fight extreme heat

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People in Freetown, Sierra Leone, are increasingly exposed to extreme heat due to climate change and the urban heat island effect, but covering homes in a reflective film significantly cut indoor temperatures

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Children are particularly at risk from air pollution, as their immune systems, lungs and brains are still developing. Air pollution can affect children's physical health, their ability to learn, and even lead to death. Yet millions of children are still exposed to dangerously high levels of air pollution, as almost all UK schools are in areas above WHO air pollution limits.

We need to safeguard children from air pollution now, to help them achieve their best life chances, and to ensure this generation, and the environment they live in, is healthy.

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Children are particularly at risk from air pollution, as their immune systems, lungs and brains are still developing. Air pollution can affect children's physical health, their ability to learn, and even lead to death. Yet millions of children are still exposed to dangerously high levels of air pollution, as almost all UK schools are in areas above WHO air pollution limits.

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Usage Notice: All the Air Quality data are unvalidated at the time of publication, and due to quality assurance these data may be amended, without notice, at any time. The World Air Quality Index project has exercised all reasonable skill and care in compiling the contents of this information and under no circumstances will the World Air Quality Index project team or its agents be liable in contract, tort or otherwise for any loss, injury or damage arising directly or indirectly from the supply of this data.

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Air Pollution in Europe: Real-time Air Quality Index Visual Map

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How polluted is the air today? Check out the real-time air pollution map, for more than 100 countries.

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We help schools become more energy efficient and fight climate change, through an online, school-specific energy analysis tool and energy education programme.

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A new superwhite paint is so reflective that it can cool a surface to below the surrounding air temperature, even under sunlight. It could help reduce the use of energy-intensive air conditioning in hot countries.

With global energy use expected to grow 90 per cent by 2050, ways to passively keep cool without using energy will be vital in coming decades. While "cool roofs" painted white are a common sight in hot climates, materials experts think they can do one better.

Xiulin Ruan at Purdue University and his colleagues developed a white paint that was so reflective and good at radiating heat that it cooled a surface to 1.7°C below the surrounding noon air temperature during tests in Indiana. Compared with existing, commercial heat-reflective paints that reflect about 80-90 per cent of solar energy, the new one managed 95.5 per cent.

Although it sounds counter-intuitive, the surface can be cooled below the surrounding temperature because it emits enough heat through radiative sky cooling, the natural process of a body under the sky - such as a roof - radiating heat out to space. Light-coloured surfaces regularly do this on cloudless nights, but it wasn't until 2014 that we found a material that managed the feat in daylight, when our cooling needs are greatest.

Compared with that breakthrough, Ruan says his team's paint is thinner, cheaper and could be easily scaled up. The acrylic paint is made with calcium carbonate, and partly achieves its qualities by containing particles of many different sizes, which help to scatter different wavelengths in the solar spectrum. Ruan estimates a typical US home of 200 square metres would save about $50 per month on cooling costs, compared with using an existing heat-resistant paint.

"This is a very nice result," says Aaswath Raman at the University of California, Los Angeles. "It demonstrates a paintable solution that employs materials commonly used by the paint industry, and gets reasonably good cooling performance. One potential limitation could be its use of organic solvents, but that could be addressed in the future."

Journal reference: Cell Reports Physical Science, DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2020.100221
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Superwhite paint can cool buildings even in hot sunlight

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A new superwhite paint is so reflective that it can cool a surface to below the surrounding air temperature, even under sunlight. It could help reduce the use of energy-intensive air conditioning in hot countries. With global energy use expected to grow 90 per cent by 2050, ways to passively keep cool without using energy will be vital in coming decades.

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An analysis of satellite data from 293 cities in Europe has found that trees have a big cooling effect while other green spaces don't

A view of trees and buildings in London

Shutterstock / lazyllama

The cooling effect of trees reduces the surface temperature of European cities in the summer by up to 12°C in some regions. In contrast, green spaces without trees have a negligible effect, according to a study that strengthens the case for tree planting to help cities adapt to global warming.

Jonas Schwaab at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and his colleagues used land surface temperature data collected by satellites to compare the temperature differences between areas covered by trees, treeless urban green spaces, such as parks, and urban fabric such as roads and buildings. They analysed 293 cities from across Europe.

The land surface temperature measured by satellites isn't the same as the air temperature, which is more closely linked to what humans would feel, says Schwaab. "Usually, the air temperature difference between tree-covered areas and built-up areas would be much smaller than the land surface temperature differences," he says.

The team found that tree-covered areas in cities have a much lower land surface temperature compared with surrounding areas. The differences were between 8°C and 12°C in central Europe and between 0°C and 4°C in southern Europe.

The cooling effect of trees comes largely from shading and transpiration, which is when water within the tree is released as water vapour through their leaves. This process takes heat energy from the surrounding environment for evaporation, lowering the surrounding temperature.

In the warmer climate of southern Europe, the soil is typically drier, so the cooling effect of transpiration is lower than in regions further north, says Schwaab.

The team also found that the cooling provided by treeless green spaces is negligible, and in some instances green areas without trees can even be warmer than the surrounding urban areas.

Extreme heat is a growing problem for cities in Europe and elsewhere as the planet gets hotter. The findings show that trees can have a big impact on cities across Europe, but since the size of their effects varies, heat mitigation strategies should be tailored to suit each region, says Schwaab.

"[This study] provides an important guide to urban practitioners for deploying urban trees as an effective urban heat mitigation strategy," says Zhihua Wang at Arizona State University.

Topics:

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Trees cool the land surface temperature of cities by up to 12°C

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An analysis of satellite data from 293 cities in Europe has found that trees have a big cooling effect while other green spaces don't The cooling effect of trees reduces the surface temperature of European cities in the summer by up to 12°C in some regions.

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The High Line, an urban park in New York

Albachiaraa-/Getty Images

Increasing the number of plants in cities provides a big and rapid boost to biodiversity, according to a four-year study in Melbourne, Australia. The findings add to the evidence that the greening measures many cities are starting to take can make a huge difference to wildlife, in addition to their other benefits.

"Adding more indigenous plant species to a small green space can greatly contribute to positive ecological outcomes in a short period of time," says Luis Mata at the University ...

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Even tiny green spaces in cities help urban wildlife biodiversity

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Increasing the number of plants in cities provides a big and rapid boost to biodiversity, according to a four-year study in Melbourne, Australia. The findings add to the evidence that the greening measures many cities are starting to take can make a huge difference to wildlife, in addition to their other benefits.

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Weathered rock: columnar basalt at Cape Stolbchaty in Russia. The volcanic rock could be used to soak-up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (Courtesy: Ekaterina Vasyagina/CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sprinkling powdered basalt over natural ecosystems would remove vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere while also improving soils. That's the finding of a new study that evaluates this proposed geoengineering scheme and estimates the costs involved.

Worldwide, nations are pledging to reach net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, if not earlier. But even in best case scenarios for renewable energy and industrial decarbonization, it looks certain that significant carbon dioxide emissions will continue for decades. Therefore, most proposed routes to net zero also bank on our ability to capture carbon - at source or directly from the atmosphere - and store it securely over the long term.

An obvious option is to plant more trees, which brings other ecological benefits. But there are parts of the world where soils are unsuitable, or new forests would compete with other land uses such as agriculture. Another possibility is carbon capture and storage (CCS) whereby carbon is extracted from industrial exhaust gases or directly from the air and then pumped into rocks underground. The reality, however, is that CCS facilities currently store just a few million tonnes each year from annual global emissions of 35 billion tonnes.

Enhanced weathering

A new study described in Nature Geoscience and led by Daniel Goll at the University of Augsburg in Germany considers a different approach known as enhanced weathering. The idea is to boost the natural process by which carbon dioxide in precipitation reacts with soils and rocks to form bicarbonate ions, which eventually find their way into oceans via rivers. Adding basalt dust to soils increases the surface area available for these reactions, speeding up this chemical weathering process and drawing down more carbon.

At the same time, amending soils with basalt makes them more productive - boosting the carbon sink - and improves drainage and reduces acidity levels. "We know that plants can enhance the weathering of minerals, so we believe there might also be an acceleration of this weathering process when more vegetation is present," says Goll.

Goll's team used a land surface model to the simulate the effects of applying 5 kg/m 2 of basalt dust over a vegetated area of 55 million square kilometres (about one third of the land on Earth). They found it has the potential to remove 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, where roughly half was stored in the biomass. The biggest effect was predicted for tropical regions where soils are often impoverished compared to higher latitudes.

Realistic costs

Costs for distributing basalt on a sufficiently large scale would include mining and crushing the rock, transport and distribution. Goll says that a cost of roughly $150 per tonne of removed carbon dioxide is realistic, assuming that basalt is applied to land reasonably close to human infrastructures using aircraft. That compares with $5-50 per tonne for afforestation and re-forestation, $100-200 for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage and $100-300 for directly capturing carbon from the air - all figures estimated in a 2017 paper in Environmental Research Letters.

"The good thing about crushed silicate rock, such as basalt, is that it can be applied to managed land - crops, grazing land, forest - without tying up the land," says Peter Smith, a soil scientist at Scotland's University of Aberdeen.

Impacts on human health

Field trials of enhanced weathering are taking place in the UK, Germany, the US, Australia and Malaysia . Jessica Strefler, a researcher at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, says studies should assess impacts of basalt dust on human health, whether heavy metals are present, and the risks of overloading land and water ecosystems with nutrients. "All carbon removal options are limited in some way, and the negative side effects increase with deployment," she says.

Jens Hartman, a biogeochemist at Germany's University of Hamburg, says that one potential positive side effect of amending soils with basalt is that bicarbonate ions might help to counteract ocean acidification. "Future research should also assess how enhanced weathering can be combined with biochar (charcoal) to improve soil hydrology, making soils and plants more resistant to droughts," he added.

Goll's team is working with economists to get a clearer picture of deploying basalt at scale. It is the most common volcanic rock type on Earth and near-surface basalt reserves are available on all continents. The researchers suggest that basalt mining could help to replace jobs in the declining coal mining sector, playing a role in the just transition away from carbon-intensive industries.

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Sprinkling basalt over soil could remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - Physics World

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Sprinkling powdered basalt over natural ecosystems would remove vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere while also improving soils. That's the finding of a new study that evaluates this proposed geoengineering scheme and estimates the costs involved. Worldwide, nations are pledging to reach net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, if not earlier.

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Can ‘enhanced rock weathering’ help combat climate change?

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‘Enhanced rock weathering’ uses tiny volcanic rocks to capture the greenhouse gas carbon from the atmosphere.

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TED-Ed celebrates the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Discover hundreds of animated lessons, create customized lessons, and share your big ideas.

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We aim this website be used by teachers to resource their Physics lessons at all levels of the curriculum to increase the awareness of students living in the NW of the UK in the understanding of sustainability, the research at their local Universities and innovative applications in industry and business which will enable us to reach a zero carbon society by 2050.

(Site under development)

Please go to our Mission Statement for the background and our aims.
The Website
Each topic has interviews with people who use physics in their research and careers at the forefront of a low carbon future. With the guidance of interactive questions, students will be able to consider the advances being made that will help to shape our lives and maybe influence their own careers.

There are 7 general themes:

There are a number of different questions available in each theme. The questions will be colour coded for ease of identifying difficulty.
The site is under development at the moment and should be finished and ready for school use at the beginning of April.
Any comments please send to Phil Furneaux: p.furneaux1@lancaster.ac.uk or Melissa Lord: melissalord8@gmail.com

Feedback would be very much appreciated.
Contributors to the project (funded by the Ogden Trust):
Prof George Aggidis (Lancaster University)

Dr Denes Csala, (Energy Storage and Systems Dynamics Engineering, Lancaster University)

Dr Ben Robinson (Quantum Technology Centre, Lancaster University)

Prof Manus Hayne (Lancaster University)

Dr Lefteris Danos (Lancaster University)

Elaine Meskhi (Senior Consultant, EA Technology)

Dr Martin Dowson ( Head of Battery Systems Engineering & Research at WMG, University of Warwick)

Dr Charles Calvert (Systems Engineer, Hydroflex, Birmingham University, )

Dr Stuart Hillmansen ( Chief Engineer, Hydroflex, Birmingham University)

Dr Yagya Remi ( Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre, Manchester Metropolitan University)

Dr Laurie King ( Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre, Manchester Metropolitan University

Dr Helen Atkinson (C- Capture UK)

Dr Charlotte Brown, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Manchester University

Alasdair Robinson (Assistant Operation Manager, Community Windpower Limited)

Isobel Sheldon, OBE, Chief Strategic Officer British Volt

Luke Begley (Heating engineer)

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Sustainability Physics Homework Questions for Schools

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We aim this website be used by teachers to resource their Physics lessons at all levels of the curriculum to increase the awareness of students living in the NW of the UK in the understanding of sustainability, the research at their local Universities and innovative applications in industry and business which will enable us to reach a zero carbon society by 2050.

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Climate Change in the National Curriculum (England) and GCSE specifications

Originally devised in 1987, the National Curriculm was never written with the (then distant) threat of Climate Change in mind. Revisions of the original unwieldy model have mostly been concerned with content reduction. Inevitably, the science of climate change is, at best, covered in a piecemeal way between the three disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics. The boxes below contain all relevant statements at KS3 & 4 that I could find listed in the document linked below (May, 2015). See: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-science-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-science-programmes-of-study

· dependence of almost all life on Earth on the ability of photosynthetic organisms... to use sunlight to build organic molecules... and to maintain levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

· Word summaries for aerobic & anaerobic respiration. (etc. etc.)

- Interactions and Interdependencies

· the composition of the Earth

· the structure of the Earth

· the rock cycle and the formation of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks

· Earth as a source of limited resources and the efficacy of recycling

· the composition of the atmosphere

· the production of carbon dioxide by human activity and the impact on climate

· Energy: comparing amounts of energy transferred

· fuels & energy resources (very non-specific)

· Energy Transfers: Heating & thermal equilibrium... heat transfer through conduction & radiation (but NOT convection!)

· Energy in Matter: Changes with temperature in motion & spacing of particles ( nearly convection!?) !)

· Space Physics : The seasons and the Earth's tilt, day length at different times of year in different hemispheres

· importance of cellular respiration, aerobic & anaerobic (as KS3)

· Photosynthesis as a key process for food production

· Ecosystems: the role of micro-organisms in cycling materials through an ecoststem

Key Stage 4 : Chemistry - Earth and atmospheric science

· evidence for composition and evolution of the Earth's atmosphere since its formation

· potential effects of, and mitigation of, increased levels of carbon dioxide and methane on Earth's climate

· common atmospheric pollutants: sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, particulates and their sources

· the Earth's water resources and obtaining potable water

Key Stage 4 : Physics - Energy

· conservation of energy in a closed system

· calculating energy efficiency for any energy transfers

· renewable and non-renewable energy sources used on Earth; changes in how these are used.

· relating models of arrangements & motions of molecules in solids, liquids & gases to their densities

· melting, evaporation & sublimation as reversible changes

· calculating energy changes involved on heating - [including Specific Heat Capacity & Specific Latent Heat]

Whilst all the statements above have a role, the ones that are italicised in red have direct relevance to understanding climate change and how it may be tackled. T he coverage of curriculum issues relating to climate science is, at best, patchy. A few statements that one might surely expect to find in any science curriculum, like the transfer of thermal energy by convection (essential to understanding atmospheric and ocean heat transfer), appear to be missing altogether, although I'm sure they are covered somewhere in most schools! Amongst the red italicised statements, one phrase, referring to the "uncertainties in evidence for anthropogenic causes of climate change" stands out . Perhaps a sign of how long ago it was written, as the science is now pretty universally accepted due to sheer weight of evi dence.

Content about climate change is largely limited to Chemistry Specifications (or Topics within General Science Specs), although none seem to include any attempt to explain how the greenhouse effect actually works. There is often little clear distinction between the ' natural' greenhouse effect (in which the role of water vapour is generally ignored) and the 'enhanced' greenhouse effect due to human activity. In the latter context, only CO 2 is consistently mentioned, although methane ( CH 4 ) is included in several specifications - usually suggesting agriculture (?cattle) as its main source, but not sources like melting permafrost, or even natural gas exploitation. None of the Specifications mention nitrous oxide ( N 2 O ) which, in 2015 (the most recent figure I could find), was estimated as 6% of anthropogenic GHG emissions (due to land clearance and agriculture), but is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than either CO 2 or CH 4 .

Most Physics Specifications (with the apparent exception of Pearson?) include some references to sustainability in electricity generation (i.e. some comparison of fossil fuels with renewables) but do not generally require any detail of the physics involved in renewable generation (or transmission). Very few Specifications mentioned energy loss fron buildings or, indeed, any other physics relevant to climate science.

Biology Specifications all mention the Sun as the source of energy for photosynthesis, but little more; whilst the carbon cycle is invariably covered, the climate effects of decay processes that produce CO 2, or (more especially) CH 4 , is unclear whilst, in considering the nitrogen cycle, the nature of N 2 O as a GHG is not mentioned.

All Specifications mention "uncertainties in evidence" (see National Curriculum summary), one even elaborates as follows (the italics are mine): "many scientists believe that human activities will cause the temperature of Earth's atmosphere to increase... (which) will result in global climate change". Surely, we are past that point now?

There is very little in any of the Specifications about how we might actually tackle Climate Change, other than non-specific references to renewable energy sources in Physics Specs. There may be much work needed on this if we wish to do more than impart a sense of "Climate Doom" to the younger generation.

As things currently stand, the only other subject mandated to teach about Climate Change (in England & Wales, at least) is Geography ; even here, the topic seems to have been recently subsumed within the theme of "Interdependence". A quick look suggests that all Specifications include desciptions of the mechanism of atmospheric circulation and climate zones, and also descibe evidence for climate change over recent geological history (glacial & interglacial episodes); explanation of the anthropogenic aspects of climate change are, it seems, very much left to the Science curricula. This makes for a noticeable subject disconnect; another problem is that only 40% of school students take Geography to GCSE , although all must take Science. Nationally, only a small number of students may study Climate change in more depth as part of a long-established Geology GCSE or within the recently-announced Natural History GCSE.

The following quote, from an Education Minister in a 2022 parliamentary debate (referring to a Bill that would have amended the curriculum to increase teaching about climate change) summarises the current situation: I leave others to judge whether the right course is being followed:

" While the Government agree with the sentiment of the Bill ... they do not believe that amending the curriculum is the right way to encourage pupils to learn about a sustainable environment. The subjects of citizenship*, science and geography all include content on sustainability and the environment, and schools have the autonomy to go into as much depth on these subjects as they see fit . [* Note: The N.C. for Citizenship makes no reference to Climate Change ].

We are taking action to support schools to develop further pupil knowledge and skills in relation to these very important issues. Our draft sustainability and climate change strategy, which we announced at COP 26, set out two new initiatives: the national education nature park and the climate leaders award . Together, these schemes will build on knowledge gained in the classroom to provide opportunities for all pupils to learn more about nature and biodiversity, develop key digital skills that are essential components to solving climate change and be empowered to take positive action".

On the positive side of the Minister's statement, the words "schools have the autonomy to go into as much depth on these subjects as they see fit" surely might be taken as encouragement to Science teachers to ensure that we do try to play our part fully where Climate & Sustainability Education are concerned?

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Climate Change in the National Curriculum (England) and GCSE specifications Originally devised in 1987, the National Curriculm was never written with the (then distant) threat of Climate Change in mind. Revisions of the original unwieldy model have mostly been concerned with content reduction.

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Astronomers for Planet Earth (A4E). A global movement.

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Written by Mick de Pomerai

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School Climate Science Info - Climate Guide

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A boom in sales of disposable vapes has led to millions ending up in landfill, despite containing valuable lithium, the metal on which much of the high-tech economy depends, a joint investigation by Sky News and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found.

Available in a wide range of colours and flavours, the hassle-free and highly addictive pen-sized devices are the fastest-growing alternative to smoking in the UK, overtaking other types of refillable and reusable vapes for the first time this year.

Our research suggests users in the UK are throwing away around two disposable vapes every second.

The battery in the average disposable vape contains little more than a tenth of a gramme of lithium metal. But it adds up.

The number of discarded disposable vapes accounts for around 10 tonnes of lithium being sent to landfill or waste incinerators each year - enough of the metal to make batteries for 1,200 electric cars.
'It really is madness'
"We can't be throwing these materials away, it really is madness in a climate emergency," said Mark Miodownik, professor of materials and society at University College London.

"It's in your laptop, it's in your mobile phone, it's in electric cars. This is the material that we are absolutely relying on to shift away from fossil fuels and address climate issues."
Read more:
Mineral Rush - How Chile's mega mines are critical to our electric future
Market research by Opinium for Material Focus, a non-profit recycling organisation, found 18% of 4,000 people surveyed had bought a vape in the previous year. Of those, 7% said they had bought a disposable device. This suggests around 168 million disposable vapes are being bought annually in the UK.

Just over half of users reported throwing their vapes in the bin when it runs out, rather than putting them in a waste electricals recycling bin, or returning them to the retailer.
Are UK's top throwaway vape brands going enough?
"From producers through to us as consumers, we need to be more mindful in the decisions that we make, the products that we manufacture and the products that we buy," said Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus.

"It needs to be made significantly easier for many people to do the right thing, because most people want to do the right thing."

But our investigation suggests the disposable vape producers may not even be meeting the minimum obligations to recycle their products.

The country's two leading disposable vape brands are Elf Bar and Geek Bar.

Under UK law, the products are classed as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Producers or importers of products classed as WEEE have certain responsibilities under the regulations to ensure they are recycled, including placing themselves on a register.

Our investigation found no evidence of the manufacturer or importer of Geek Bar or Elf Bar being on the WEEE register. Neither of them responded to our request for comment.

We put the findings of our investigation to the Environment Agency, which is responsible for enforcing the WEEE regulations.

In a response, it told us: "Businesses who sell electrical or electronic equipment on the UK market are required to comply with the WEEE regulations. Any business identified as failing to comply with these regulations will be subject to an appropriate enforcement response."
If you have waste electrical devices, or products containing batteries, and you're not sure where you can recycle them, you can find out more here. You can find the Bureau of Investigative Journalism here.
Disposable vapes are just one product in a growing mountain of electrical and electronic waste that is not being recycled. Previous research by Material Focus estimated there were some 500 million items of electrical waste in UK homes. The amount of valuable metals like copper, gold, and lithium that is either being hoarded or landfilled could be worth £370m to the UK economy each year, it found.

Defra is conducting a review of how to improve the collection and recycling of what it defines as "small mixed waste, electric and electronic equipment" later this year.

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Millions of disposable vapes containing valuable metal ending up in landfill

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Users in the UK are throwing away around two disposable vapes every second. The number of discarded disposable vapes accounts for around 10 tonnes of lithium being sent to landfill or waste incinerators each year - enough of the metal to make batteries for 1,200 electric cars.

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How do you cool a building without air conditioning? Using an approach called biomimicry, see how architect Mick Pearce harnessed the ingenuity of termites to design a natural cooling system for the largest commercial building in Zimbabwe.

source/image: National Geographic

Termites in Zimbabwe build gigantic mounds inside of which they farm a fungus that is their primary food source. The fungus must be kept at exactly 87 degrees F, while the temperatures outside range from 35 degrees F at night to 104 degrees F during the day.

source/image: National Geographic

The termites achieve this remarkable feat by constantly opening and closing a series of heating and cooling vents throughout the mound over the course of the day.

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Termites apparently actually built walls that were porous and also "breathed" nicely like "lungs" to make the termite mounds cooler,inhaling and exhaling once a day as they are heated and cooled.

The research, which was conducted under the supervision of Applied Mathematics professor Lakshminarayan Mahadevan, revealed that the termites mounds drive a convection current, which helps the release of stale air from the underground nest to the surface of the mound.

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How Termites Inspired a Building That Can Cool Itself

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How do you cool a building without air conditioning? Using an approach called biomimicry, see how architect Mick Pearce harnessed the ingenuity of termites to design a natural cooling system for the largest commercial building in Zimbabwe. source/image: National Geographic Termites in Zimbabwe build gigantic mounds inside of which they farm a fungus that is their primary food source.

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It has long been known that painting the roof of a building white reflects sunlight and reduces its temperature.

But by how much and are there downsides to doing it?

In a recent BBC interview, the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon suggested that this reduction could be as much as 30C, with the internal temperature of the building falling by as much as seven degrees.

So where do these figures come from and does wider research back this up?

Mr Ban was talking about a pilot project in Ahmedabad City in western India, where summer temperatures can reach as high as 50C.

In 2017, more than 3,000 city rooftops were painted using both white lime and a special reflective coating.

Known simply as "cool roofing", this process is designed to reduce the solar radiation absorbed, which in turn means less heat is transferred inside the building.

Cool roofs also emit away some heat normally retained by a building, cooling it further.

The planning document for the Gujarat project states that reflective roof coverings "can help bring roof temperatures down by as much as 30C and reduce indoor temperatures by three to seven degrees".

But this is not an actual finding from the project itself.

"Depending on the setting, cool roofs can help keep indoor temperatures lower by 2C to 5C as compared to traditional roofs," says Anjali Jaiswal, of the US-based Natural Resources Defence Council, which oversaw the Ahmedabad project.

This range is slightly lower than Mr Ban's figure for the reduction of building temperatures, but is still a significant drop.

Another pilot in Hyderabad in southern India, using a cool roof coating membrane, found indoor air temperatures lower by an average of 2C.

As for Mr Ban's claim of a 30 degree fall in the temperature of the rooftop itself, the Gujarat pilot does not provide answers, but we can turn to the findings of a study by the California-based Berkeley Lab for some guidance.

The conditions would of course be very different in California to those found in India - where more than 60% of roofs are made from metal, asbestos and concrete, which trap heat inside buildings even when treated with white coating.

However, both Indian cities, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, have seen sufficient success with their pilots that they have launched expanded cool roofs programmes this year.

The idea is of course not new, and white roofs and walls have been a typical sight for centuries in southern European and North African countries.

The city of New York has recently coated more than 10 million sq ft of rooftops white.

Other places like California have updated building codes to promote cool roofs, which are seen as an important way to save energy.

A cool roof can save air-conditioning costs by as much as 40%.

An experiment in Bhopal in central India found that solar reflective paint on low-rise buildings saved energy load by 303 kWh in peak summer hours.

There are even estimates for the potential reduction in global carbon emissions if cooling paint was used on rooftops in every large city around the world.

The Berkeley Lab says the worldwide use of reflective roofing could produce a global cooling effect equivalent to offsetting 24 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide - the equivalent of taking 300 million cars off the road for 20 years.

It is certainly a low-cost option, particularly in poorer countries.

A coating of lime wash "can cost as little as 1.5 rupees (£0.017; $0.02) per sq ft to more expensive reflective coatings or membranes", says Ms Jaiswal.

The differences can be considerable both in personal comfort and in energy savings on cooling.

Ultimately, however, "political will and implementation play a big role", says Ms Jaiswal.

And there are possible downsides to consider.

For cities with colder winters, reflective roofs might increase demand for heating and roof condensation is a mould risk.

This is why a University College London team decided not to use white paint for a resettlement colony project in New Delhi.

"The residents were also against painting roofs white, because roofs are also used for other purposes," says Renu Khosla, from the Delhi-based Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence.

The highly reflective paint, she says, makes it hard to go out on to the roofs to use the space for storage and daily household chores.

A team from the University of Chicago also carried out research in the same area near Delhi.

They painted the roofs of a group of buildings and found that even though indoor temperatures fell by only modest amounts, those living in them did adjust their behaviour to save money on energy bills and water use.

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How much can painting a roof white reduce its temperature?

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It has long been known that painting the roof of a building white reflects sunlight and reduces its temperature. But by how much and are there downsides to doing it? In a recent BBC interview, the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon suggested that this reduction could be as much as 30C, with the internal temperature of the building falling by as much as seven degrees.

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Programme mainly for Scottish Schools

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Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units- whole numbers, halves, or quarters.

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Educator Guide: What's Causing Sea-Level Rise? Land Ice Vs. Sea Ice | NASA/JPL Edu

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Students learn the difference between land ice and sea ice and make a model to see how the melting of each impacts global sea level.

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Overview

Why is the ocean vital to our planet? There are many reasons, but one important one is that the ocean is a major player in regulating our weather and climate through currents. In this lesson plan, your students will model ocean currents with cups, water, and food coloring, and explore how temperature and density differences set deep ocean waters in motion to create a global oceanic circulation system.

NGSS Alignment

This lesson helps students prepare for these Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations:

MS-ESS2-6. Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.

This lesson focuses on these aspects of NGSS Three Dimensional Learning:

Science & Engineering Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Crosscutting Concepts

Developing and Using Models. Develop and use a model to describe phenomena.

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations. Collect data to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence to answer scientific questions or test design solutions under a range of conditions.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for phenomena.

ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth's Surface Processes. Variations in density due to variations in temperature and salinity drive a global pattern of interconnected ocean currents.

ESS2.D: Weather and Climate. The ocean exerts a major influence on weather and climate by absorbing energy from the sun, releasing it over time, and globally redistributing it through ocean currents.

Energy and Matter. Within a natural or designed system, the transfer of energy drives the motion and/or cycling of matter.

Systems and System Models. Models can be used to represent systems and their interactions-such as inputs, processes and outputs-and energy, matter, and information flows within systems.

Scale Proportion and Quantity. Time, space, and energy phenomena can be observed at various scales using models to study systems that are too large or too small.

Materials

Materials per group of 3-4 students:

Plastic cups, 9 oz. (2 of the same size)

CD

Laminated paper or stiff plastic sheet; available from Amazon.com. Plastic strips cut from the lid of clamshell boxes for fresh produce also work well.

Food coloring (dark colors such as blue and green work better than light colors)

Hot water

Ice water

Spoon for mixing

Small flashlight

Immersion thermometer; available from Amazon.com

Aluminum tray

Smartphone with a sensor app such as phyphox, available for free on Google Play for Android devices (version 4.0 or newer) or from the App Store for iOS devices (iOS 9.0 or newer).

Note: Phyphox does not support the light sensor on iOS devices. If you need the light sensor, you have to use Android devices for your experiment. Note that on some devices the light sensor is only updated when there is a coarse change of illuminance. This means that if the light intensity does not change or only changes slightly, the sensor appears to not record any data. The recording will continue once the light intensity changes again. If your experiments allows, it helps to wiggle the phone or the light source (e.g. flashlight) slightly to induce minimal reading fluctuations and keep the sensor active.

Materials for teacher preparation and demonstration:

Scissors

World map or globe

Plastic cup

Food coloring

Teaspoon

Science Buddies, a 501(c)(3) public charity, and keep our resources free for everyone. Our top priority is student learning. If you have any comments (positive or negative) related to purchases you've made for science projects from recommendations on our site, please let us know. Write to us at Disclaimer: Science Buddies participates in affiliate programs with Home Science Tools, Amazon.com, Carolina Biological, and Jameco Electronics. Proceeds from the affiliate programs help support scibuddy@sciencebuddies.org.

Oceanic circulation, convection, climate, density, temperature

Svenja Lohner, PhD, Science Buddies

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Oceanic Circulation: What Keeps the Ocean in Motion? | Lesson Plan

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Why is the ocean vital to our planet? There are many reasons, but one important one is that the ocean is a major player in regulating our weather and climate through currents. In this lesson plan, your students will model ocean currents with cups, water, and food coloring, and explore how temperature and density differences set deep ocean waters in motion to create a global oceanic circulation system.

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What happens to wind turbines at the end of their life?

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What happens to wind turbines at the end of their life?

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Wind turbines are getting old. What happens to the ageing fleet?

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Modern wind turbines are growing taller, bigger and more powerful. They offer the potential for reliable, abundant energy. But what happens to the ageing fleet? The industry is now scrambling to avoid a waste problem, giving old turbines a second lease of life. The Down to Earth team takes a closer…

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What happens to wind turbines at the end of their life?

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What happens to wind turbines at the end of their life?

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Wind turbines are getting old. What happens to the ageing fleet?

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Modern wind turbines are growing taller, bigger and more powerful. They offer the potential for reliable, abundant energy. But what happens to the ageing fleet? The industry is now scrambling to avoid a waste problem, giving old turbines a second lease of life. The Down to Earth team takes a closer…

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Carbon brief - solar and the impact on farmland

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Carbon brief - solar and the impact on farmland

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The "threat" posed to UK farms by the expansion of solar power has emerged as a campaign issue for the final two candidates in the race to become the nation's new prime minister.

Both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have warned of solar panels "filling" the UK's highest quality farmland, joining a chorus of their fellow Conservative MPs who have recently described solar projects as hazards for rural communities and food supply.

There has been some pushback to the view being promoted by Truss and Sunak. For example, in the Times, chief reporter Sean O'Neill wrote that the pair are "displaying staggering ignorance" and "pandering to the whingeing nimbys in their tiny electorate". In the Daily Telegraph, the paper's chief city commentator Ben Marlow wrote that "Britain's culture wars have reached such epically absurd proportions that even the sun is now the enemy".

Despite the claims, ground-mounted solar panels currently cover just 0.1% of all land in the UK.

Even government plans to significantly scale up solar in line with its net-zero target are expected to bring this up to just 0.3% of the UK land area. This is the equivalent to around 0.5% of the land currently used for farming - and roughly half of the space taken up by golf courses.

In this factcheck, Carbon Brief assesses some of the statements made by UK politicians about solar power in recent months, how land is used in the UK and the concept of "agrivoltaics" - systems in which farmland is effectively combined with solar power.

Why are some UK politicians worried about solar power on farms?

Liz Truss, who is currently the firm favourite in the Conservative leadership race, told a husting in Exeter at the start of August:

"Our fields should be filled [with] our fantastic produce...[They] shouldn't be full of solar panels, and I will change the rules. I will change the rules to make sure...we're using our high value agricultural land for farming."

"I think one of the most depressing sights when you're driving through England is seeing fields that should be full of crops or livestock, full of solar panels," says Liz Truss. pic.twitter.com/yhOpD6y9Cw
- Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) August 11, 2022

Two weeks later, Rishi Sunak wrote an article for the Daily Telegraph in which he seemed to be matching his opponent's rhetoric, declaring:

"On my watch, we will not lose swathes of our best farmland to solar farms. Instead, we should be making sure that solar panels are installed on commercial buildings, on sheds and on properties."

As Prime Minister, Rishi will fight for the interests of our farmers and protect our agricultural land

Read Rishi's piece in the @Telegraph here👇 https://t.co/DtuaynavpM#Ready4Rishi pic.twitter.com/g4qmsmyhwg
- Ready 4 Rishi (@Ready4Rishi) August 19, 2022

This idea, which was welcomed by climate-sceptic lobbyists, has not come out of nowhere. For months, backbench Conservative MPs have been speaking out against the number and size of new ground-mounted solar power projects being proposed, often citing local campaigns against projects in their constituencies.

Among them was Matt Hancock, the former health secretary and energy minister. In a Daily Mail article, he announced plans to stand in a supermarket car park with local campaigners to protest against a 2,500-acre solar farm in his constituency of West Suffolk.

Hancock used a common refrain, stating that "proposals for solar farms are often sited on high-grade agricultural land" and suggesting the focus should be on rooftop solar instead. He also warned of the potential for fires resulting from battery storage units and said a local golf course was at risk.

According to the UK parliamentary record Hansard, a lot of the conversation about this issue in parliament took place at two key debates. In March, MPs discussed the construction of "large solar farms" and Brendan Clarke-Smith, Conservative MP for Bassetlaw, stated that "the threat to agricultural land is the crux of the problem".

James Gray, Conservative MP for North Wiltshire, who secured the debate in June on "solar farms and battery storage", told parliament:

"Right now, we have a gigantic number of applications in my constituency for solar farms - I know of at least four...They are turning a rural area into an industrialised centre, which is really unacceptable."

He later raised the issue of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and resulting pressure on food supplies, telling parliament that, "at a time like this, using good productive land in the UK for solar farms is disgraceful".

Gray's comments are a continuation of historical Conservative anxieties around the construction of renewable energy in rural areas, which have previously led to a de-facto ban on the construction of new onshore wind - with considerable costs for the UK economy.

Despite the strength of feeling among some local campaign groups, the evidence suggests that most people in the UK, including 73% of Conservative party members, back these projects.

The government's energy security strategy, published in April, contained various measures to deal with the UK's energy crisis and achieve its net-zero targets, including a pledge to ramp up solar power capacity from 14 gigawatts (GW) to 70GW by 2035.

However, it also contained language that seemed to address Conservatives who were sceptical about ground-mounted solar, pledging to "consult on amending planning rules to strengthen policy in favour of development on non-protected land, while ensuring communities continue to have a say and environmental protections remain in place".

Meanwhile, in Wales, the Labour climate minister Julie James issued a letter in March this year, saying that her department will prioritise the maintenance of high-quality farmland when considering solar projects. She wrote:

"Should solar PV array applications on BMV [ best and most versatile] agricultural land come before the Department for Climate Change, the department will object to the loss of BMV agricultural land unless other significant material considerations outweigh the need to protect such land."

How much land in the UK is used for solar power?

Solar farms in the UK currently have a combined capacity of around 14GW. According to analysis by the trade body Solar Energy UK, using Solar Media data, 9.6GW of this capacity comes from ground-mounted solar panels.

According to Solar Energy UK, for existing projects approximately six acres of land is required for every megawatt (MW) of power, which means that current ground-mounted solar covers an estimated 230 square kilometres (km2).

This makes up just under 0.1% of land in the UK.

In comparison, according to Corine Land Cover data, agricultural land covers 56% of the UK. Around 70,000km2 is pasture used for grazing cows and sheep, and around 67,000km2 is for growing cereals and legumes.

(It is worth noting that the more recent National Food Strategy, which uses the Corine Land Cover data alongside other sources, estimates that agricultural land covers 70% of the UK.)

As the chart below demonstrates, existing solar farms (dark yellow) currently use less land than golf courses (red) and airports (orange), which cover 1,256km2 and 493km2, respectively.

Proportions of total UK land (blue) taken up by golf courses (red), airports (orange), ground-mounted solar panels in 2022 (dark yellow) and estimated additional land taken up by ground-mounted solar panels in the future under government plans (light yellow). The right-hand square represents 1% of the left-hand square. Source: Carbon Brief analysis using Corine Land Cover data and estimates from Solar Energy UK, using Solar Media data. Chart by Tom Prater for Carbon Brief.

In April, the UK government released a new energy security strategy, which outlined plans to " look to increase " solar capacity "up to five times" by 2035. This would involve increasing ground-mounted solar capacity by an additional 38GW.

As solar technology becomes more efficient, it will require less space. ' Bifacial' panels, for example, capture sunlight on both sides of the panel.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy proposes that future solar power will need between two and four acres of land to produce 1MW of power. Assuming an average of three acres per 1MW, if the government meets its target of increasing solar capacity fivefold, ground-mounted solar could cover a total of almost 700km2 by 2035. This equates to nearly 0.3% of the UK's land surface.

The yellow blocks in the chart below show the land cover of ground-mounted solar in 2022 (dark yellow) and the additional land cover of future solar under government plans to increase capacity five-fold (light yellow). The blue blocks show other types of land use in the UK.

Breakdown of different land uses in the UK (blue) by area, with the figure representing the total UK land area. The dark yellow square indicates the area covered by ground-mounted solar panels in 2022 and the yellow square indicates the additional estimated area taken up by ground-mounted solar panels in the future under government plans. Source: Carbon Brief analysis using Corine Land Cover data and estimates from Solar Energy UK, using Solar Media data. Chart by Tom Prater for Carbon Brief.

Ground-mounted solar power is built on several types of land. However, even if all future ground-mounted solar was built on farmland, the impact on UK food production as a result of the change in land use would be small.

This can be illustrated with an idealised example where all of the 700km2 to meet the UK's ground-mounted solar target replaces land used to grow wheat. On average in the UK, one hectare of land produces around eight tonnes of wheat in a year. This means that 700km2 - or 70,000 hectares - could, theoretically, be used to grow 560,000 tonnes of wheat per year. Based on 2021 data, this would account for just 4% of the UK's annual wheat yield - even in this extreme example.

Are high-quality farmlands under threat?

Despite the very small areas of land involved, Conservative politicians have warned that the nation's " high-value" and " best " agricultural land is under threat from development.

Rather than criticising renewable power, they have expressed concerns about planning regulations. Sunak has said he will "review planning rules to ensure that high-quality farmland is sufficiently protected...that large-scale solar farms cannot be built on [the] best and most versatile agricultural land".

(" Best and most versatile" is a term used to refer to Grade 1, 2 and identified Grade 3a agricultural land.)

MPs have repeatedly mentioned the National Planning Policy Framework, which James Gray MP said should "discourage the use of agricultural land for solar farms rather than encourage it". An update to the policy was set for July, but has been delayed.

Also up for revision is the National Policy Statement for Renewable Energy Infrastructure (EN-3), which governs the construction of large-scale (more than 50MW in England) solar projects. This document already advises against the use of best and most versatile cropland for solar power "where possible".

However, it adds that "land type should not be a predominating factor in determining the suitability of the site location". Roz Bulleid, deputy policy director at thinktank Green Alliance, tells Carbon Brief this kind of language "might be what's targeted" by politicians.

Despite the rhetoric coming out of Westminster, many farmers - who are unlikely to volunteer their best land for solar power - are positive about this technology. Not least because fields with solar panels can still be used to produce food. (See: How can land be used for both solar and agriculture?)

Carbon Brief spoke to Tom Martin, who has proposed a solar scheme on his mixed farm in Cambridgeshire. The project would see around 65,000 solar panels sited on approximately 100 acres across three fields.

Martin describes the idea of adding solar panels to grassland while still grazing sheep as "win-win":

"It's not 'produce 10 units of energy' or 'produce 10 units of food'. It could be six units of both. And then, all of a sudden, your two halves are greater than the whole."

The selection of which fields to use for solar is down to a mix of factors, explains Martin. This includes, for example, the best way to connect the system to the grid, but also choosing the fields that generally produce lower yields.

In addition, his farm is always seeing a "fluid" rotation between grassland and arable use, Martin says, noting that "in the last 10 years, we have changed 200 acres from grass into arable". So even with moving 100 acres back to grass for the solar panels, the farm will still be producing more cereals than it did a decade ago.

A spokesperson from the National Farmers Union (NFU), which represents tens of thousands of farmers in England and Wales, tells Carbon Brief that their "preference" is that solar farms are built on lower quality agricultural land. But they add:

"Renewable energy production is a core part of the NFU's net-zero plan and solar projects often offer a good diversification option for farmers."

Kevin McCann, policy manager at trade body Solar Energy UK, tells Carbon Brief:

"Solar is also helping to keep UK farmers in business, by providing them with a stable revenue stream. More solar also means less dependence on gas, which is the reason why the UK is in a cost of living crisis."

At the most recent renewable energy auction, the UK government's main means of supporting renewable projects, solar projects secured power prices that were far lower than gas.

Pssst!

Solar is now 88% cheaper than thought a decade ago, UK govt says - half its estimated cost of new gas power

Just running a gas plant in Feb 2022 is costing around FOUR times as much as we'd pay for new solar or wind

Thread with charts + FAQ

1/ https://t.co/V2wefGvdy7 pic.twitter.com/XCprblByN8
- Simon Evans (@DrSimEvans) February 16, 2022

Land used for solar power can still be used for farming both livestock and crops, often with little negative impact on yields. (See: What are the impacts of solar panels on farming?)

As planning permission for solar projects is not granted on a permanent basis, the land in question is technically only temporarily out of use and could even improve in quality while not being farmed. Also, solar projects will not necessarily be built on farmland.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has made it clear that climate change, not solar power, is the "biggest medium- to long-term risk" to the nation's domestic food supply.

Government research suggests that climate impacts under a medium-emissions scenario could cut the proportion of best and most versatile arable farmland from a baseline of 38% to 11% by 2050. Farmers are already facing crop failures this year due to extreme heat and drought over the summer.

Analysis by the charity CPRE found that 14,415 hectares (144km2) of best and most versatile land were developed for non-farming purposes between 2010 and 2022, representing an overall loss of just 0.6% of this land type.

Of this land, just 1,400 hectares (14km2) were used for renewable energy developments including solar power - 10% of the total. For comparison, 55% were used for housing.

Finally, analysis by the thinktank Green Alliance found that crops for biofuel production take up 77 times more land than that used for solar panels.

This is significant because, as Carbon Brief analysis shows, a hectare of solar panels delivers between 48 and 112 times more driving distance, when used to charge an electric vehicle, than that land could deliver if used to grow biofuels for cars.

PM Liz Truss complains of fields "full of solar panels"

Yet a hectare of solar farm delivers 48-112x more driving distance, via an EV, than using the same land for biofuel

Turning UK land currently used for bioethanol over to solar could fuel a quarter of all UK cars

THREAD pic.twitter.com/yCByP1dMyJ
- Simon Evans (@DrSimEvans) September 13, 2022

How can land be used for both solar and agriculture?

The debate around using farmland for solar often assumes that the two are incompatible. However, the concept of "agrivoltaics" - also known as agrisolar or agrophotovoltaics - outlines various ways in which land use can be optimised to address the dual needs of energy and food production.

The idea was first described in a 1982 paper, in which the authors "propose a configuration of a solar, e.g., photovoltaic, power plant, which allows for additional agricultural use of the land involved".

In an agrivoltaic system, crops can be planted below and among raised photovoltaic panels. Dr M Ryyan Khan, an electrical engineer who studies renewable energy systems at East West University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, tells Carbon Brief:

"The idea is that if you put the solar panels on top of the crop fields, you might get benefits from both worlds."

Because many crops do not need the full amount of light that the sun provides, Khan says, that "extra sunlight" can be harnessed for energy generation.

However, agrivoltaic installations are not just limited to growing crops, says Jordan Macknick, the lead energy-water-land analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. He tells Carbon Brief:

"Agrivoltaics can mean 1,000 acres of pollinator habitat and native vegetation providing ecosystem services. It can also mean 500 acres of sheep-grazing underneath the panels. It can also mean five acres of someone growing tomatoes and peppers and watermelon underneath the panels."

Japan is a world leader in agrivoltaics, with the first installations in that country coming online in 2004. According to a 2021 paper, Japan has nearly 2,000 agrivoltaic installations and more than 120 different crops are grown beneath the panels. The country also started the world's first national funding programme to promote the technology, nearly a decade ago.

Today, examples of agrivoltaic installations can be found around the world, with pilot projects or working agrivoltaic farms on every inhabited continent. In the US, Macknick tells Carbon Brief, the vast majority of agrivoltaic installations are on land that is used either for native pollinator habitat or grazing land.

Diagram showing several types of agrivoltaic configurations. Source: Macknick et al. (2022).

In 2021, the energy-generating capacity of all agrivoltaic systems worldwide exceeded 14 gigawatts, according to the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, which notes that this capacity has "increased exponentially" since the early 2010s. The institute also projects that Germany alone has the potential to generate 1.7 terawatts of power from agrivoltaic systems.

The growing interest in agrivoltaics reflects a growing recognition of the vulnerability of agriculture to climate change, says Dr Seeta Sistla, an ecosystem ecologist at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She tells Carbon Brief:

"What has become abundantly clear across the world is that climate change is absolutely here and it's affecting every sector of our human lived experience, and it's especially pertinent in terms of agriculture and land use and land sustainability."

She continues:

"Given the sort of reality of climate change that is being felt in real time now versus even five or six years ago, I would say that people are much more willing to consider and think about putting in solar production, both as a climate mitigation strategy, but also as a farm mitigation strategy."

Photovoltaic cells on a farm can provide an extra, stable source of income for farmers whose yields may become increasingly erratic due to climate change and increasingly frequent weather extremes, Sistla says. She tells Carbon Brief:

"Solar arrays can give footholds for small farms to remain in families, because it provides a constant stream of income versus crops which can fail or the prices can fluctuate."

Sohei Takahashi, chief of the Eco-energy Minamisoma Research Institute, shows an experimental greenhouse run from solar power in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 2 2015. A group of farmers led by Takahashi in the northeastern Japan city sells electricity generated by solar power panels installed at the farm while using the energy to produce vegetables in an effort to recover from the plight caused by the 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima power plant. Credit: Newscom / Alamy Stock Photo.

Martin, whose farm is mainly arable, but with some grassland for sheep and cattle, says the solar plans fit into the ethos of regenerative farming that incorporates livestock into an arable rotation. He explains:

"One of the reasons I'm excited about solar is that at the moment we bring in sheep during the winter and they graze on the stubbles [what remains of the crops once harvested] and our winter cover crops."

The sheep are "tremendous at turning nutrients that we've managed to hold in vegetation form over the winter into manure, which is great for our spring crops to access", says Martin.

However, in the springtime, the sheep go back to their home farm "because we have nowhere to put them", says Martin:

"Whereas [with the solar park], actually they could stay on our farm and then move through to the wildflower grasses under the solar panels during the summer. That is a really kind of beautiful holistic system."

And there are other options as well as grazing, says Martin. For example, the rows of solar panels in the proposed scheme will be placed four metres apart. This means that the gaps between them could be cultivated because farm machinery - such as combine harvesters and sowing machines for planting seeds - can be as narrow as three or four metres wide, he says.

The farm also hosts a community garden that "could work very well between the panels", he adds.

While these options are not as flexible as a bare field, says Martin, having solar panels "complements our broader farming system".

In addition, planting a "really biodiverse mix of native flora" around the solar panels - which "you could mix with legumes and herbs and grasses" - could also help fix carbon into the soil, says Martin. This would mean restoring soil carbon, producing food and generating energy at the same time, he says:

"Then we're getting into the territory of win-win-win and that gets even more exciting."

What are the impacts of solar panels on farming?

The effects of agrivoltaic arrays on crops is an active area of research, with some crops lending themselves to the system better than others.

For example, tall fruit and nut trees that grow above the elevated solar panels can block the panels and reduce their electricity generation. But other plants, such as leafy greens or berries, can benefit from the extra shade provided by the panels.

In general, Sistla tells Carbon Brief, agrivoltaics do well with low-growing crops that are typically harvested by hand and, therefore, do not require new, specialised equipment that can navigate the solar array.

A wide range of crops, including tomatoes, basil and pasture grass, have been experimentally shown to have comparable yields in agrivoltaic systems as in conventional farming. On grazing lands, solar arrays increase the forage quality, the water and nutrient content of plant matter and reduce water demand, Sistla says.

For example, a 2018 study in Oregon in the US found that grazing grasses grew better in the shade of solar panels, with "dramatic gains in productivity" providing 90% more biomass through the summer thanks to the areas under the panels being 328% more water efficient.

Agrivoltaics or agrophotovoltaics is co-developing the same area of land for both solar photovoltaic power as well as for agriculture. Credit: medical mask / Alamy Stock Photo.

The panels can benefit livestock, too. Earlier this year, a four-year trial in Australia found that wool from merino sheep improved in both quality and quantity on farms that had installed solar panels. This was down to the "panels providing shelter for the sheep and grass", the Independent reported.

Just as the choice of crop can affect the potential of an agrivoltaic system, so too can the climate and location.

In the western US, where there is an "abundance of sun" and a lack of water, agrivoltaic research has had "very promising" results, Macknick says.

In arid regions, the shade provided by photovoltaic panels can improve water retention and protect delicate plants. The added shade can also be beneficial to farm labourers and grazing livestock during the heat of the day, Sistla says.

By contrast, the research has shown "much more nuanced results" in the northeastern US, Macknick tells Carbon Brief. During a typical summer, agrivoltaics have resulted in depressed yields of some crops. But in unusually hot or dry summers, the results are similar to those seen in arid regions. So agrivoltaics may be able to help mitigate some of the climate extremes, he says.

Schematic showing some of the potential benefits of agrivoltaic systems. Source: NREL.

While much of the agrivoltaic research on crops has focused on vegetables, there is growing evidence that such setups can be profitable in "major crop" systems - those that grow staple crops such as rice, wheat and maize, which are typically less shade-tolerant - Khan says.

A 2019 study found that stilt-mounted photovoltaic panels could be installed on cornfields without reducing maize production. And a recent study that Khan worked on found that agrivoltaics deployed on rice paddies "will always be profitable" due to the relative prices of crops and electricity. With the right governmental policies and strategies in place, he says, smallholder farmers could lease their land to energy companies in return for a portion of the profits from the panels.

Just as photovoltaics can affect the crops below them, the crops can influence the efficiency of the panels above. One 2019 study found that photovoltaic energy production potential is actually greater over croplands than other types of land because of the cooling effect of the crops' evapotranspiration.

What that study does not take into account, Khan tells Carbon Brief, is that the increased relative humidity can hasten the panels' degradation. Instead of the 25-year lifespan of a conventional photovoltaic array, an agrivoltaic array may only last 20 years, he says - which should be taken into account when planning such an array and evaluating its economic potential.

The long duration of an agrivoltaic installation means that careful planning must be involved to ensure long-term success, Macknick says. A recent NREL report (pdf) laid out a number of considerations for successful agrivoltaic deployment. Among other recommendations, getting buy-in from farmers is paramount to success, Macknick says. He tells Carbon Brief:

"The partnerships that are developed right away between the solar developer and the agricultural entity are absolutely instrumental. They need to be working together from the beginning, in order to make sure you do have a successful arrangement where someone would want to farm for the next 20 years, because the solar projects will last 20, 25, 30 years. You're gonna want someone to be farming all those years as well."

Update: This article was updated on 26/08/2022 to include a mention of Ben Marlow's article in the Daily Telegraph.

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Factcheck: Is solar power a 'threat' to UK farmland? - Carbon Brief

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The "threat" posed to UK farms by the expansion of solar power has emerged as a campaign issue for the final two candidates in the race to become the nation's new prime minister.

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The Power of Gravity on ARES North America…

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My Grid GB  - Electricity data  and trackers

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Also take a look at the remewables map in this website

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Scope and purpose

This strategy applies to:

the Department for Education (DfE), its agencies and public bodies

the education and children's services systems in England - including:

early years

schools (and independent schools where applicable)

further education

higher education

children's social care

DfE has an important role to play in all aspects of sustainability. But the area in which we have the most work to do is reducing our environmental footprint, particularly in the drive to achieve net zero.

While the policies set out here are focussed on the environmental aspect of sustainability, this is done with consideration for how those policies will interact with the social and economic aspects of sustainability.

The UK government and the devolved governments (Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) are committed to climate action, and we will work together in our international action. The targets and strategic aims set out relate to England.

It brings together short, medium and longer-term actions that will enable us to make progress towards achieving our 4 strategic aims and overarching vision. It is a strategy to 2030.

Action will be reviewed and updated annually to respond to new opportunities, scientific updates, evidence and data.

This strategy has been informed by:

Foreword
Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi MP
Since spring of 2020, the British education system faced its most challenging period for generations: sustaining learning through a pandemic. The whole sector met this challenge with great resilience. Now, the UK must show the rest of the world how our education system can transition out of the pandemic and, in doing so, face the even greater environmental challenge ahead of us, by Building Back Greener.

We have promised to level up the country, to boost economic growth, encourage innovation, create good jobs and enhance educational attainment so all may share equally in our nation's success. To achieve this in a world influenced by the effects of climate change, we must level up within a context of sustainability, giving all children, young people and adults the knowledge and skills to thrive in the green economy and to help restore nature.

The challenge of climate change is formidable. For children and young people to meet it with determination, and not with despair, we must offer them not just truth, but also hope. Learners need to know the truth about climate change - through knowledge-rich education. They must also be given the hope that they can be agents of change, through hands-on activity and, as they progress, through guidance and programmes allowing them to pursue a green career pathway in their chosen field.

I would like to thank the large number of people that have worked with us in developing this strategy. The feedback from young people, educators, academics, leaders, governing bodies and experts has been invaluable in shaping this first step on our journey. By continuing to work together in the delivery of the strategy we will seek further opportunities to build on the action set out and update on shared progress annually.

I am confident that together we will support net zero through skills and decarbonisation; play a significant part in nature's recovery; build an education system resilient to climate change; and, provide the truth and hope that young people need to flourish in our changing world.

Context

The UK requires the education sector to play its role in positively responding to climate change and inspiring action on an international stage. This strategy sets out ambitious activity to respond to recommendations for education from the:

It supports the delivery of the government's 25 Year Environment Plan and Net Zero Strategy. It includes how we will meet legislative requirements and work in the context of:

the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals and UNESCO's 'Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for 2030' which set out the key role of education in the successful achievement of the goals

the Paris Agreement and Glasgow Climate Pact, which are important steps towards keeping the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive

Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) which includes taking action to empower society to engage in education and training

the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) ensures the needs and views of children are taken into account in the development of climate change policies

the UK Climate Change Act (2008) and National Adaptation Programme (NAP), which include action for education in adapting to climate change and require progress reporting against priority risks

UK government legislation to meet net zero by 2050 - the UK is the first country to set legally binding carbon budgets, placing a restriction on the total amount of greenhouse gases the UK can emit over a 5-year period. In the latest, Carbon Budget 6, the UK legislated to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels

the Environment Act (2021) reflects the need to tackle climate change through nature-based solutions - following the close of the targets consultation in May 2022, government will set statutory targets for air quality, biodiversity, water, resource efficiency and waste reduction, and a new target to reverse the decline in species abundance by the end of 2030, while the act also strengthens the biodiversity duty on public authorities, including the Department for Education

the cross-government 25 Year Environment Plan, which commits to encouraging children to be close to nature both in and out of school

The challenge and the opportunity

Children and young people are worried about climate change and want to know more about:

the impact it is having now

how it will impact their future lives

DfE and the education sector have a joint responsibility for preparing children and young people for the challenges and opportunities they will face - with the appropriate knowledge, skills and pastoral care.

Education

Through education we have the privilege to be able to engage directly with children and young people who:

Through their learned and lived experiences from early years to further and higher education, we will provide opportunities to develop a broad knowledge and understanding of the importance of nature, sustainability and the causes and impact of climate change and to translate this knowledge into positive action and solutions.

In the UK, there are more than 16 million children, young people and adults in education. The enthusiasm of youth can inspire the whole of society to work together at the start of this crucial decade for the planet.

Green skills and jobs

Green jobs will not be niche. We anticipate that sustainability and climate change will touch every career.

The UK government's Net Zero Strategy will support the transition to net zero and 190,000 jobs by the middle of the 2020s and up to 440,000 jobs in 2030. The increased investment and legislation for nature's recovery driven by the Environment Act will also create many green jobs in the nature sector. Our programmes will provide the opportunity for people of all ages to train, retrain or upskill to go into green careers.

Learning from and connecting with nature

The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review states that 'connection with nature declines in childhood to an overall low in the mid-teens. Creating an environment from an early age where we are able to connect to nature is essential for self-enforcement in protecting and valuing nature'.

We will increase opportunities for all children and young people to:

spend time in nature and learn more about it

become actively involved in the improvement of their local environment

We know that regular contact with green spaces can have a beneficial impact on children's physical and mental health. However, access to green space is not equal and we must do more to ensure that all children have opportunities to benefit from access to green space and build connections with nature.

Buildings

Climate adaptation and decarbonisation activity in nurseries, schools, colleges, universities and care buildings can provide powerful learning opportunities. Young people can:

Seeing sustainability brought to life in the buildings around them will allow children and young people to gain experiences which will enhance and contextualise their learning.

Leading by example: cutting energy bills and carbon emissions in the public and higher education sectors shows that schools and universities represent 36% of total UK public sector building emissions.

Costs are also significant and rising. Data sources and interpretation - schools financial benchmarking shows that in 2019 schools alone were spending around £630m per annum on energy and we expect today's figure to be far greater. To reduce energy usage and achieve legal targets for carbon emissions we need to:

get a better understanding of the scale of the problem across the sectors through standardised reporting

drive action based on evidence

Adapting existing buildings and designing new ones to respond to climate change and reduce emissions will undoubtedly be a significant challenge.

By developing and delivering evidence-based solutions for decarbonisation and climate resilience we will:

reduce energy demand

adapt to climate risks

drive innovation in construction

act as a catalyst for green jobs

deliver savings

We will also drive a wide range of additional benefits that will contribute to a vibrant and resilient education community, including:

International

Through learning from others and sharing our own expertise internationally, we will be more effective and innovative. Sustainability and climate change are global problems which require collective efforts and evidence-based solutions.

Vision and aims

Vision: the United Kingdom is the world-leading education sector in sustainability and climate change by 2030.

In England, we will achieve this through the following strategic aims:

Excellence in education and skills for a changing world: preparing all young people for a world impacted by climate change through learning and practical experience.

Net zero: reducing direct and indirect emissions from education and care buildings, driving innovation to meet legislative targets and providing opportunities for children and young people to engage practically in the transition to net zero.

Resilience to climate change: adapting our education and care buildings and system to prepare for the effects of climate change.

A better environment for future generations: enhancing biodiversity, improving air quality and increasing access to, and connection with, nature in and around education and care settings.

Guiding principles

Partnership and collaboration

Success depends on DfE and stakeholders from across the sectors working together.

We know there are many organisations working to improve sustainability and mitigate against climate change, so we will seek opportunities to:

work with others who share our objectives

extend and amplify existing good practice and initiatives

We will also facilitate partnership across the sectors to maximise the use of resources, expertise and ideas to achieve more effective outcomes.

Evidence and insight

Evidence will be at the heart of our activity. By 2023 we will develop and publish a framework to evaluate the impacts of the actions set out within the strategy.

We will also work with the sectors to develop reporting frameworks and processes to ensure strategic decisions can be taken at every level. While mandatory reporting is not currently set out within the strategy, this decision will be kept under regular review. The decision to mandate is subject to uptake and legislative reporting requirements in line with government's Net Zero Strategy.

We will work together to set science-based targets from 2025, ensuring we play our part in reducing public-sector emissions against a 2017 baseline by:

50% by the end of Carbon Budget 5 (2032)

75% by the end of Carbon Budget 6 (2037)

There are many opportunities to improve sustainability and impact climate change. Ensuring we learn before we leap, we will work across the sector to research, test and pilot with:

As our evidence base for what works grows, we will prioritise funding where it will have greatest impact.

Leadership and support

Sector representatives have called on DfE to provide greater leadership in sustainability. We will work across government and intervene where we add value (for example through sector-wide data gathering, reporting, funding and guidance). Wherever possible we will facilitate autonomy and foster innovation.

Sector leadership and institution-level accountability for sustainability will be key for success. We will continually seek opportunities to share best practice and provide support for those leading at a local level.

A whole system approach

Together we will make the greatest impact. We will adopt a systems-based approach and ensure our initiatives are delivered via action areas to deliver outcomes for the education system, rather than focussing on specific age or sectors.

By taking a holistic view of education (from formal and extracurricular learning opportunities, the physical buildings and surroundings, to the way in which they operate) we will positively improve the environment. At the same time we will influence and inspire, not only those that use the settings, but the communities around them.

Initiatives to drive the strategy

We have carried out work with sector representatives and experts to develop initiatives that bring together activity to drive the strategic aims:

National Education Nature Park

By considering the whole physical education estate as a virtual National Education Nature Park, we have a unique opportunity to:

The National Education Nature Park will:

This will help connect and amplify the excellent work already happening in this area through many national and local stakeholders and community groups.

As their work starts to have an impact, the young participants will upload their progress on the park's digital mapping services. They will be able to:

see how the park is 'growing', while increasing their knowledge of species

develop important skills, such as biodiversity mapping, data collection and analysis

The nature park's online hub will enable the sharing of best practice across the education estate. With time, it will go beyond biodiversity to show impact and climate resilience, including flood, overheating and air quality status of the estate.

A number of universities will support the launch of the National Education Nature Park by:

Climate Leaders Award

A Climate Leaders Award will complement classroom learning and allow us to celebrate and recognise education providers, children and young people for:

developing their connection with nature

making a real contribution to establishing a sustainable future for us all

The award will provide a structured route through existing awards in this area, such as the John Muir Award, Duke of Edinburgh's Award, Junior Forester Award and others.

Participation will enable children and young people to acquire credits towards the prestigious Climate Leaders Award. This will be recognised and valued as supporting progression to employment and further study.

In the Children's People and Nature Survey for England: Summer holidays 2021, more than 8 in 10 children and young people (85%) agreed that being in nature made them very happy. However, the same study showed that:

children spend less time outdoors as they get older

feelings of connection to nature decline with age

We want all young people to feel connected to their local environment and see improvements in biodiversity. In the design and implementation of the park and award we will take steps to drive participation among more disadvantaged children and young people. We will also ensure all children and young people, whether they live in an urban area or rural one, have opportunities to feel empowered through practical positive action.

The National Education Nature Park and Climate Leaders Award:

are being designed and developed with young people, sector representatives and stakeholder organisations

will build on the learning and experience of the Year of Green Action

They will feed in ideas for making the initiatives as inclusive, impactful, and engaging as possible and will also consider the best names for the programmes. The park and award will be launched in autumn 2022.

Sustainability leadership

Throughout the development of this strategy, we have received feedback from the sector that they have seen the greatest impact and success in developing and delivering a whole-setting approach to sustainability and climate change when there is co-ordination and leadership of activity at a local level - with the support of senior leadership teams and governors.

Through our engagement to date, we have been consistently told that to do this best, they need more support to:

We recognise the impact of the pandemic and the priority need for education catch up. We know that for every setting, the ability, or the way in which they are able to engage with sustainability and climate change may differ. While our end goal is for all settings to have a sustainability lead owning a climate action plan (to include curricular and extra-curricular activity, procurement, adaptation and decarbonisation plans), we are keen to:

develop a facilitative approach to sustainability leadership

test where support makes the most impact

The National Climate Education Action Plan has already brought together 16 organisations and universities with STEM Learning, aiming to encourage their staff to become Climate Ambassadors to support schools and further education institutions. We will work with them to test an approach that includes support in:

climate education

accessing public and private funding

engaging in the National Education Nature Park and Climate Leaders Award

reporting emissions

developing and delivering Climate Action Plans for individual settings

As part of this approach, we will include the provision of carbon literacy training for all sustainability leads in every nursery, school and college by 2025. We will encourage a joined-up approach to leadership which brings together children, young people and governors.

Action area 1: Climate education

We know that young people are eager to:

create a greener, sustainable world

tackle both the causes and impact of climate change

We will empower all young people to be global citizens, through a:

better understanding of climate change

greater connection to nature

Practical opportunities to participate in activities to increase climate resilience, reduce carbon impact and enhance biodiversity will enable children and young people to translate knowledge into positive action to improve their local communities, their country and the planet.

1. Learning about the natural environment

Building on a foundation of fundamental numeracy, literacy and broad academic knowledge, all children learn about:

From birth to 5 years old, the early years foundation stage (EYFS) framework ensures that all children develop an understanding of the world and the natural environment.

As they progress through primary and secondary school, children and young people continue to build on this knowledge through science, geography and citizenship programmes within the national curriculum. Existing GCSEs such as design and technology, food preparation and nutrition, and economics contain opportunities for students to be taught about the environmental and sustainability context of the processes and principles underlying these subjects.

By 2025 we will aim to introduce a natural history GCSE, giving young people a further opportunity to engage with and develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of the natural world. In studying this GCSE, young people will explore organisms and environments in more depth, gain knowledge and practical experience of fieldwork and develop a greater understanding of conservation.

An environmental science A level is already available for those that have a keen interest in the sustainability of our planet and wish to build on their scientific knowledge of the interconnection of human activities with natural systems.

From 2022, to assess the impact of our action, we will introduce an annual climate literacy survey to benchmark progress in improving the climate knowledge of school leavers.

For those that continue their studies in further and higher education, there are many excellent opportunities to gain a more in-depth knowledge into sustainability and climate change. Many further and higher education providers are already taking steps to embed the relevant teaching of sustainability and climate change across the full range of their courses.

We will continue to identify appropriate opportunities to align climate education with the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD for 2030) framework.

2. Support for teaching

World class teaching will ensure all children and young people get the best possible climate education. The schools white paper sets out how we will provide an excellent teacher for every child, by giving every teacher and school leader access to world class training and development opportunities, including the first-ever national professional qualification (NPQ) for early years professionals.

Through our engagement with the teachers and representative bodies, we have heard that more support in teaching about climate change and in navigating the many different resources available is also needed. Therefore, recognising the importance of building confidence as well as capability, we will provide additional support to teachers of all levels.

From 2022 we will:

include climate change and sustainability in science teachers' continuing professional development ( CPD) to ensure all young people receive high-quality teaching on the scientific facts about climate change and environmental degradation

include content on sustainability when DfE is tendering for new CPD, (where it is relevant to the subject area)

deliver pilots through the National Education Nature Park, which will test an approach for sharing university climate expertise and learning opportunities with colleges, schools and nurseries

share best practice, demonstrating how sustainability and climate change has been incorporated into teaching (and how it has enriched the broader curriculum, where it is relevant) in early years settings, schools, colleges and universities, so teachers and leaders can consider how best to integrate within their own settings

consider where further steps could be taken to support the teaching of sustainability in relevant subjects, for example, the circular economy in design and technology, sustainable chemistry in the sciences, and through the learning initiatives being taken forward in the Government Food Strategy

continue to work with higher education to identify opportunities to work together to further enhance best practice in teacher training and the teaching of sustainability within university courses

promote and share relevant teaching resources from other government departments, including the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ( DEFRA), the Waste and Resources Action Programme ( WRAP) and the Environment Agency

By 2023 we will:

develop a Primary Science Model Curriculum, to include an emphasis on nature to ensure all children understand the world around them

develop an occupational standard for further education teaching which explicitly requires all new teachers to integrate sustainability into their teaching, through modelling sustainable practices and promoting sustainable development principles in relation to their subject specialism

support the National Climate Education Action Plan in setting up an independent expert body (including members such as the Royal Meteorological Society, STEM Learning, Association of Science Teaching) for the validation and creation of climate education resources that support the delivery of the national curriculum

provide free access to high-quality curriculum resources through the National Education Nature Park online hub, so that teachers in all settings and subjects can confidently choose those that will support the teaching of sustainability and climate change

this will initially work in tandem while we build on the success of Oak National Academy's work in the pandemic and establish a new arms-length national curriculum body which will work with thousands of teachers to co-design, create and continually improve packages of optional, free, adaptable digital curriculum resources and video lessons that are effectively sequenced to help teachers deliver an evidence-based, high-quality curriculum

provide the opportunity for all staff (teaching, leadership and support) to build their understanding of climate change and sustainability by receiving shared carbon literacy training through their sustainability leads within their setting (more information about sustainability leadership is set out in the Operations and Supply Chains Action Area)

3. Learning in the natural environment

Education settings provide a wealth of learning opportunities, practical activities and clubs which allow children and young people to bring their learning to life. Children and young people may:

take part in eco-clubs or vegetable growing

be exposed to sustainable food choices, recycling, adaptation projects or weather and energy monitoring

On top of the learning benefits, these activities can aid pastoral work in all educational settings. The physical and mental health benefits of time spent in nature can form part of targeted support to:

improve engagement and attainment, including as part of wider packages of support for pupils with SEND

give young people a sense of agency where anxiety stems from climate concerns

The National Education Nature Park and Climate Leaders Award will build on this excellent activity, ensuring all children and young people have opportunities to get practical experience and turn their knowledge into positive action. We will design these initiatives with inclusivity at their heart. We are committed to enabling those from disadvantaged backgrounds to access these opportunities.

Retrofitted educational buildings and new-build net-zero settings will also provide various learning opportunities through their design, how they work and their environmental impact. They will foster environmental knowledge that can be applied outside of the educational setting.

In 2022 we will:

explore opportunities to increase access to the outdoors in DfE's successful Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme

ensure that children attending the HAF programme participate in activities that improve their knowledge and awareness of affordable, healthy eating and sustainable practice - for example, through:

taking part in activities such as food preparation

cooking, discussing food and food sources

growing their own fruit and vegetables

build on our investment into the Children and Nature Programme, by engaging with DEFRA on further research into how outdoor learning can be delivered for the greatest impact, with a view to exploring opportunities to support education settings to deliver quality outdoor education

link up across government to identify new opportunities and strengthen action as part of the levelling up agenda - for example, with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on climate education, and with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the National Youth Guarantee to increase access to out-of-school activities for all children

provide co-curricular opportunities for young people to experience and learn about nature through the National Education Nature Park, which will drive a greater knowledge and understanding of the importance of native species and develop young people's data and analytical skills

build on learning from the Children and Nature Programme, encouraging schools to join up with local delivery partners to develop effective school-specific options and build links with local communities

provide educational activities so that leaders, teachers, children and young people will learn about energy efficiency, the circular economy, climate resilience and green careers as part of educational building, maintenance and procurement projects, such as:

low-carbon boiler replacements

smart meter installation

energy monitoring pilots

sustainable drainage systems

Political impartiality

Teaching about climate change, and the scientific facts and evidence behind this, does not constitute teaching about a political issue and schools do not need to present misinformation or unsubstantiated claims to provide balance.

However, in climate education there is relevant political and scientific debate about the best ways that climate change can be addressed - there are different views and opinions, and different solutions. Debates on political and policy change need to be grounded in wider citizenship education on democracy and democratic values and topics should be handled in line with schools' legal duties on political impartiality

Action area 2: Green skills and careers

It is critical young people and adults have the green skills that will allow them to build careers and participate as Britain leads the world into the Green Industrial Revolution and strives for nature's recovery.

We will harness young people's passion and interest in climate change and sustainability to enable them to have the knowledge and skills (in STEM and other key subjects) required for green jobs. Through our education and skills system, we will seek to inspire young people to choose career paths that support the:

We will continue to support adults already in work to retrain and reskill in line with the needs of the green economy.

1. Net Zero Strategy

The government's Net Zero Strategy sets out in detail how our skills reforms will support more people into green jobs and help grow future talent pipelines. This includes:

aligning apprenticeships to net-zero objectives through the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education's (IfATE) Green Apprenticeships Advisory Panel

continuing the roll-out of T-Levels to support young people into green careers

driving STEM provision through our growing network of Institutes of Technologies (IoTs)

expanding Skills Bootcamps so that adults are able to upskill and retrain in key green sectors

Through the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, we are legislating to ensure employer leadership of Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) have regard to skills needed to help deliver on our net-zero target, adaptation to climate change, and other environmental goals.

Building on the work of the Green Jobs Taskforce through a Green Jobs Delivery Group, government will bring together representatives from industry, the skills sector and other key stakeholders to develop data-driven action to support the delivery of plans for green jobs and skills. This will ensure that we are offering young people and workers the opportunity to develop the skills needed to deliver the low-carbon transition.

Since the publication of the Net Zero Strategy we have:

set out investment of £3.8bn in further education and skills, to ensure people can access high-quality training and education that leads to good jobs, addresses skills gaps, boosts productivity and supports levelling up - this includes funding for programmes to support green skills crucial to the net-zero transition

committed to expanding Skills Bootcamps to provide more opportunities for adults to gain new skills, prioritising green skills in areas such as heat pumps, zero emission vehicles, and carbon capture

widened the eligibility criteria of our Free Courses for Jobs offer - from April 2022, any adult in England earning under the National Living Wage annually, or unemployed, will be able to access these qualifications for free, including qualifications linked to green sectors such as agriculture, building and construction, engineering, environmental conservation, horticulture and forestry and science

launched a pilot of our new General Further Education College Accountability Agreements that will ensure colleges strategically plan provision to meet skills needs at both local and national levels, including those in the green sector

established 8 LSIP trailblazers, where employer representative bodies have been working closely with providers and key local stakeholders to develop tailored plans to help shape technical skills provision to better meet local labour market needs, with multiple trailblazers considering the skills needed to support green growth in their local economy

started delivery of our £65 million Strategic Development Fund pilots to identify employers' skills needs, design provision, and build the capacity of local further education providers to deliver them so that, where local areas identify skills needs, providers can use this funding to, among other things:

purchase equipment

train their staff

bring in industry expertise to provide training

deliver new provision

2. Additional support for green jobs and skills

In addition to the extensive skills reforms set out in the Net Zero Strategy we will also increase the opportunities for young people and adults to engage in wider green skills and jobs needed to deliver the government's 25-Year Environment Plan.

We will support the further and higher education sectors as they deliver programmes teaching the skills of the future and nurturing future leaders.

We will continually seek to improve diversity in the take-up of STEM subjects at all levels, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to pursue a rewarding career in a STEM occupation:

by September 2023, a T Level in agriculture, land management and production will be available - this will support the increased focus of the UK agriculture sector on more environmental and sustainable practices and provide a further opportunity and pathway for young people looking for careers in agriculture and horticulture

we will engage employers, professional, statutory and regulatory bodies (PSRBs), further and higher education sector representative groups and students in developing opportunities to forge further links between course content and the skills needed for green careers of all kinds

Green Skills Bootcamps are available in environmental areas such as agriculture technology, and Wave 3 Skills Bootcamps will seek to prioritise further green sectors, including those specific to the environment such as nature restoration, waste management and recycling, woodland management and arboriculture.

the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) has convened a Green Apprenticeships Advisory Panel (GAAP) to:

work with employers to align apprenticeships to net-zero objectives

endorse existing apprenticeships which support green career pathways specific to the environmental sector, such as arborist, forest operative, agriculture or horticulture professional advisor and ecologist

map existing apprenticeship standards against green occupations

identify opportunities to create new standards in areas including agri-tech and renewable energy

investment of up to £75 million in a National Scholarship Scheme will support high achieving disadvantaged students to reach their full potential while studying in higher education, including degree courses or apprenticeships that can lead to green careers

our network of Institutes of Technology (IoTs) across England are utilising their state-of-the-art facilities to:

offer training in green skills, such as in the built environment and agri-tech sectors

support increased participation from under-represented groups, including women, helping to grow the pipeline of individuals with STEM skills needed for green jobs

invest £120 million in the second wave of IoTs, to be set up by 2022

by 2025, as part of the pathway towards the Lifelong Loan Entitlement, we will trial short-course provision at levels 4-6 to support in-work adults to upskill or retrain, enabling learners to build flexibly towards a full qualification in subjects crucial for net zero, including STEM and digital innovation

by 2023, we will co-host an International Green Skills Conference with the higher and further education sectors to exhibit the best of UK green skills and education opportunities at further and higher education levels

we will link the Climate Leaders Award to skills required by employers and explore how participation in the award can act as a progression route to further study

by 2030, significant numbers of young people will have graduated from the Climate Leaders Award with the skills needed to enter the green economy

by 2030, we anticipate that participation in the National Education Nature Park, and increased opportunities to connect with nature, will increase the number of young people that become data scientists, ecologists and biologists, which are needed for nature's recovery

our specifications for new buildings set out low-carbon, climate-resilient standards - such as the installation of heat pumps for energy efficiency - while, as one of the largest construction buyers in the nation, these specifications will drive the market and assist in driving the development of technical fitting skill

3. Support and guidance for green careers

We are actively supporting young people and adults to understand the training and careers opportunities available to them and we will support existing organisations in their endeavours to promote green careers. This includes:

supporting schools and colleges to embed best practice in the delivery of careers information, advice and guidance, so young people are aware of the full range of training and careers available to them and have access to a broad range of employers and workplaces, including those in the green sectors - this will be delivered through the national roll-out of Career Hubs, Career Leader training, and the Enterprise Adviser Network

as part of wider improvements to the National Careers Service we will ensure the provision of relevant and accessible information on green career pathways, which will bring together all the learning and careers routes available to aid the development of a single source of government-assured career information

our educational building maintenance and procurement projects will provide opportunities for students to gain careers guidance, while installation of low-carbon boiler replacements, smart meters and energy monitoring or sustainable drainage systems, will be accompanied with assembly information and interactive class exercises allowing students to see and learn about a wide range of green careers and skills in action

Action area 3: Education estate and digital infrastructure

A green, sustainable education estate that is resilient to the impacts of climate change will normalise and inspire young people to live sustainable lives, with impact felt widely in their families and communities. By improving the physical environment in and around education settings, we can impact positively on both the physical and mental wellbeing of children and young people. We will act on both the challenges and opportunities the vast education estate presents.

There is still a lot of evidence to gather on new technologies and innovative approaches to sustainable building design, retrofit, ICT, building management and the surrounding environment. Our focus until 2025 will be piloting - gathering evidence and sharing research to learn from our experience. This work will build on and align with existing guidance currently available to help public sector organisations achieve net zero, for example, the Modern Energy Partners tools. From 2025 onwards, we will accelerate change once we understand the best value for money approach. Our approach can be summarised as innovate, test and invest.

1. New builds and new blocks

All new school buildings delivered by DfE (not already contracted) will be net zero in operation. They will be designed for a 2oC rise in average global temperatures and future-proofed for a 4oC rise, to adapt to the risks of climate change, including increased flooding and higher indoor temperatures.

Secure children's homes delivered by DfE will also be built to our net-zero standard.

In November 2021 we published our delivery framework for employer's requirements for school projects Part A and Part B and made it freely available so that all new schools and colleges can meet the same low-carbon, climate-resilient standards as centrally delivered projects.

We have uplifted basic need grant-funding rates to help local authorities deliver school capital projects to these standards. When planning the use of basic need funding allocations, local authorities will consider environmental sustainability, carbon reduction and energy efficiency to develop solutions for projects that are in line with government targets and objectives, regardless of their chosen delivery route.

From now on bids into our Further Education Capital Transformation Programme will also be assessed to determine if the new works will be net zero in operation.

We know many higher education institutions are already demonstrating innovation in this space and are going beyond these standards. We will look to the higher education sector to inspire and drive greater ambition through their net-zero buildings and campuses.

So that our education building standards remain world-leading, we will:

continue targeted and specific monitoring of education buildings to better understand their use and energy consumption

continually improve our technical standards and building specifications

This will include the use and assessment of nature-based classroom design to maximise access to the outdoors and opportunities for outdoor learning, so our education buildings positively impact on physical and mental wellbeing.

Sustainable ICT solutions will be integrated into new-build schools as standard, via sustainable procurement, design, implementation and management.

The implementation of ultra-low carbon education buildings will be accelerated. By 2025 at least 4 schools and one college will have been built via the Gen Zero Platform that we demonstrated at COP26.

We will also accelerate our Gen Zero programme and other pilots so, over time, all centrally delivered new-build projects are built using ultra-low carbon solutions.

2. Existing estate

Improved collation and use of data on energy usage, water, heat and biodiversity will allow individual settings, and DfE, to make evidence-based decisions on where to act and invest to make the greatest impact. Smart meters and energy management systems can reduce bills and usage. They also provide learning opportunities for data analysis and understanding the impact of human behaviour. We will:

continue to work with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ( BEIS) and water companies to trial the delivery of smart meters in schools and encourage the uptake across other settings

in 2022, work with the education and children's services sectors and energy companies to explore sharing smart meter data to avoid additional reporting requirements, and this data would also be used by DfE to help advise settings how they can reduce their energy bills and improve their energy efficiency

during 2022 and 2023, work with BEIS and Energy Sparks to trial the delivery of Energy Management Systems in schools which will provide schools with real-time information about their energy usage, presented within a user-friendly online portal

by 2025, have supported education settings to put in place Climate Action Plans, facilitating the use of setting-level data to inform action - these will increase carbon literacy and inform government on the implementation of decarbonisation solutions and nature-based solutions to alleviate flood risk, protect against increased heat, and improve air quality

A strategic approach to piloting new building technology will also be launched in order to support the future retrofit of the education estate and act as catalyst to the construction sector for implementing new technology. Our building technology pilots will support action to adapt the existing estate to protect against the current and future effects of climate change. They will also provide evidence for the efficient decarbonisation of the estate to mitigate the causes of climate change.

We will continue to seek opportunities for research, including developing innovative approaches for the delivery and use of digital infrastructure. Where opportunities arise, this will be tested in schools by retrofitting ICT to deliver energy savings.

We will also exploit existing research -higher education is already driving world leading building technology - and innovative solutions will be shared across the wider education sector

In 2022:

we will work with BEIS to help education settings access the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to support them in decarbonising their estates and, as part of that work, we are looking at how we can better align our application processes and funding windows

By 2023:

all bids for capital funding for further education and higher education will need to consider environmental impact, carbon reduction and adaptation measures, and align with the government's targets and objectives

we will share best practice and advice to help education settings in deciding where to invest money to reduce carbon emissions, improve sustainability and resilience, and share options and case studies for the retrofit of existing settings by building type

we will also develop the existing Good Estate Management for Schools guidance with updated tips and good practice on the sustainable management of the school estate, covering topics such as energy and water efficiency and addressing issues including ventilation and leaks

3. Resilience, adaptation, access to Nature and environment conditions

The 3 highest priority risk areas identified in the Climate Change Committee Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk were:

To meet these challenges and those outlined in the Third Climate Change Risk Assessment (the statutory cycle set out in the Climate Change Act 2008, specifies the next key milestone in the statutory cycle as the third National Adaptation Programme ( NAP3) in 2023) we have a duty to demonstrate:

a clear set of objectives for adaptation

policies

programmes

investments with clear timelines

measurable metrics

progress indicators

We know that nearly half of schools (10,710) are at risk of flooding, which is expected to increase to at least 13,662 by the 2050s, or 16,394 in the worst-case scenario. While overheating in education buildings is a significant threat, we need to continue to work with other government departments to get a greater understanding of the risk.

A formal Memorandum of Understanding between DfE and the Environment Agency ( EA) will ensure that our response to risk aligns with the objectives and measures set out in the National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy and is based on the latest environmental data, advice and intelligence.

We know there is hope if efforts are focused in the right way. The latest International Panel on Climate Change report outlines the power of nature against the worst effects of climate change. We will use the National Education Nature Park to champion the case for nature.

Through the National Education Nature Park we will provide opportunities and advice for education settings to initially improve their biodiversity and also, with time, their flood resilience and air quality. For example, we will work with EA and DEFRA to produce guidance for schools that explains how to improve their flood resilience and access free trees to improve shading and biodiversity of their grounds.

We will accelerate pilots to investigate:

We will also empower universities to lead the way in demonstrating models for resilient, biodiverse campuses. We will share best practice via the National Education Nature Park online hub.

By 2023, we will:

work with partners to explore how funding may support nurseries, schools, colleges and universities in driving on the ground innovation to link separate parts of the National Education Nature Park, improving the biodiversity, air quality, shading and flood resistance along the routes between settings

continue evaluating the UK's first 'Biophilic' primary school, which will provide evidence of the impact of a greater connection to nature within the built environment, on the health and wellbeing of children and young people

pilot the use of smart air and environmental quality monitors in schools to understand the practical implications, benefits and drawbacks of using smart monitoring devices with pilots providing a rich dataset on environmental performance, which can be used to help feed into school building design and understand where energy efficiencies can be achieved

support DEFRA's Clean Air Strategy which aims to diminish the highest concentration of exposure to fine particle matter (PM2.5) to help tackle air pollution and reduce emissions affecting education settings

provide guidance to all education settings for practical ways to reduce indoor and outdoor air pollution, encouraging schools and partners to expand anti-idling zones to reduce the impact of the school commute

support the Department for Transport in delivering initiatives to increase active and safe travel to school (such as Bikeability for children, their families and carers, Walk to School Outreach and School Streets), to improve wellbeing, reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality

support an EA pilot investigating offsetting carbon emissions from their flood scheme construction work by contributing to tree planting and greening on available, nearby school land

By 2030:

through the National Education Nature Park and cross-government collaboration, we will have significantly increased the biodiversity on the education estate and implemented 'Green Corridors' for access to education settings, improving climate resilience, physical and mental wellbeing, and protecting and enhancing wildlife and ecosystems along the routes between nurseries, schools, colleges and universities

we will have supported the Department for Transport to increase active travel to school, contributing to the Prime Minister's vision that half of all short journeys in towns and cities will be walked or cycled

we will have minimised barriers to nature in school building design programmes and education building standards, increasing opportunities to connect their users to nature

4. Heating solutions

The building energy efficiency survey indicates that approximately 60% of energy use in education settings is associated with high carbon intensity fuels such as natural gas, coal and oil. There is a need to reduce demand for heating and hot water use and to deliver through sustainable means.

We are launching 10 pilots to test our Energy Pods as a way of providing off-site manufactured, low-carbon, heating solutions on the existing school and college estate. The results of these pilots will inform our strategic approach to condition, safety and sustainability for the education estate and provide important research data for education and public sector net-zero projects.

In 2022 we will:

test the feasibility of replacing school boilers with ground or air source heat solutions, and use the learning to consider how this can be scaled up to accelerate decarbonisation between 2025 and 2035

continue to work with BEIS to help education settings access the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to support them in replacing fossil fuel heating systems with low carbon heating

5. Water strategy

In partnership with EA, water companies and local authorities we will deliver our water strategy to improve:

We will work together to improve learning and awareness of risk and resilience and encourage all education settings to sign up to available weather and flood warnings. For schools at highest risk, we will share a flood risk plan template to set out emergency plans. In addition:

by 2023, the risk of school flood will be displayed alongside emissions and biodiversity on the National Education Nature Park

by 2026, we will have reduced the flood risk in over 800 schools through our Water Strategy initiatives

we will work with Ofwat and Market Operator Services Ltd to ensure their regulatory mechanisms and incentives enable and drive the water market to improve efficiency across the education estate and, should this prove successful, by 2030 we will have worked with water wholesalers and retailers to improve water efficiency at the 10,000 least water-efficient schools, significantly reducing usage and spend

we will align strategic action with the Environment Agency's National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy to ensure education settings are ready for, and resilient to, flooding and coastal change

6. Reporting Frameworks, Reporting Processes and Targets

With increased legislation on net zero, environment and nature, it is inevitable that we are going to have to ensure consistent reporting on the activity of our sectors.

The government's Net Zero Strategy commits to legislate reporting of emissions if insufficient progress is made voluntarily. We will work with BEIS in the development of guidance on monitoring and reporting for the education sector and we will look to support and facilitate reporting.

We will work with energy providers to receive data from the school estate directly (unless individual schools choose to opt out), so that by 2024 all schools are reporting their emission via a standardised framework. The installation of smart meters will improve the accuracy of this data.

We have supported the Queen's Jubilee Challenge for the further and higher education sectors to accelerate a sector-led review. This review will enable all further and higher education settings to report their emissions via a standardised and comparable framework by 2024. From 2025 we will publish targets and institutional progress for the further and higher education sectors. We will also work with nurseries and schools to set standardised reporting frameworks and implement effective data-gathering mechanisms. With the campaign Let's Go Zero, we will set targets for schools between 2025 and 2035.

Action area 4: Operations and supply chains

We have a valuable opportunity to drive change by introducing children and young people to more sustainable practices, such as:

We can inspire and instil habits that they will take into their wider communities and adult lives. Sector representatives have also confirmed that they have had the greatest results in driving sustainability in their operational processes when action has been linked to learning.

Coordination and leadership are required to bring this type of change. We recognise how much is already being done across the sectors by enthusiastic individuals, governance boards and leadership teams. They are driving effective whole-setting approaches to the challenges of sustainability and climate change - not only in teaching and learning or the decarbonisation of the estate - but in the way settings are operated and regulated.

Within DfE we will also publish and monitor progress against a DfE Corporate Sustainability Strategy. This will demonstrate how we will embed sustainability across everything we do - from how we maintain and use our office estate to our decision-making and business processes. We will align action with this strategy, the Greening Government Commitments and our overall organisational strategy.

By 2023 we will:

start rolling-out carbon literacy training for at least one person in every locally maintained nursery, school, college and university to build their knowledge of climate change, access to public funds, engagement with the nature park and Climate Leaders Award, understand emissions reporting and how to develop a climate action plan so that they can share learning and training within their own setting as appropriate, for example with leaders, support staff, care takers, cooks and teachers

support the work of the National Climate Education Action Plan to bring together universities with STEM Learning to identify Climate Ambassadors to support schools and further education institutions in the delivery of their sustainability and climate change action plans

update Good Estate Management for Schools ( GEMS) guidance to include the latest sustainability and climate change advice, covering topics such as efficient waste and water management - we will signpost to other relevant third-party materials

encourage and support education settings to procure from companies that commit to achieving net zero by 2050 and have a plan in place, showing how they will meet this target

ensure sustainability is part of the assessment and validation criteria for including suppliers on procurement frameworks, to support sustainable purchasing of products and services, including energy, in schools

support schools to buy from procurement frameworks that offer sustainable goods and services

work with education settings and partners to share best practice for delivering and improving uptake of nutritionally balanced, affordable and sustainable meal choices

pilot a food curriculum and whole-school approach to food, promoting accountability and transparency of school food arrangements by encouraging schools to complete a statement on their school websites, which sets out their whole-school approach to food, with voluntary reporting initially, and the intention that this will become mandatory when schools can do this effectively

pilot new training for school governors on a whole-school approach to food as set out in the forthcoming Government Food Strategy (school governors have a responsibility to ensure compliance and should appropriately challenge the headteacher and the senior leadership team to ensure the school is meeting its obligations)

support schools to drive up their sustainable practices in line with the school food standards, particularly in relation to school food contracts and their food preparation and practice, with consideration of the ingredients they use and their environmental impact

encourage and support education settings to gather data and take action on food waste, and to share their evidence-based best practice for sustainable waste prevention and management

work with DEFRA and the Waste and Resources Action Programme ( WRAP) to share resources for schools and children that support food waste prevention

support education settings in aligning with DEFRA 's Resources and Waste Strategy to reduce all waste, moving away from single-use items and towards reusable alternatives where possible

continue to encourage all settings to drive initiatives that promote the circular economy - providing guidance to reduce reliance on single-use items in favour of alternatives, such as reusable nappies, as well as recycled materials, second-hand uniforms and other consumables, such as sustainable cutlery and cleaning products

continue to offer a range of free sustainable period products to learners in schools and colleges across England and use the success of this programme as a catalyst for similar initiatives

seek opportunities to rationalise deliveries to education settings, through minimum order values or changes to delivery models, and encourage settings to consider a rounded approach to providing food, including practical guidance on consolidating food deliveries and sourcing food locally where possible

By 2025:

all education settings will have nominated a sustainability lead and put in place a climate action plan

all services and products procured by DfE for schools through the 'get help buying for schools' programme will go through environmental procurement frameworks

we will review existing procurement frameworks and identify those where net-zero targets can be applied, highlighting these frameworks to education providers as sustainable and net zero-compliant buying frameworks

we will ensure there is a clear route to market and associated support for schools to buy goods and services that help them to generate their own energy or reduce their existing energy consumption, for example, solar panels and LED light bulbs

we will eradicate single-use plastics and encourage the use of reusable and recyclable materials in schools and encourage all other education settings to match this target

we will work with DEFRA to provide guidance to education settings for meeting the requirements of the Environment Act 2021 - this will require settings to arrange for the collection of a core set of materials for recycling, including glass, paper and card, plastic, metal and food waste, increasing the amount of material recycled and diverted from landfill

we will develop a sustainable assessment model in partnership with the Standards and Testing Agency, considering the environmental impact of digital testing and the trade-offs with existing testing methods

we will continue to support DEFRA with implementing the Resource and Waste Strategy, to eliminate unnecessary plastics in education settings

By 2030:

education settings will be supporting a circular economy through their participation in the Climate Leaders Award and National Education Nature Park - for example, by using food waste to produce compost that can then be used directly or in the local community

Action area 5: International

We set out our vision for the United Kingdom education sector to be world leading in sustainability and climate change by 2030. In achieving this vision, we want to both inspire and respond to international action and make a difference to children and young people all over the world. There is no time to lose: extreme weather events are increasing in severity and frequency, and Safe Schools: The Hidden Crisis shows that it is disrupting the education of nearly 40 million children a year worldwide. Children in the UK say they are worried about how climate change is affecting children and families in developing countries.

The UK Foreign Policy Integrated Review positions climate change as the UK's number one international priority. Education is one of our nation's greatest strengths. We will take positive international action to enhance climate change and sustainability learning in and outside of the classroom and, in particular, through DfE 's key bilateral relationships.

In doing so we will work across government with the:

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)

Department for Business and Trade (DBT)

Cabinet Office

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

British Council

Together we will provide young people and adults everywhere with the knowledge and skills needed to:

Our action will align with and support the UK Government's International Education Strategy and supplement the great work the UK already does overseas, led by the FCDO, through education partnerships with around 20 poorer countries as leading donor to the Global Partnership for Education ( GPE) and Education Cannot Wait Fund, to support countries to respond to weather related disasters and make education systems more resilient.

The international action set out below represents the whole of the UK. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England each bring unique offers to an international strategy, and we will work closely with the governments of each nation to champion them effectively.

At COP26 we put education on a global stage, bringing education and environment ministers together to pledge action on climate education. We will continue to encourage other countries to make pledges. We will also track progress on our international commitments to complement and promote the Glasgow Works Programme on Action for Climate Empowerment ( ACE) negotiations agreed by countries at COP26 through our work and partnerships.

This work programme positions education as integral to the achievement of long-term climate goals, and calls for an approach which is grounded in principles of collaboration, flexibility and inclusivity.

Champion education and learning on the global stage

We will promote education as a key tool for tackling climate change through:

We will elevate the voices of youth in these discussions, as well as the rich experiences of other countries and stakeholders.

We will work across government and convene international partners to build a coalition for action for sustainable education. We will:

work closely with youth partners and multilateral institutions, such as UNESCO, UNEP and OECD, and in the G7 and G20 to exchange good practice through global discussions on climate education, learning and sustainable development

showcase our Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy and activities, sharing our strategy as a model for others to learn from

build an international evidence base on the support and solutions needed for a range of contexts

share our latest lessons, challenges, insights and evidence from the delivery of all action areas of our strategy

learn from others, including those working at local, national, regional and international levels

Trade and exports

We will provide expertise, services, trade and exports overseas to support others in achieving their net-zero targets, increasing resilience and adaptation, and improving climate education. We will work with FCDO, DBT and the UK international trade network to:

identify appropriate export opportunities for our climate learning programmes, including the National Education Nature Park and Climate Leaders Award, sharing our expertise on flood resilience and flood risk assessments, and export innovative sustainable products such as the Gen Zero Platform and Biophilic Primary School

continue work with the further and higher education sectors to ensure prestigious green-skills learning, training and research opportunities are developed to attract overseas students

International initiatives

We will identify opportunities to broaden our actions to share innovation and provide opportunities for young people from across the world to connect and learn, ensuring we align with the UK government's Child Safeguarding Due Diligence guidance. We will:

Leadership, engagement and next steps

Leadership

In recognition of the importance of this agenda to the Department for Education, the Secretary of State for Education will also be Climate Change Minister for the Department for Education. The Secretary of State for Education will also oversee the Climate Leaders Award.

The Secretary of State for Education will be supported in his role of Climate Change Minister for the department by:

Baroness Barran - net zero of DfE-delivered buildings, procurement and supply chains (this also includes the biodiversity of the education estate)

Minister Donelan and Minister Burghart - green skills, green jobs and net zero in further education and higher education

Minister Walker - climate education

Minister Quince - physical and mental wellbeing

DfE will nominate a non-executive director for climate change. They will champion climate issues on departmental boards and provide further leadership and expertise to support the department with its unique climate mission.

Engagement

From November 2021 to March 2022, sector representatives and young people reflecting a diverse range of voices, backgrounds and experiences brought together feedback on this strategy from those they represent.

We will continue to engage formally through a quarterly youth panel and user group as we develop and deliver the strategy, to ensure it meets the needs of those it serves.

Next Steps

Each year we will publish progress against the strategy and set out new action.
The following actions will support this:

Vision: the United Kingdom is the world-leading education sector in sustainability and climate change by 2030.

Strategic aims

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Sustainability and climate change: a strategy for the education and children's services systems

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This strategy applies to: the Department for Education (DfE), its agencies and public bodies the education and children's services systems in England - including: early years schools (and independent schools where applicable) further education higher education children's social care DfE has an important role to play in all aspects of sustainability.

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Use this calculator to estimate the difference in running costs when replacing a gas boiler with a heat pump in your home.

How To Use The Heat Pump Running Costs Calculator

The calculator needs the following information:

The type of heat pump being installed in your home.

Annual gas usage for your home, from your annual energy statement.

Number of people living in the home (to estimate the split between gas usage for hot water heating and space heating).

The calculator makes assumptions on gas boiler efficiency and on the Seasonal Performance Factor (SPF) of a typical heat pump, for both space heating and hot water heating (these are different). There is also the option to enter SPF values for a specific heat pump. The calculator assumes that each person in the home uses 608 kWh of gas per year for hot water heating. There is the option to enter a specific value for the total hot water usage if you know it.

The calculator assumes default prices for gas usage, daily standing charge and electricity usage. These costs can be adjusted to your own tariff figures using the sliders below the calculator. Note there are smart thermostats available for the control of heat pumps with 30 min tariff electricity supplies to schedule the heat pump to use lower priced electricity and avoid higher tariff times.

Estimated Heat Pump Running Costs v Gas Boiler

* Seasonal Performance Factor (SPF)

Adjust the sliders to use your own energy costs

Take these from your gas and electricity bills (inc VAT figures).

* prices updated 13 Aug 2022 inc. 5% VAT

Grant availability

Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI): Heat pumps are included in the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) provided claims are made by 31 March 2022. This scheme pays either 10.85p per kWh of electricity used (Air Source Heat Pump) or 21.16p per kWh (Ground Source Heat Pump) for a 7 year period.

Boiler Upgrade Scheme: From April 2022, a payment of £5,000 will be made to qualifying homeowners to assist with installation costs for those who install either an Air Source or a Ground Source Heat Pump for space and water heating. The scheme was launched in October 2021.
Check government website for eligibility.

Read more

See: Air Source Heat Pump: A Replacement For A Gas Boiler?

Basis of calculations

The calculator takes actual annual gas usage for the home and, by making assumptions on typical gas boiler and heat pump efficiency, if calculates likely heat pump electricity demand. The SPF data for a typical heat pump installation comes from the UCL (2017) reference below.

Note: System efficiency can be measured at different points. In this case the measure used is SPF H2. The calculator assumes that the efficiency of the rest of the heating system is the same for both the gas boiler being replaced and the heat pump.

It assumes that by switching to a heat pump then the gas supply standing charge is saved. It also assumes there is no increase in electricity standing charge.

References

Updated: 13 August 2022
Updated: 22 August 2021

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Air Source Heat Pump Running Costs Calculator - Great Home

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Use this calculator to estimate the difference in running costs when replacing a gas boiler with a heat pump in your home. How To Use The Heat Pump Running Costs Calculator The calculator needs the following information: The type of heat pump being installed in your home.

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What is The Camden Clean Air Initiative?

The Camden Clean Air Initiative is a non-profit action group aiming to improve air quality across the Borough of Camden. By working closely with the entire community, including schools, businesses, and residents, as well as the local authority, they provide resources and support alongside their clean air projects. Their projects increase awareness and education around air pollution, and aim to introduce policy and infrastructural change, to propel Camden forward as a Borough of excellence.

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What is The Camden Clean Air Initiative? The Camden Clean Air Initiative is a non-profit action group aiming to improve air quality across the Borough of Camden. By working closely with the entire community, including schools, businesses, and residents, as well as the local authority, they provide resources and support alongside their clean air projects.

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On 4 January 2020, the western Sydney suburb of Penrith was one of the hottest places on Earth at 48.9C.

The heat that day, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, gave a brief window into what the future will be like in the city's outer rings, soon to be home to more than 1.5 million people.

Climate change is no longer looming. It's here.

Since records began, Australia has warmed by about 1.44C and rising, but the heat isn't felt equally: few places are suffering as severely as western Sydney.

With plans to construct a new city around the Nancy Bird Walton airport at Badgerys Creek, and thousands of families moving into new release areas in the north-west and south-west, the time to insist on climate sensitive development is now, experts say.

"Australians deserve a better future and if we don't design for the changing climate, dwellings will ultimately be uninhabitable and we know that is worse in areas of disadvantage," says Davina Rooney, chief executive of the Green Building Council.

"We will be entrenching energy poverty, and the consequences are quite substantial."

But there are fears the impact of climate change has been compounded by slapdash urban planning and shortsighted design preferences, which have favoured big sprawling houses with dark roofs, black driveways and small yards over more energy-efficient properties.

It was only in August that planning controls were implemented banning dark roofing in Sydney's south-western growth area and specifying room for trees in back yards.

Rob Stokes, the NSW planning minister, said the changes marked a new direction from decades of development on Sydney's fringes.

"When designing lots for detached housing, we need back yards which are big enough to plant a tree or have a garden," Stokes said. "We need to say goodbye to the trend of having dark roofs that not only attract and retain heat and raise ambient street temperatures, but lead to astronomical electricity bills because of the need to cool homes."

Sebastian Pfautsch, associate professor of urban studies at the University of Western Sydney, says the region is an important marker for other capitals, since it has one of the fastest growing urban populations in Australia.

"The mistakes [in urban design] being made in western Sydney are being made in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth. We're not really thinking [about] how ... we deal with the changing climate, particularly heat."

How did we get here?

Successive governments in NSW have talked about "liveable suburbs" as they grapple with waves of migration, demand for housing and soaring property prices.

The state's population will swell by 3.3 million to more than 11 million by 2061, according to the latest intergenerational report, requiring 1.7m extra homes.

More than half that growth will come from immigration. Many of these new arrivals are leaving behind crowded cities and have chosen Australia because of the lifestyle it offers. Those who come to Sydney will overwhelmingly settle in the western suburbs, and for many that will mean new houses in areas long designated for expansion.

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Many of the developments now being built were planned under Labor a decade ago under its Draft Metropolitan Strategy. Areas of the north-west around Rouse Hill, and the south-west around Oran Park and Leppington, were earmarked for development in the 2000s.

Labor set out to address the planning failures of the 1990s, when areas of the north-west were opened up with no public transport, resulting in horrendous commutes and choked roads.

Labor pledged it wouldn't build any more suburbs before it had committed to rail infrastructure. Railways to Rouse Hill and Leppington have now been built, although their completion lagged well behind development of the suburbs.

After leaving parliament, the former planning minister Frank Sartor recalled the pressures he felt from colleagues to allow developers to open up new areas, despite the stated policy of ensuring infrastructure was in place first.

Sartor claimed he came under pressure from colleagues on behalf of the Urban Task Force, a group Sartor described as "nothing more than a lobby group for land speculators dressed up in the clothes of a respectable property group".

The group and its members were major donors to the ALP until the ban on political donations from developers was introduced in 2008.

Developers hated some of the decisions that defined new release areas - such as the introduction of levies to help pay for infrastructure.

The levies had long-term consequences too. Because they were imposed per hectare of land there was an incentive to squeeze in as many blocks as possible, whereas a charge per house or lot would have encouraged a mix of block sizes.

Powerless councils

In NSW, if a planned dwelling satisfies the broad criteria of the building codes it does not have to go to the local council for individual assessment, under the rules known as "exempt and complying development". This means that councils have little say over the final look and feel of the suburb.

"Zero setbacks" permitted as part of exempt and complying development mean that one wall of a house can be built right to the boundary of the lot, leading to cramped streetscapes where the eaves of neighbours almost touch each other.

"The problem is that the houses are flat and wide," Pfautsch says. "They're from fence to fence.

"The problem is with the state government. They say this new growth area will have 8,000 homes. If local government comes up with requests, the developer resists and just says: 'We won't do it'."

Councils also struggle to enforce building codes.

NSW's Basix rules, introduced in 2008 and designed to drive more sustainable housing, require water-saving native plants. Many councils also require a significant tree to be planted in the back yard of new houses.

But stretched councils rarely have the resources to check that the plants - often the last step in the building process - have been planted, let alone whether they have survived their first couple of summers.

The same goes for street trees - the developers put them in, but there is little attention given to whether they survive.

What do homebuyers want?

Developers stress that what they build is driven by demand - families want large single dwelling homes, not units.

Pfautsch agrees: "People who buy off the plan don't want gardens, they want a big house.

"Two storeys are not favoured in the new estates, instead they choose sprawling houses ... High rise would be much more sustainable. They could have open space around them and parks and community facilities."

Pfautsch says that people who buy into these estates have been drained of resources buying the land and then try to put up the biggest, least expensive house possible. That means they don't always have the budget for double glazing or other features that might improve liveability and energy efficiency.

Prof Bill Randolph, from the University of NSW's City Futures research centre, says the size of plots is falling and housing is getting bigger.

"It's what the market wants," he says. "I don't know why [development control plans] don't require more open space. The floor-space ratios are quite permissive, and most unsustainable.

"Black roofs mean you need cooling systems and because they are built right to the boundary, often the air-conditioning systems are competing with each other and blowing hot air toward the neighbours."

In 2007, Oran Park, the site of a former racetrack, was given the green light for accelerated development into a suburb of more than 9,000 homes, with an eventual population of 45,000.

The suburb has a masterplan and 38 hectares of open space has been reserved, but critics say little thought has been given to sustainability.

Oran Park was permitted to have much smaller lots than previously allowed, because the government wanted to meet its housing targets.

Land buyers then chose houses from display homes resulting in a mishmash of styles that filled the blocks. There are trees in the streets, but very few in the tiny yards.

Oran Park is served only by infrequent buses, which take residents to train stations at Campbelltown, 14km away, or Leppington, 12km away. Understandably, many residents rely on cars.

Ryan Azzopardi and Melissa Lauricella, a newly married couple, have been living in Oran Park for about a year.

They bought the land four years ago and then built a project home which they saw at a display village. The couple are very happy with their choice, and like the suburb, but their house has familiar energy drawbacks, despite having solar power installed.

The roof is dark, bricks are also a darker brown, with front pillars a lighter beige. Azzopardi says no one asked him about the colours of bricks and roof tiles.

"It's a funny situation. The sun goes over the house, and in the morning it's hot on one side, and in the evening it's warm round the back. And in winter, it is freezing out the back of the house. But when summer comes around, and we get the intense morning sun, the rooms around the front can get really hot. It doesn't get too discomforting, but it is noticeable."

How can we do better?

State planning ministers have tried various means to drive more sustainable development. Sartor introduced the Growth Centres Commission in 2005 to speed land releases and tame the forces of the market.

The Coalition set up the Greater Sydney Commission in 2015 and appointed Lucy Turnbull, a former lord mayor of Sydney, as its initial chair. It was an effort to coordinate development across the metropolis, envisaging Sydney as three linked cities.

Some of the age-old failings were top of mind: ensuring infrastructure kept pace with new housing developments, ensuring there was enough housing in the future and making sure jobs were near where people lived.

It had a goal of creating "the 30-minute city," an ideal maximum time for people to travel to work, childcare or shops. It talked about walkable neighbourhoods. And for the first time it talked about addressing urban heat. That meant more green space, greater tree canopy and more sustainable housing.

When Gladys Berejiklian became the premier in 2017, two measures designed to make cities more liveable were among her 14 stated priorities. The first was increasing the proportion of homes within a 10-minute walk of "quality green open and public space" by 10%, or 230,000 homes, by 2023.

As of January 2021, the government said it had met that goal for 100,000 homes.

The second was achieving an increase in the tree canopy by planting 1m trees by 2023. By March it was claiming to be halfway there. But the target does not measure trees cleared or the loss of farmland as Sydney keeps expanding.

Pushing the limits

Badgerys Creek on Sydney's south-west fringe is the next frontier of large-scale urban planning. The so-called aerotropolis (recently renamed Bradfield) beside the new Nancy Bird Walton airport will be home to an eventual population of 1.5 million people.

Billed as "the beating heart of the Western parkland city", Bradfield will be done differently, according to Planning NSW.

The department has announced precinct plans for three large areas that will have different purposes: an employment zone, a city core and residential area, and an agribusiness zone that will largely focus on food processing.

The planners promise "excellent access and connectivity, provided through public infrastructure" and "excellent liveability, where a 'beyond business as usual' approach will focus on creating a cooler and greener city".

"In this place, blue/green systems will be particularly important, forming the basis for a more sustainable, resilient plan, one that respects and connects with country," the key documents say.

A draft sustainability report from consultants Alluvium says it is possible to have "a greener more resilient Western Sydney area with up to 7C of cooling on extreme heat days provided by better design, greening and irrigation". It says extreme and strong heat stress days can be reduced from 47 to 19 days each summer.

The report says this will be achieved by larger natural areas of vegetation to provide cooling and biodiversity, water bodies to provide evaporative cooling through misting and irrigation breezes, and more vegetation, including green roofs, walls and facades providing shade, insulation and evapotranspiration.

Green space needs to be placed upwind of significant areas and "high albedo" (lighter coloured) building materials should be used to reflect light and heat, while shade should be provided through eaves, overhangs, ventilation and street trees that need deep soil planting spaces and passive irrigation.

It all sounds promising, but no one expects the good intentions to translate easily into reality.

The wildlife assessment management report, also part of the publicly released planning documents, warns that the airport itself is a threat to achieving the vision because green initiatives will "increase the risk of bird strike".

"Safeguarding the 24/7 operations of the airport and the vision of the Western Sydney Aerotropolis are essentially at odds," it states.

And this is before the powerful forces of commercial development bear down on the planners.

Outside observers remain cautious. Rooney, of the Green Building Council, says: "The Greater Sydney Commission has put out a very strong vision for a green Aerotropolis and ... the planning concepts are very focused on bringing green living spaces. But obviously the devil is in the detail of planning implementation. It's just too critical for this not to be delivered."

Events in the north-west offer a further reason for pessimism.

At Jordan Springs, the developer Lend Lease promised "tree-lined streets, picturesque parks and a thriving mix of community-focused businesses".

In fact Jordan Springs has many of the same attributes as Oran Park - few trees, small lots and dark-roofed houses that stretch to the property boundaries.

But it is the NSW government's recent decision to reverse its requirement for an employment zone that has planners and local residents worried.

In October 2020, at the height of the concerns about a Covid-induced downturn in the housing industry, Stokes announced that the 38 hectares reserved for a jobs hub would instead be turned into 500 more houses, and fast-tracked.

Geoff Brown, a local resident and activist, told the ABC it was a terrible deal for local workers.

"How is that a net benefit for NSW? A long-held promise [of] 38.4 hectares of employment land and thousands of ongoing local jobs, scrapped for 500 homes and just 252 temporary construction jobs."

Onus on government

Perhaps the big picture answer is that more Australians should opt for denser living, allowing more space for parkland and community facilities.

But even if we continue to build on the fringes while also building more apartments around railway stations and in the inner city, Prof Bill Randolph of City Futures says the challenge is the same: good planning lies in a much higher level of government intervention to ensure and prioritise sustainability.

"The origin [of the problem] is the department of planning and their determination to get the numbers of dwellings [up], and the development industry. The prime criteria for both is the development numbers. It's not sustainability or liveability."

Randolph says the hands-off approach by government is particularly obvious in urban redevelopment around railway stations and is responsible for the lack of urban green space.

"In urban renewal areas developers have to buy expensive land. No one wants the park. The government doesn't buy up the land then develop it, it leaves it to the private sector. The planning system acts as an enabler to the market rather than thinking about sustainability."

He believes the state government should take a much more hands-on role in shaping new urban areas, as occurs in other countries.

Rooney agrees: "If we look at long-term sustainable projects like Barangaroo, which has been delivered as a net zero precinct, it had incredibly strong governance and government leadership through a really long trajectory," she says.

She says an important step is the update the national construction code, which can ensure buildings are fit for a changing climate.

"It's been a decade since we have updated the national building code. We need to have an ecosystem that lifts standards," she says.

The new code has been on exhibition for the last three months and will be in place by late 2022. It proposes upgrades to standards for glass, insulation, water heaters and other materials to drive thermal efficiency.

"There will be a lot of discussion about the cost of making homes better but we have to really lean into the long-term value.

"We need net zero homes. There is a commitment to a trajectory and now we need that to happen. There is a whole lot of green infrastructure - we know that with large green spaces, light-coloured roofs, tree cover, that we can change the temperature. Then we need to look at other elements like public transport, walkability, a sense of community."

She also suggests that the pandemic, far from being an excuse for backing off higher standards, should be a catalyst for change.

"The community has become aware of the value of green space. Councils have put in pop-up cycleways and pop-up outdoor dining. I think there has been a community renaissance of their understanding of green spaces."

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'Ultimately uninhabitable': western Sydney's legacy of planning failure

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On 4 January 2020, the western Sydney suburb of Penrith was one of the hottest places on Earth at 48.9C. The heat that day, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, gave a brief window into what the future will be like in the city's outer rings, soon to be home to more than 1.5 million people.

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Children are particularly at risk from air pollution, as their immune systems, lungs and brains are still developing. Air pollution can affect children's physical health, their ability to learn, and even lead to death. Yet millions of children are still exposed to dangerously high levels of air pollution, as almost all UK schools are in areas above WHO air pollution limits.

We need to safeguard children from air pollution now, to help them achieve their best life chances, and to ensure this generation, and the environment they live in, is healthy.

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Children are particularly at risk from air pollution, as their immune systems, lungs and brains are still developing. Air pollution can affect children's physical health, their ability to learn, and even lead to death. Yet millions of children are still exposed to dangerously high levels of air pollution, as almost all UK schools are in areas above WHO air pollution limits.

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Climate Ambassadors:

Bring the curriculum to life, helping young people to see the real-life application of what they are learning in school

Bring in outside climate expertise

Motivate young people to work scientifically, think creatively, reason, find problems for themselves and try out ideas to solve them

Serve as an inspiring role model

Help build young peoples' knowledge and understanding of our changing climate

Support offered by Climate Ambassadors:

Fact checking resources for teachers

Providing advice to school leaders and governors on reducing carbon emissions

Making climate data accessible for students

Helping to forge links between local industry and schools

Highlighting the important role of experts outside of STEM fields in engaging educators with climate change initiatives

Request a Climate Ambassador:

Invite a Climate Ambassador into your classroom either in person or virtually whenever you want, wherever you are.

Requests for Climate Ambassadors are made using the STEM Ambassador website. Register and upload an activity request remembering to include Climate Ambassador in the activity title.
Make a Request

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Climate Ambassadors: Bring the curriculum to life, helping young people to see the real-life application of what they are learning in school Bring in outside climate expertise Motivate young people to work scientifically, think creatively, reason, find problems for themselves and try out ideas to solve them Serve as an

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First explorations

This content can be used to start exploring concepts in climate change and weather.

Deeper discovery
This content can be used to explore concepts in climate change and weather in more depth.

Weather and climate affect everything, from the way we live, to what we eat, to our personal safety. We want to help young people understand the wide-reaching impacts of weather and climate change locally and globally, for people, places and businesses.

Combining world-leading meteorology expertise with a sense of fun and adventure, our programme's free set of curriculum-linked resources aim to spark students' curiosity in the world around them and help them understand the effects of weather and climate on their community, either as a one-off activity or as part of a wider scheme of work.

Whether you're a our resources have been designed to be flexible and help make delivery of the curriculum engaging, easy and enjoyable. Most of our lesson plans are teacher, home educator or community group leader, available in Welsh (hosted alongside the English ones), and as we build our programme, we will continue to expand our Welsh-language content.

We'd love to hear from you about how you're using our resources, what you like, what could be improved or what you'd like us to provide in the future.We'll be releasing new resources on a regular basis, so do check back for updates and keep an eye on our Met Office Learning Twitter feed for news. You can also email us here.

If you would like to sign up for updates about our Education Outreach activities, including our schools programme, click here (once you've entered your email address, you'll be able to select which news you'll receive from us).

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Discovering maths, science and more through weather and climate.

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Poster

A set of 4 inspiring green engineering careers posters for students to think about how they can change the way we (they) move, eat, use and power things. Each poster comes with some prompts on the back, for teachers to use with their students in class, as part of a class discussion, small group activity or suggested homework.

This resource is also available to order in print, free of charge. Place your order.
Download the Poster

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A set of 4 inspiring green engineering careers posters for students to think about how they can change the way we (they) move, eat, use and power things...

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At the University of Reading, we’re working in partnership to launch an action plan to improve climate education in schools.

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| October 12. 2015. 11:05

In recent years, the UK has added thousands of renewable power schemes to its ageing — and dwindling — fleet of coal, nuclear and gas plants. Yet these older sources still supply most of the UK's electricity.

Carbon Brief has plotted the nation's power stations in an interactive map to show the diversity of the UK's electricity supply.

The maps also show how the UK's hydroelectric generation is limited to Scotland and Wales, where plentiful rainfall, mountains and sparsely populated valleys make it easier to build dams. The largest circles are the UK's pumped storage reservoirs, which act like giant batteries for the grid.

Windfarms are skewed, too, towards the coastlines and higher ground where consistent wind speeds are more reliable. You can also see larger offshore wind installations popping up - for now these are relatively close to the shore, in shallower waters.

The UK's coal, gas and nuclear sites are more evenly distributed, but here, too, the map is revealing. All nuclear sites, for instance, are on the coast, because they need guaranteed access to plentiful supplies of cooling water.

Historic shifts

A closer look at the data behind the map reveals some interesting shifts in the types of infrastructure being built to generate the UK's electricity. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many large coal plants were built that are still operating today (black bars, below).

Our nuclear sites were built over the course of a quarter century from 1971 (purple bars). From the 1990s, new gas-fired plant was added during the UK's "dash for gas" (blue). And since the turn of the century there has been a massive expansion of renewable capacity (green).

Like the map, this shifting history tells us more than you might expect. For instance, the big gaps between nuclear additions show how long it takes to build atomic plant. You can also see why our current coal fleet has an average age of 44 years with Drax, the newest coal plant in Great Britain, completed in 1986. Yet the UK still has nearly 20 gigawatts (GW) of coal capacity.

However, the UK has no clear to change its still-heavy reliance on coal. Despite a relatively high carbon price and prime minister David Cameron's to phase the fuel out, some 31% of UK electricity last year came from coal (black area, below).

That said, UK coal use fell by a last year, as overall electricity use to mid-1990s levels. Three UK coal plants totalling 5GW have recently announced plans to close in March 2016. These are the 2GW Eggborough , 1GW Ferrybridge C and 2GW plants.

There has been a steady stream of over recent years as old and dirty coal plants have shut down, rather than invest in air pollution controls (shrinking black areas in the chart, below). Coal's days may be numbered if a rumoured phase-out date of 2023 is confirmed.

Renewable capacity

Meanwhile, some 16GW of new renewables have been built over the past five years, accounting for four-fifths of new capacity in that period. Gas made up the remainder, though only renewables have been added since the start of 2013.

De-rated capacity is falling. Combined with the unprofitability of building new gas-fired generation, this is creating a UK " capacity crunch ". In response to this shrinking margin between supply and demand, the UK's capacity market will begin to pay power stations, just for being available - or it will pay large users to reduce their peak demand .

A chorus of concern over capacity from some analysts and sections of the media is consistently rebuffed by National Grid and the government, which insist plans are in place to keep the lights on. Sub-sea electricity interconnectors, shown in our map and with capacity set to more than double over the next five years, will also help to buffer ups and downs in the UK's supply and demand.

Main Map: The UK's electricity generating sites and sub-sea interconnectors. Only currently operating sites of 1 megawatt (MW) capacity or larger are included. The size of the circles is proportional to site capacity but a minimum size applies below a certain threshold. Toggle the buttons to view each fuel type alone. Hover over each site to see further information on its capacity and age. Data comes from the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Carbon Brief research. Credit: Rosamund Pearce, Carbon Brief. You can also visit the full-screen version.

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Mapped: How the UK generates its electricity - Carbon Brief

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October 12. 2015. 11:05 In recent years, the UK has added thousands of renewable power schemes to its ageing - and dwindling - fleet of coal, nuclear and gas plants. Yet these older sources still supply most of the UK's electricity.

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Sponsored content: Implementing more solar street lights may help fight against the triple crises of climate, energy, and finance
As Europe plunges deeper into an energy crisis induced by the overdependence of fossil fuels, leapfrogging to solar lighting can lessen the burden.
In fact, moving towards a more sustainable way to illuminate our lives may prove beneficial in our fight against the triple crisis of climate, energy and finance, and should be included among post-Covid recovery plans across the region.

REPowerEU, which forms part of the European Commission's larger Recovery and Resilience Facility, aims to liberate the Union from Russian fossil fuel imports following the invasion of Ukraine, and the roll out of solar energy is at the heart of the framework.

Signify argues that solar lighting is an important component in the path to REPowerEU.

"These crises offer us an opportunity to leapfrog into solar, when considering how we light our lives," says Harry Verhaar, the company's Head of Global Public & Government Affairs.

"We're already seeing the electrification of vital sectors to reduce our energy demands and light should not be an exception. Using solar can relieve the grid, improve resilience, develop safer communities, and allow more remote places to benefit from light," Verhaar adds.

Vitally, solar lighting for streetlights can help take pressure off of the grid, either in their entirety or with the use of hybrid solutions and peak-shaving where built-in batteries are charged throughout the day and then used during peak hours.

If European member states replaced 56 million streetlights (the entire stock within the EU27) with hybrid-solar lamps, carbon emissions would be reduced by 12 Mt per year, an amount equivalent to the absorption capacity of a forest half the size of Belgium. It would also free up the grid to enable the recharging of 7.3 million electric vehicles for a whole year.

This transition has been seen in parts of the City of Seville, Spain.

"We will use extremely efficient and effective solar street lights to decrease energy consumption and reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions," said Mayor Juan Espadas, after the Council worked with Signify to install 20 SunStay luminaries in Infanta Elena Park.

As an all-in-one integrated solution, the lights work without the need for cables or any type of electrical connection and, while maintaining an output of 3,000 lumens of warm light, enjoys both zero energy consumption and zero emissions.

The Greek Island of Leipsoi is seeing similar benefits after installing 28 SunStay luminaires, which has helped the municipality overcome issues relating to the misalignment between the grid system and the road layout.

As a fully autonomous and external solution, with poles not connected to the mains power cables, makes the island resilient to weather anomalies and the inhabitants not subject to power cuts.

Leipsoi is not the only remote place that has taken advantage of solar light.

In the suburbs of Metropolitan Venice, the SunStay luminaries are being used to improve the lighting around a lagoon which would have proven difficult using traditional electrical networking due to the bay's geography and remoteness.

"Thanks to our solar technology, Cavallino Treporti is now guaranteed efficient street lighting," says Andrea Bernardini, Signify's Commercial Lead in Systems and Public Services.

"Despite multiple technical difficulties, they are now able to benefit from high light quality and improved sustainability," he adds.

Ultimately, the benefits of moving towards solar light are multifold, the technology is ready, and the costs are low.

"But what's important is speed," says Verhaar. "To free ourselves of the climate, energy, and financial crises, leapfrogging to solar must be a small part of our actions ahead, but we must accelerate the jump."
This post was sponsored by Signify. See our editorial guidelines for what this means.

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Europe's energy crisis offers opportunity to leapfrog towards solar lighting

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Sponsored content: Implementing more solar street lights may help fight against the triple crises of climate, energy, and finance As Europe plunges deeper into an energy crisis induced by the overdependence of fossil fuels, leapfrogging to solar lighting can lessen the burden.

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NOAA Video rather than an animation - Keeling curve and historic data

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NOAA Video rather than an animation - Keeling curve and historic data

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Time History of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, by CIRES & NOAA

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In cities around the world, trees are often planted to help control temperatures and mitigate the effects of the " urban heat island". But while trees have been called " nature's air conditioners ", in practice, scientists often have difficulty demonstrating their cooling properties.

The most obvious way to measure the cooling effect of trees would be to compare the air temperature in parks with that in nearby streets. But this method often comes up with disappointing results: even in large, leafy parks, the daytime air temperature is usually less than 1°C cooler than in the stuffy streets, and at night the temperature in parks can actually be higher.

To explain this contradiction, we need to think more clearly about the physics of heat flows in our cities, and the scale of the measurements we are taking.

Shady days

Theoretically, trees can help provide cooling in two ways: by providing shade, and through a process known as evapotranspiration. Locally, trees provide most of their cooling effect by shading. How warm we feel actually depends less on local air temperature, and more on how much electromagnetic radiation we emit to, and absorb from, our surroundings. A tree's canopy acts like a parasol, blocking out up to 90% of the sun's radiation, and increasing the amount of heat that we lose to our surroundings by cooling the ground beneath us.

Roland Ennos, Author provided

All up, the shade provided by trees can reduce our physiologically equivalent temperature (that is, how warm we feel our surroundings to be) by between seven and 15°C, depending on our latitude. So it's no surprise that, in the height of summer, people throng to the delicious coolness of the shade provided by London parks, Parisian boulevards, and Mediterranean plazas.

Trees can also cool down buildings - especially when planted to the east or west - as their shade prevents solar radiation from penetrating windows, or heating up external walls. Experimental investigations and modelling studies in the USA have shown that shade from trees can reduce the air conditioning costs of detached houses by 20% to 30%.

But air conditioning is more common in some places than in others: for example, while three out of four Australian households have an air conditioner, they're much less common in Northern Europe, leaving the population there more vulnerable to the harms of urban heat. During the 2003 European heatwave, there were 70,000 more deaths recorded, compared with equivalent cool periods. We urgently need more research to find out how much shade from trees could cool down the terraced houses and apartment blocks, where so many less well-off people live.

Beating the heat

Trees can also be used to tackle a bigger problem: the urban heat island. During periods of calm, sunny weather, the air temperature of cities can be raised above that of the surrounding countryside by up to 7°C, especially at night. In cities, the hard, dark asphalt and brick surfaces absorb almost all the incoming short-wave radiation from the sun, heating up to between 40°C and 60°C, and storing energy which is then released into the air during the still of night, when it can be trapped in the narrow street canyons.

Roland Ennos, Author provided

Urban trees can counter this process by intercepting the radiation before it reaches the ground, and using the energy for evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration occurs when the sun's rays hit the trees' canopy, causing water to evaporate from the leaves. This cools them down - just as sweating cools our skin - thereby reducing the amount of energy left to warm the air.

The effects of evapotranspiration can be quantified in two ways. First, you can measure the temperature of the tree canopy, which is typically much cooler than built surfaces - only 2°C to 3°C above air temperature. Unfortunately, we can't really claim that this temperature difference is evidence of cooling capacity; leaves would be cooler than built surfaces even if they weren't losing water, because they are cooled more effectively by convection.

A better method is to calculate the cooling effect of a tree directly, by measuring how much water it is losing. You can do this by measuring the sap flow up its trunk, or the water loss from single leaves. These methods show that tree canopies can divert over 60% of the incoming radiation to evapotranspiration. Even a small (4m high) Callery pear tree - a commonly planted species in Northern Europe - can provide around 6kW of cooling: the equivalent of two small air-conditioning units.

But there's a catch: trees only provide this cooling effect when they are growing well. By measuring water loss from individual leaves, we showed that sparser, slower-growing plum and crab apple trees provided only a quarter of the cooling effect of the Callery pears. What's more, the effectiveness of trees can be greatly reduced if the growing conditions are poor. We found that the transpiration of Callery pears could be reduced by a factor of five, if the roots were growing through compacted or poorly aerated soil. Much more research is needed on the relative performance of large and small trees, whether they're planted on streets or in parks.

One final difficulty in working out the cooling power of trees is to determine how much a given tree's evapotranspiration will actually reduce the air temperature. As so often in science, a modelling approach is needed, with physicists, engineers and biologists working together. We need to put realistic trees into detailed regional climate models, which can mimic the complex daily movements of air and energy through the city. Only then can we determine the regional benefits of the urban forest, and work out how to use trees to make our cities cooler and more pleasant places to live in.

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In cities around the world, trees are often planted to help control temperatures and mitigate the effects of the " urban heat island". But while trees have been called " nature's air conditioners ", in practice, scientists often have difficulty demonstrating their cooling properties.

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Getting a fully charged battery without a long wait? We try out Chinese car maker Nio’s alternative solution...

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Author: Stephen Cousins 15 September 2021

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The 75 per cent problem: making greener glass

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In the final part of a series about decarbonising building materials, Modus focuses on flat glass, which involves one of the highest temperature industrial processes

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Author: Stephen Cousins 15 September 2021

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The 75 per cent problem: making greener glass

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In the final part of a series about decarbonising building materials, Modus focuses on flat glass, which involves one of the highest temperature industrial processes

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Floating Solar UK | Ciel et Terre | Hydrelio&copy

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A new, reliable and cost-effective solution to turn bodies of water into solar power plants while conserving land and water. Floating solar systems can represent a serious alternative to ground mounted solar systems.

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Satellite shows extent of terrible destruction to the planet - BBC

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Video from "Just have a think" - Gravity energy storage assessed

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Video from "Just have a think" - Gravity energy storage assessed

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Gravity Energy Storage. Who's right and who's wrong?

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EV Charging Solutions

Why flat & flush on-street charging?

It was important to us to make sure that everyone benefits from the energy transition, and improving the lives of one group - EV drivers - should not come at the expense of everyone else. So we designed our on-street charging solution to leave no permanent street clutter so there is more streetspace available, as often as possible. Pavements are for people and not posts, so we like to not impact those going about their day, or night.

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Flat and Flush On street EV Charging - Trojan Energy

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EV Charging Solutions It was important to us to make sure that everyone benefits from the energy transition, and improving the lives of one group - EV drivers - should not come at the expense of everyone else. So we designed our on-street charging solution to leave no permanent street clutter so there is more streetspace available, as often as possible.

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EV Charging Solutions

Why flat & flush on-street charging?

It was important to us to make sure that everyone benefits from the energy transition, and improving the lives of one group - EV drivers - should not come at the expense of everyone else. So we designed our on-street charging solution to leave no permanent street clutter so there is more streetspace available, as often as possible. Pavements are for people and not posts, so we like to not impact those going about their day, or night.

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Flat and Flush On street EV Charging - Trojan Energy

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EV Charging Solutions It was important to us to make sure that everyone benefits from the energy transition, and improving the lives of one group - EV drivers - should not come at the expense of everyone else. So we designed our on-street charging solution to leave no permanent street clutter so there is more streetspace available, as often as possible.

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Learning Goals

Students will have an understanding of how scientists use proxy records to infer past climates.

Students will graph data (using Excel) to evaluate connections between oxygen isotope ratios in ice cores and temperature.

Specifically, students will understand that...

there are different forms of elements that are known as isotopes.

different isotopes of atoms evaporate and condense at different temperatures.

that there are different forms of water (heavy and light) that contain isotopes of oxygen and that these forms evaporate and condense at different temperatures.

ice core samples from arctic regions contain a nearly continuous record of atmospheric conditions.

scientists use differential evaporation and condensation rates of water (Raleigh Distillation) that contains isotopes of oxygen to measure changes in temperature in the atmosphere.

scientists have calculated how the change in oxygen isotopes in ice core samples can be correlated with temperature.

scientists can use proxy records to determine past climatic conditions and that there are procedures in place which allow scientists to have a high degree of confidence in the information gained through proxy sources.

Learning Objectives

Students will describe how evaporation and condensation rates differ based on the mass of the matter that is undergoing a phase change and that temperature controls the rate at which matter of differing mass changes phases.

Students will be able to create charts using Excel and analyze charts for trends.

Students will develop an understanding of how scientists use proxy records (specifically O-18:O16 ratio in ice cores) to draw conclusions about past climates.

Materials

For the Introduction Demonstration:

Styrofoam spheres (D = 2 cm)

Spray paint

Large clear cylinder (app 18")

Box fan (Note: the cylinder or container should be the same diameter (or smaller) as fan blades)

For Learning Background Concepts:

For Exploring Ice Core Data:

Directions

A Powerpoint presentation will be used to introduce students to the use of proxy records in understanding paleoclimates.

A brief video showing climate scientists retrieving ice cores and explaining data that can be extracted from ice core samples.

Students will watch a teacher demonstration that simulates the evaporation and condensation of isotopic compounds (or watch a video of the demonstration.)

Students will answer guiding questions and will be asked to make a connection between the demonstration and the water cycle.

Learning Background Concepts:

Students will complete a brief reading on how different forms of water (heavy and light) preferentially evaporate and condense and how this relates to the O-18:O16 ratio in ice core samples.

Students will answers questions on a Background Worksheet to show understanding of concepts covered in demo and reading.

Exploring and Interpreting Ice Core Data:

Students will graph actual oxygen isotope ice core data from Greenland and recorded temperatures from this region using Excel. The data comes from twenty sites in Greenland. Multiple samples of ratios between heavy and light oxygen from each site have been statistically averaged through a process known as Principal Component (PC) analysis. Students will create a graph of the isotope data compared to average temperature data collected in that region. Both the ice core and temperature data represent conditions in the winter season (November-April) for the years 1829-1970.

By answering questions on the worksheet, students will answer synthesis/analysis questions and develop a conclusion on the relationship between O-18:O-16 ratio in ice cores and global temperatures.

Background

Scientists who study the environment often want to know what the Earth was like in the past. Often the information that they seek is from times far more distant than the written record covers. Because no recorded data exists from the distant past for measurements like temperature and precipitation, scientists use what are known as proxy records. These are indirect methods for estimating climatic conditions of the distant past. Some common proxy records that help paleoclimatologists infer the climatic conditions of the past are tree rings, layers of ocean sediments, pollen, and ice cores. In this investigation, we will be looking at how scientists use the ratio of Oxygen-18 to Oxygen-16 in ice core samples to determine past temperatures.

Credits

Steve Walder, Taylor Dufford, and Nathan Hobbs - Colorado teacher participants in the UCAR Center for Science Education RETI professional development program

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Students will have an understanding of how scientists use proxy records to infer past climates. Students will graph data (using Excel) to evaluate connections between oxygen isotope ratios in ice cores and temperature. Specifically, students will understand that... there are different forms of elements that are known as isotopes.

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Sea level rise and coastal flood risk maps -- a global screening tool by Climate Central

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Interactive global map showing areas threatened by sea level rise and coastal flooding.

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The temperatures on the CAT thermometer are ‘median’ warming estimates in 2100. This means that there is a 50% chance that the calculated temperature would be exceeded if the given emissions pathway is followed.

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Advait and Francisca have recently joined Global Action Plan as members of our board of Trustees. In this 5 Minute GAP, they talk about the importance of young people having a voice, and the power of youth in shaping our future.

"We Share Freely". The change we want to see in the world is bigger than we are. So, we're sharing our knowledge, resources and ideas to help more people and organisations take steps forward towards our vision of a green and thriving planet, where everyone can enjoy happy and healthy lives within the Earth's limits.

As part of this, we're launching our new "5 Minute GAP" series, a collection of five minute conversations that will share how we work and what we're working on. We'll talk about what we're trying to achieve and why, how we function as an organisation, and the thinking behind our plans and strategy.

We'll be regularly sharing these conversations, which will feature different members of our team and trustee board, as well as external experts.

We hope you enjoy listening in to our chats, getting to know our team and finding out what makes us who we are.

Audio only version:

If you prefer to read rather than watch, the transcription is here:

Francisca: I think it's important to have young people in influential positions because they bring a different perspective, so though we may not be as experienced as someone who's, you know, has 30 years or 40 years or however many years of experience working in the company or a charity or campaigning for climate change.

I think we bring something from you know, we do bring something from the little experience that we have and the little lives that we've lived, because I guess we have different interactions with our friends and our teachers and people at school, university, etc. and those all influence how we see the world and how we experience the world. And I think those are very valuable, like our lived experiences.

But also some of us have been actively campaigning since we were young, and we can always learn from others and they can always learn from us and we can bring these perspectives that they might not even thought about because at the end of the day. We are going to be the climate leaders in the future and we... as many people can hear our voice before we reach the time that, you know, we are, I guess, older, prominent climate leaders, um, I guess would be helpful for strategising, so like youth engagement and engaging the audiences, people that younger people can relate to. And also I guess aspire to as well. I hope that we're able to encourage more young people to apply, to be on boards a nd to make change on a structural level in organisations and companies in the future.

Advait: That's a very pertinent point Francisca, and I think the importance of having young people in position of leadership is drawn into even sharper focus
with the climate crisis, because as young people, we have a lot to lose from the climate crisis. Perhaps the most to lose. Our future. But the sobering reality is the average age of an MP is 50 years old and it's almost unheard of to see someone below the age of 40 in a boardroom. How can these powerful institutions possibly put themselves in the shoes of young people, promulgate policies targeted towards young people, if there aren't any young voices around the table?

And that's why we need more young people in leadership. And that's why I actually admire Global Action Plan for their real commitment t o empowering the voice of the youth.

And speaking of empowering the youth, ha! What are your thoughts on the power of young people to change the world? Can we actually do anything?

Francisca: I think we're already making an impact like with Teach the Future, for example, and they're impacting policy and with We Don't Have Time, with the COP26 marches that happened at the last COP26 in Glasgow. I think people more and more, not just organisations and companies, but I think people generally are realising that we do have an impact.

We do have valuable contributions and we are interested and we can help them I guess as well in trying to get that youth engagement, like I was saying previously, we are more connected with people who are our age, so I guess they're more likely to listen to us because, you know, we're their peers, we know where they are, we know, like they're on TikTok or they're on Instagram and we can just connect with them on a different level that doesn't feel as corporate. A nd what about you, what do you think?

Advait: I think that I think that I used to be someone who was disillusioned, who felt disempowered, who felt like I was just one voice whispering into the darkness. And it's easy to think that when you look up and you see that all of our leaders today in politics and business tend to be fairly aged.

But I want to share a story about how powerful we can be when we speak together. So in my school sustainability society, the ages range from around 14 to 17, but we have some people as young as 12. And by organising a number of initiatives, we've taken sustainability from the fringes of people's minds to the heart of not only my school's policymaking, but also the policymaking of my s chool's parent organisation. So that's how powerful we can be when we speak as one. And that that's what I hope we can inspire other people to do. To get together and to speak with one voice.

Francisca: I guess I have a similar experience in that two years ago I started a campaign in my room using Twitter, Instagram, and whatnot. And I never really thought about what impact it could have. It was sort of, this is something I'm a nnoyed about and I'd like to change it. And just using on my networks, I was able to mobilize a group of young people. And now I've created something t hat's very impactful and influential within our discipline. So I agree with you there, like we can go from feeling disillusioned to being able to not only empower ourselves, but empower other people around us and really make change that we want rather than change that we're I guess that's sort of put on us, that's forced on us, t hat we don't necessarily agree with or that we don't necessarily think would be great for our futures.

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5 Minute GAP - Advait and Francisca talk about the power of youth

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Advait and Francisca have recently joined Global Action Plan as members of our board of Trustees. In this 5 Minute GAP, they talk about the importance of young people having a voice, and the power that young people have in shaping our future.

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Manchester Climate Change Agency - 15 actions

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Manchester Climate Change Agency - 15 actions

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This is the list of actions we need every resident and organisation in Manchester to take to help meet our climate change targets. This is a zero carbon call to action!

For further inspiration visit our case studies page.
GETTING STARTED 1. Commit to zero carbon and taking urgent action now:
Set science based targets and commit to becoming zero carbon by 2038. To sign our Commitment to act and see which organisations in Manchetser have already signed, take a look at Manchester Climate Change Agency - Commitment to Act
2. Measure and report your CO2
Where does your CO 2 come from? The following websites will help you understand where the majority of your emissions are generated.

Individual (WWF)

Organisation (Carbon Disclosure Project)
3. Climate change education
Learn more about how our everyday personal and business decisions are generating CO 2 and affecting the world right now. An individual or an organisation can become Carbon Literate today:

The Carbon Literacy project will help get you started.

For organisations looking for help with staff training and education, take a look at the Carbon Trust's resources on employee awareness
TAKING ACTION 4. Food
Changing your diet can have a huge impact on your carbon footprint. Research from the University of Oxford has suggested that cutting meat and dairy from your diet can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from your food by up to 73%[1]. Eating more plant based food and choosing fewer meat and dairy options is crucial for tackling climate change. Other aspects of our food choices and procurement are often overlooked when it comes to climate change - consider food that has been produced locally, opting for foods that are in season and reducing food waste are all vital.

Individuals can find out more about your sustainable food options at Feeding Greater Manchester.

Organisations: Encourage more plant-based food options in office canteens, reduce food waste, buy locally produced food and purchase from businesses that support local food markets.
5. Transport
Our health is being damaged every day as a result of air pollution, with the most vulnerable in particular being put at risk. 1400 people die prematurely every year as a result of the air pollution in Greater Manchester[2]. Our economy is also being affected; we lose over one billion pounds every year as a result of air pollution[3]. If you want a healthier environment then visit Clean Air Greater Manchester.

Leave the car at home. Use more public transport. Cycle or walk as many journeys as possible. Advice for individuals:
Transport for Greater Manchester -Travel Planner
Advice for businesses visit:
Transport for Greater Manachester
If you are an organisation in getting a review of your fleet emissions visit Energy Saving Trust
6. Flying
The aviation industry is the fastest growing source of CO₂ emissions globally[4].

Residents: use the train for domestic or close-by international trips, consider holiday options within the UK rather than flying abroad.

Organisations: unnecessary business flights needs to stop, instead use video and teleconferencing. Take a look at the Tyndall Travel Strategy to help make your travel decisions.

Offer your staff 'Climate Perks' to give them extra days to travel on holiday by sustainable transport instead of flying.To find out more visit: Climate Perks
7. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle our stuff
Our clothes, phones, laptops, home and office furniture; everything we buy has a carbon footprint. By reducing the amount you consume not only minimises your environmental impact, it also saves you money. Repairing and reusing existing items is the next best option. And when you do need new items ask yourself, shop and your suppliers these questions: Is second hand an option? Are they made from sustainable materials like FSC wood or organic cotton? Are they good quality and less likely to need replacement? Can they be recycled at the end of their life?

To repair, or learn how to make sustainable clothes visit Stitched Up.

To repair and reuse old electronics visit Restart.

For what can be recycled in Manchester visit Recycle for Greater Manchester.

For organisatins: reach out to your suppliers and customers and ask them to reduce their carbon footprints, including it in procurement documents and contracts wherever possible. To get support with using resouces more efficiently, take a look at WRAP
8. Renewable Energy
We need to stop using fossil fuels to become a zero carbon city. We need renewable energy to come from a combination of local generation (e.g. solar panels on our roofs) and a fully decarbonised National Grid.

To get advice on how to finance energy saving measures in your home vistit Home Energy Loan Plan.

Switching to a green supplier is easy to do online and most importantly it shouldn't cost you any extra money (in fact, it could be cheaper!).

To switch over to green energy visit https://bigcleanswitch.org/gm/.
9. Existing buildings
Existing buildings typically have a large carbon footprint due to the energy required to heat them. Retrofitting makes a building more energy efficient by improving the insulation, which has a positive impact on both the environment and the financial cost of running a building. There are organisations that are helping people and businesses make radical reductions in emissions.

For help on how you and your community can make radical reductions in home carbon emissions have a look at: Carbon Co-op and Red Co-op.

For businesses looking for practical advice on how to become energy efficient and cut down carbon for your business sector, take a look at the Carbon Trust's sector specific guides.

Within homes, reducing the amount of energy you use can massively reduce your carbon footprint. Find out more at Business Green.
10. Green space and gardens
We need our green spaces, gardens and parks to help adapt Manchester to climate change. Green spaces provide benefits for our residents' physical and mental health, they support wildlife and provide new jobs and businesses, with many other positives. We want the people of Manchester to reconnect to their gardens and local green areas, creating a space for both wildlife and people to move through.

You could get involved by looking at how to manage your garden in an environmentally efficient way, or by encouraging biodiversity to local green spaces.

My wild city project is helping do just that:

My Wild City
11. Water conservation
Fresh, clean water is a limited resource. The Environment Agency has warned that the UK is at risk of running out of our freshwater supply within the next 25 years[5]. Using less water will result in lower quantities of fresh water being pumped and treated to meet our demands. This reduces our energy consumption in relation to water use which is crucial in reducing Manchester's carbon footprint.

Choose quick showers over baths, turn the tap off whilst brushing your teeth, re-use water where possible - and get creative - such as using bath water to water plants.

To find out more Visit:
United Utilities - Save Water 12. New developments and construction
Manchester, like all cities, is growing and is set to continue to grow. However, we can't allow this growth to result in increased carbon emissions. We need to tackle the amount of CO2 that is emitted through the construction of new buildings (including the emissions embodied in the materials themselves) and those emitted once the building is occupied. In some instances, 50% of the lifetime emissions of a building are emitted at the construction stage [6]. All new developments will need to be net zero carbon from 2028, under proposed Greater Manchester planning standards. However, we need to see proactive Manchester developers moving quicker wherever possible, marking themselves out as market leaders.

Developers: sign up to the Green Building Council's Net Zero commitment and get advice on how to act:

Take a look at this framework definition of net zero carbon buildings developed by the UKGBC for guidance on what net zero carbon means in construction and operation and possible ways to achieve it

Influence new developments: could that new development in your neighbourhood be zero carbon? Ask the developer, contribute to local consultations and comment on planning applications at:
Manchester City Council - Planning and Regeneration INSPIRING AND INFLUENCING OTHERS 13. Where you put your money
Choosing who you bank with can have an impact on your carbon footprint. Read up on which banks have good environmental credentials. This also applies to any savings you may have. Check where your pension is invested, some schemes are currently invested in fossil fuels, including the Greater Manchester Pension Fund

Get organisations to stop investing in fossil fuels:
Fossil Free Greater Manchester
Ethical savings and investments can be a great way of investing money whilst also benefiting the environment. Organisations such as Greater Manchester Community Renewables, install community-owned renewable energy supplies. To find out more visit:
Greater Manchester Community Renewables 14. Spread the word
For both businesses and individuals, it is important to access as many people as possible, to enable change to happen right across the city.

Residents: share your knowledge and experience with your friends, family, classmates and your community. And also be open to learning from others.

Organisations: reach out to your suppliers and customers and ask them to reduce their carbon footprints, including it in procurement documents and contracts wherever possible. You are a key player in making change happen!
ASK FOR HELP 15. Ask politicians and decision-makers for help
Change will need to come from the top as well as the bottom.

Write to your local and national politician where you have a proposal that will help ensure Manchester meets its climate change targets. Describe what is currently preventing you from taking action to become zero carbon and how your proposal will help tackle it. Be creative, include examples of best practice from other cities, set out the wider benefits to the city of your new proposal, and describe what you will do to help implement the proposal if it's adopted. 'Dear politician, if you do X, I'll do Y...' can help create a powerful argument for our politicians to act.
Write to Them
We have developed a draft guidance document based on these 15 actions that organisations can download and use to help develop their plans. Scroll to the bottom of the page to view and download.

We have also developed a document that every resident and organisation in Manchester can use to know what they need to do now to meet our zero carbon commitments to support the climate emergency.

References:

[1] University of Oxford (2019), 'New estimates of the environmental cost of food', News and Events, [Online] available at http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2018-06-01-new-estimates-environmental-cost-food (accessed 17/07/2019)

[2]Dajnak, D. Walton, H. Smith, J.D. and Beevers, S. (2017). Greater Manchester Health and Economic Impact Assessment Study. London: King's College.

[3]Manchester City Council. (2018). Manchester Public Health Annual Report, A breath of fresh air: tackling the issue of poor air quality in Manchester.

[4]European Commission: Climate Action (2019) 'Reducing emissions from aviation' [Online] available at https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport/aviation_en (accessed 17/07/2019)

[5]Barrie J. (2019). The essential daily briefing: Environment News [Online] available at https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/england-run-out-of-water-25-years-scotland-is-the-answer/ (accessed 17/07/2019)

[6]UK Green Building Council. (2019). Net Zero Carbon Buildings: A Framework Definition.

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This is the list of actions we need every resident and organisation in Manchester to take to help meet our climate change targets. This is a zero carbon call to action! For further inspiration visit our case studies page. GETTING STARTED 1.

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Scope and purpose

This strategy applies to:

the Department for Education (DfE), its agencies and public bodies

the education and children's services systems in England - including:

early years

schools (and independent schools where applicable)

further education

higher education

children's social care

DfE has an important role to play in all aspects of sustainability. But the area in which we have the most work to do is reducing our environmental footprint, particularly in the drive to achieve net zero.

While the policies set out here are focussed on the environmental aspect of sustainability, this is done with consideration for how those policies will interact with the social and economic aspects of sustainability.

The UK government and the devolved governments (Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) are committed to climate action, and we will work together in our international action. The targets and strategic aims set out relate to England.

It brings together short, medium and longer-term actions that will enable us to make progress towards achieving our 4 strategic aims and overarching vision. It is a strategy to 2030.

Action will be reviewed and updated annually to respond to new opportunities, scientific updates, evidence and data.

This strategy has been informed by:

Foreword
Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi MP
Since spring of 2020, the British education system faced its most challenging period for generations: sustaining learning through a pandemic. The whole sector met this challenge with great resilience. Now, the UK must show the rest of the world how our education system can transition out of the pandemic and, in doing so, face the even greater environmental challenge ahead of us, by Building Back Greener.

We have promised to level up the country, to boost economic growth, encourage innovation, create good jobs and enhance educational attainment so all may share equally in our nation's success. To achieve this in a world influenced by the effects of climate change, we must level up within a context of sustainability, giving all children, young people and adults the knowledge and skills to thrive in the green economy and to help restore nature.

The challenge of climate change is formidable. For children and young people to meet it with determination, and not with despair, we must offer them not just truth, but also hope. Learners need to know the truth about climate change - through knowledge-rich education. They must also be given the hope that they can be agents of change, through hands-on activity and, as they progress, through guidance and programmes allowing them to pursue a green career pathway in their chosen field.

I would like to thank the large number of people that have worked with us in developing this strategy. The feedback from young people, educators, academics, leaders, governing bodies and experts has been invaluable in shaping this first step on our journey. By continuing to work together in the delivery of the strategy we will seek further opportunities to build on the action set out and update on shared progress annually.

I am confident that together we will support net zero through skills and decarbonisation; play a significant part in nature's recovery; build an education system resilient to climate change; and, provide the truth and hope that young people need to flourish in our changing world.

Context

The UK requires the education sector to play its role in positively responding to climate change and inspiring action on an international stage. This strategy sets out ambitious activity to respond to recommendations for education from the:

It supports the delivery of the government's 25 Year Environment Plan and Net Zero Strategy. It includes how we will meet legislative requirements and work in the context of:

the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals and UNESCO's 'Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for 2030' which set out the key role of education in the successful achievement of the goals

the Paris Agreement and Glasgow Climate Pact, which are important steps towards keeping the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive

Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) which includes taking action to empower society to engage in education and training

the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) ensures the needs and views of children are taken into account in the development of climate change policies

the UK Climate Change Act (2008) and National Adaptation Programme (NAP), which include action for education in adapting to climate change and require progress reporting against priority risks

UK government legislation to meet net zero by 2050 - the UK is the first country to set legally binding carbon budgets, placing a restriction on the total amount of greenhouse gases the UK can emit over a 5-year period. In the latest, Carbon Budget 6, the UK legislated to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels

the Environment Act (2021) reflects the need to tackle climate change through nature-based solutions - following the close of the targets consultation in May 2022, government will set statutory targets for air quality, biodiversity, water, resource efficiency and waste reduction, and a new target to reverse the decline in species abundance by the end of 2030, while the act also strengthens the biodiversity duty on public authorities, including the Department for Education

the cross-government 25 Year Environment Plan, which commits to encouraging children to be close to nature both in and out of school

The challenge and the opportunity

Children and young people are worried about climate change and want to know more about:

the impact it is having now

how it will impact their future lives

DfE and the education sector have a joint responsibility for preparing children and young people for the challenges and opportunities they will face - with the appropriate knowledge, skills and pastoral care.

Education

Through education we have the privilege to be able to engage directly with children and young people who:

Through their learned and lived experiences from early years to further and higher education, we will provide opportunities to develop a broad knowledge and understanding of the importance of nature, sustainability and the causes and impact of climate change and to translate this knowledge into positive action and solutions.

In the UK, there are more than 16 million children, young people and adults in education. The enthusiasm of youth can inspire the whole of society to work together at the start of this crucial decade for the planet.

Green skills and jobs

Green jobs will not be niche. We anticipate that sustainability and climate change will touch every career.

The UK government's Net Zero Strategy will support the transition to net zero and 190,000 jobs by the middle of the 2020s and up to 440,000 jobs in 2030. The increased investment and legislation for nature's recovery driven by the Environment Act will also create many green jobs in the nature sector. Our programmes will provide the opportunity for people of all ages to train, retrain or upskill to go into green careers.

Learning from and connecting with nature

The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review states that 'connection with nature declines in childhood to an overall low in the mid-teens. Creating an environment from an early age where we are able to connect to nature is essential for self-enforcement in protecting and valuing nature'.

We will increase opportunities for all children and young people to:

spend time in nature and learn more about it

become actively involved in the improvement of their local environment

We know that regular contact with green spaces can have a beneficial impact on children's physical and mental health. However, access to green space is not equal and we must do more to ensure that all children have opportunities to benefit from access to green space and build connections with nature.

Buildings

Climate adaptation and decarbonisation activity in nurseries, schools, colleges, universities and care buildings can provide powerful learning opportunities. Young people can:

Seeing sustainability brought to life in the buildings around them will allow children and young people to gain experiences which will enhance and contextualise their learning.

Leading by example: cutting energy bills and carbon emissions in the public and higher education sectors shows that schools and universities represent 36% of total UK public sector building emissions.

Costs are also significant and rising. Data sources and interpretation - schools financial benchmarking shows that in 2019 schools alone were spending around £630m per annum on energy and we expect today's figure to be far greater. To reduce energy usage and achieve legal targets for carbon emissions we need to:

get a better understanding of the scale of the problem across the sectors through standardised reporting

drive action based on evidence

Adapting existing buildings and designing new ones to respond to climate change and reduce emissions will undoubtedly be a significant challenge.

By developing and delivering evidence-based solutions for decarbonisation and climate resilience we will:

reduce energy demand

adapt to climate risks

drive innovation in construction

act as a catalyst for green jobs

deliver savings

We will also drive a wide range of additional benefits that will contribute to a vibrant and resilient education community, including:

International

Through learning from others and sharing our own expertise internationally, we will be more effective and innovative. Sustainability and climate change are global problems which require collective efforts and evidence-based solutions.

Vision and aims

Vision: the United Kingdom is the world-leading education sector in sustainability and climate change by 2030.

In England, we will achieve this through the following strategic aims:

Excellence in education and skills for a changing world: preparing all young people for a world impacted by climate change through learning and practical experience.

Net zero: reducing direct and indirect emissions from education and care buildings, driving innovation to meet legislative targets and providing opportunities for children and young people to engage practically in the transition to net zero.

Resilience to climate change: adapting our education and care buildings and system to prepare for the effects of climate change.

A better environment for future generations: enhancing biodiversity, improving air quality and increasing access to, and connection with, nature in and around education and care settings.

Guiding principles

Partnership and collaboration

Success depends on DfE and stakeholders from across the sectors working together.

We know there are many organisations working to improve sustainability and mitigate against climate change, so we will seek opportunities to:

work with others who share our objectives

extend and amplify existing good practice and initiatives

We will also facilitate partnership across the sectors to maximise the use of resources, expertise and ideas to achieve more effective outcomes.

Evidence and insight

Evidence will be at the heart of our activity. By 2023 we will develop and publish a framework to evaluate the impacts of the actions set out within the strategy.

We will also work with the sectors to develop reporting frameworks and processes to ensure strategic decisions can be taken at every level. While mandatory reporting is not currently set out within the strategy, this decision will be kept under regular review. The decision to mandate is subject to uptake and legislative reporting requirements in line with government's Net Zero Strategy.

We will work together to set science-based targets from 2025, ensuring we play our part in reducing public-sector emissions against a 2017 baseline by:

50% by the end of Carbon Budget 5 (2032)

75% by the end of Carbon Budget 6 (2037)

There are many opportunities to improve sustainability and impact climate change. Ensuring we learn before we leap, we will work across the sector to research, test and pilot with:

As our evidence base for what works grows, we will prioritise funding where it will have greatest impact.

Leadership and support

Sector representatives have called on DfE to provide greater leadership in sustainability. We will work across government and intervene where we add value (for example through sector-wide data gathering, reporting, funding and guidance). Wherever possible we will facilitate autonomy and foster innovation.

Sector leadership and institution-level accountability for sustainability will be key for success. We will continually seek opportunities to share best practice and provide support for those leading at a local level.

A whole system approach

Together we will make the greatest impact. We will adopt a systems-based approach and ensure our initiatives are delivered via action areas to deliver outcomes for the education system, rather than focussing on specific age or sectors.

By taking a holistic view of education (from formal and extracurricular learning opportunities, the physical buildings and surroundings, to the way in which they operate) we will positively improve the environment. At the same time we will influence and inspire, not only those that use the settings, but the communities around them.

Initiatives to drive the strategy

We have carried out work with sector representatives and experts to develop initiatives that bring together activity to drive the strategic aims:

National Education Nature Park

By considering the whole physical education estate as a virtual National Education Nature Park, we have a unique opportunity to:

The National Education Nature Park will:

This will help connect and amplify the excellent work already happening in this area through many national and local stakeholders and community groups.

As their work starts to have an impact, the young participants will upload their progress on the park's digital mapping services. They will be able to:

see how the park is 'growing', while increasing their knowledge of species

develop important skills, such as biodiversity mapping, data collection and analysis

The nature park's online hub will enable the sharing of best practice across the education estate. With time, it will go beyond biodiversity to show impact and climate resilience, including flood, overheating and air quality status of the estate.

A number of universities will support the launch of the National Education Nature Park by:

Climate Leaders Award

A Climate Leaders Award will complement classroom learning and allow us to celebrate and recognise education providers, children and young people for:

developing their connection with nature

making a real contribution to establishing a sustainable future for us all

The award will provide a structured route through existing awards in this area, such as the John Muir Award, Duke of Edinburgh's Award, Junior Forester Award and others.

Participation will enable children and young people to acquire credits towards the prestigious Climate Leaders Award. This will be recognised and valued as supporting progression to employment and further study.

In the Children's People and Nature Survey for England: Summer holidays 2021, more than 8 in 10 children and young people (85%) agreed that being in nature made them very happy. However, the same study showed that:

children spend less time outdoors as they get older

feelings of connection to nature decline with age

We want all young people to feel connected to their local environment and see improvements in biodiversity. In the design and implementation of the park and award we will take steps to drive participation among more disadvantaged children and young people. We will also ensure all children and young people, whether they live in an urban area or rural one, have opportunities to feel empowered through practical positive action.

The National Education Nature Park and Climate Leaders Award:

are being designed and developed with young people, sector representatives and stakeholder organisations

will build on the learning and experience of the Year of Green Action

They will feed in ideas for making the initiatives as inclusive, impactful, and engaging as possible and will also consider the best names for the programmes. The park and award will be launched in autumn 2022.

Sustainability leadership

Throughout the development of this strategy, we have received feedback from the sector that they have seen the greatest impact and success in developing and delivering a whole-setting approach to sustainability and climate change when there is co-ordination and leadership of activity at a local level - with the support of senior leadership teams and governors.

Through our engagement to date, we have been consistently told that to do this best, they need more support to:

We recognise the impact of the pandemic and the priority need for education catch up. We know that for every setting, the ability, or the way in which they are able to engage with sustainability and climate change may differ. While our end goal is for all settings to have a sustainability lead owning a climate action plan (to include curricular and extra-curricular activity, procurement, adaptation and decarbonisation plans), we are keen to:

develop a facilitative approach to sustainability leadership

test where support makes the most impact

The National Climate Education Action Plan has already brought together 16 organisations and universities with STEM Learning, aiming to encourage their staff to become Climate Ambassadors to support schools and further education institutions. We will work with them to test an approach that includes support in:

climate education

accessing public and private funding

engaging in the National Education Nature Park and Climate Leaders Award

reporting emissions

developing and delivering Climate Action Plans for individual settings

As part of this approach, we will include the provision of carbon literacy training for all sustainability leads in every nursery, school and college by 2025. We will encourage a joined-up approach to leadership which brings together children, young people and governors.

Action area 1: Climate education

We know that young people are eager to:

create a greener, sustainable world

tackle both the causes and impact of climate change

We will empower all young people to be global citizens, through a:

better understanding of climate change

greater connection to nature

Practical opportunities to participate in activities to increase climate resilience, reduce carbon impact and enhance biodiversity will enable children and young people to translate knowledge into positive action to improve their local communities, their country and the planet.

1. Learning about the natural environment

Building on a foundation of fundamental numeracy, literacy and broad academic knowledge, all children learn about:

From birth to 5 years old, the early years foundation stage (EYFS) framework ensures that all children develop an understanding of the world and the natural environment.

As they progress through primary and secondary school, children and young people continue to build on this knowledge through science, geography and citizenship programmes within the national curriculum. Existing GCSEs such as design and technology, food preparation and nutrition, and economics contain opportunities for students to be taught about the environmental and sustainability context of the processes and principles underlying these subjects.

By 2025 we will aim to introduce a natural history GCSE, giving young people a further opportunity to engage with and develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of the natural world. In studying this GCSE, young people will explore organisms and environments in more depth, gain knowledge and practical experience of fieldwork and develop a greater understanding of conservation.

An environmental science A level is already available for those that have a keen interest in the sustainability of our planet and wish to build on their scientific knowledge of the interconnection of human activities with natural systems.

From 2022, to assess the impact of our action, we will introduce an annual climate literacy survey to benchmark progress in improving the climate knowledge of school leavers.

For those that continue their studies in further and higher education, there are many excellent opportunities to gain a more in-depth knowledge into sustainability and climate change. Many further and higher education providers are already taking steps to embed the relevant teaching of sustainability and climate change across the full range of their courses.

We will continue to identify appropriate opportunities to align climate education with the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD for 2030) framework.

2. Support for teaching

World class teaching will ensure all children and young people get the best possible climate education. The schools white paper sets out how we will provide an excellent teacher for every child, by giving every teacher and school leader access to world class training and development opportunities, including the first-ever national professional qualification (NPQ) for early years professionals.

Through our engagement with the teachers and representative bodies, we have heard that more support in teaching about climate change and in navigating the many different resources available is also needed. Therefore, recognising the importance of building confidence as well as capability, we will provide additional support to teachers of all levels.

From 2022 we will:

include climate change and sustainability in science teachers' continuing professional development ( CPD) to ensure all young people receive high-quality teaching on the scientific facts about climate change and environmental degradation

include content on sustainability when DfE is tendering for new CPD, (where it is relevant to the subject area)

deliver pilots through the National Education Nature Park, which will test an approach for sharing university climate expertise and learning opportunities with colleges, schools and nurseries

share best practice, demonstrating how sustainability and climate change has been incorporated into teaching (and how it has enriched the broader curriculum, where it is relevant) in early years settings, schools, colleges and universities, so teachers and leaders can consider how best to integrate within their own settings

consider where further steps could be taken to support the teaching of sustainability in relevant subjects, for example, the circular economy in design and technology, sustainable chemistry in the sciences, and through the learning initiatives being taken forward in the Government Food Strategy

continue to work with higher education to identify opportunities to work together to further enhance best practice in teacher training and the teaching of sustainability within university courses

promote and share relevant teaching resources from other government departments, including the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ( DEFRA), the Waste and Resources Action Programme ( WRAP) and the Environment Agency

By 2023 we will:

develop a Primary Science Model Curriculum, to include an emphasis on nature to ensure all children understand the world around them

develop an occupational standard for further education teaching which explicitly requires all new teachers to integrate sustainability into their teaching, through modelling sustainable practices and promoting sustainable development principles in relation to their subject specialism

support the National Climate Education Action Plan in setting up an independent expert body (including members such as the Royal Meteorological Society, STEM Learning, Association of Science Teaching) for the validation and creation of climate education resources that support the delivery of the national curriculum

provide free access to high-quality curriculum resources through the National Education Nature Park online hub, so that teachers in all settings and subjects can confidently choose those that will support the teaching of sustainability and climate change

this will initially work in tandem while we build on the success of Oak National Academy's work in the pandemic and establish a new arms-length national curriculum body which will work with thousands of teachers to co-design, create and continually improve packages of optional, free, adaptable digital curriculum resources and video lessons that are effectively sequenced to help teachers deliver an evidence-based, high-quality curriculum

provide the opportunity for all staff (teaching, leadership and support) to build their understanding of climate change and sustainability by receiving shared carbon literacy training through their sustainability leads within their setting (more information about sustainability leadership is set out in the Operations and Supply Chains Action Area)

3. Learning in the natural environment

Education settings provide a wealth of learning opportunities, practical activities and clubs which allow children and young people to bring their learning to life. Children and young people may:

take part in eco-clubs or vegetable growing

be exposed to sustainable food choices, recycling, adaptation projects or weather and energy monitoring

On top of the learning benefits, these activities can aid pastoral work in all educational settings. The physical and mental health benefits of time spent in nature can form part of targeted support to:

improve engagement and attainment, including as part of wider packages of support for pupils with SEND

give young people a sense of agency where anxiety stems from climate concerns

The National Education Nature Park and Climate Leaders Award will build on this excellent activity, ensuring all children and young people have opportunities to get practical experience and turn their knowledge into positive action. We will design these initiatives with inclusivity at their heart. We are committed to enabling those from disadvantaged backgrounds to access these opportunities.

Retrofitted educational buildings and new-build net-zero settings will also provide various learning opportunities through their design, how they work and their environmental impact. They will foster environmental knowledge that can be applied outside of the educational setting.

In 2022 we will:

explore opportunities to increase access to the outdoors in DfE's successful Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme

ensure that children attending the HAF programme participate in activities that improve their knowledge and awareness of affordable, healthy eating and sustainable practice - for example, through:

taking part in activities such as food preparation

cooking, discussing food and food sources

growing their own fruit and vegetables

build on our investment into the Children and Nature Programme, by engaging with DEFRA on further research into how outdoor learning can be delivered for the greatest impact, with a view to exploring opportunities to support education settings to deliver quality outdoor education

link up across government to identify new opportunities and strengthen action as part of the levelling up agenda - for example, with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on climate education, and with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the National Youth Guarantee to increase access to out-of-school activities for all children

provide co-curricular opportunities for young people to experience and learn about nature through the National Education Nature Park, which will drive a greater knowledge and understanding of the importance of native species and develop young people's data and analytical skills

build on learning from the Children and Nature Programme, encouraging schools to join up with local delivery partners to develop effective school-specific options and build links with local communities

provide educational activities so that leaders, teachers, children and young people will learn about energy efficiency, the circular economy, climate resilience and green careers as part of educational building, maintenance and procurement projects, such as:

low-carbon boiler replacements

smart meter installation

energy monitoring pilots

sustainable drainage systems

Political impartiality

Teaching about climate change, and the scientific facts and evidence behind this, does not constitute teaching about a political issue and schools do not need to present misinformation or unsubstantiated claims to provide balance.

However, in climate education there is relevant political and scientific debate about the best ways that climate change can be addressed - there are different views and opinions, and different solutions. Debates on political and policy change need to be grounded in wider citizenship education on democracy and democratic values and topics should be handled in line with schools' legal duties on political impartiality

Action area 2: Green skills and careers

It is critical young people and adults have the green skills that will allow them to build careers and participate as Britain leads the world into the Green Industrial Revolution and strives for nature's recovery.

We will harness young people's passion and interest in climate change and sustainability to enable them to have the knowledge and skills (in STEM and other key subjects) required for green jobs. Through our education and skills system, we will seek to inspire young people to choose career paths that support the:

We will continue to support adults already in work to retrain and reskill in line with the needs of the green economy.

1. Net Zero Strategy

The government's Net Zero Strategy sets out in detail how our skills reforms will support more people into green jobs and help grow future talent pipelines. This includes:

aligning apprenticeships to net-zero objectives through the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education's (IfATE) Green Apprenticeships Advisory Panel

continuing the roll-out of T-Levels to support young people into green careers

driving STEM provision through our growing network of Institutes of Technologies (IoTs)

expanding Skills Bootcamps so that adults are able to upskill and retrain in key green sectors

Through the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, we are legislating to ensure employer leadership of Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) have regard to skills needed to help deliver on our net-zero target, adaptation to climate change, and other environmental goals.

Building on the work of the Green Jobs Taskforce through a Green Jobs Delivery Group, government will bring together representatives from industry, the skills sector and other key stakeholders to develop data-driven action to support the delivery of plans for green jobs and skills. This will ensure that we are offering young people and workers the opportunity to develop the skills needed to deliver the low-carbon transition.

Since the publication of the Net Zero Strategy we have:

set out investment of £3.8bn in further education and skills, to ensure people can access high-quality training and education that leads to good jobs, addresses skills gaps, boosts productivity and supports levelling up - this includes funding for programmes to support green skills crucial to the net-zero transition

committed to expanding Skills Bootcamps to provide more opportunities for adults to gain new skills, prioritising green skills in areas such as heat pumps, zero emission vehicles, and carbon capture

widened the eligibility criteria of our Free Courses for Jobs offer - from April 2022, any adult in England earning under the National Living Wage annually, or unemployed, will be able to access these qualifications for free, including qualifications linked to green sectors such as agriculture, building and construction, engineering, environmental conservation, horticulture and forestry and science

launched a pilot of our new General Further Education College Accountability Agreements that will ensure colleges strategically plan provision to meet skills needs at both local and national levels, including those in the green sector

established 8 LSIP trailblazers, where employer representative bodies have been working closely with providers and key local stakeholders to develop tailored plans to help shape technical skills provision to better meet local labour market needs, with multiple trailblazers considering the skills needed to support green growth in their local economy

started delivery of our £65 million Strategic Development Fund pilots to identify employers' skills needs, design provision, and build the capacity of local further education providers to deliver them so that, where local areas identify skills needs, providers can use this funding to, among other things:

purchase equipment

train their staff

bring in industry expertise to provide training

deliver new provision

2. Additional support for green jobs and skills

In addition to the extensive skills reforms set out in the Net Zero Strategy we will also increase the opportunities for young people and adults to engage in wider green skills and jobs needed to deliver the government's 25-Year Environment Plan.

We will support the further and higher education sectors as they deliver programmes teaching the skills of the future and nurturing future leaders.

We will continually seek to improve diversity in the take-up of STEM subjects at all levels, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to pursue a rewarding career in a STEM occupation:

by September 2023, a T Level in agriculture, land management and production will be available - this will support the increased focus of the UK agriculture sector on more environmental and sustainable practices and provide a further opportunity and pathway for young people looking for careers in agriculture and horticulture

we will engage employers, professional, statutory and regulatory bodies (PSRBs), further and higher education sector representative groups and students in developing opportunities to forge further links between course content and the skills needed for green careers of all kinds

Green Skills Bootcamps are available in environmental areas such as agriculture technology, and Wave 3 Skills Bootcamps will seek to prioritise further green sectors, including those specific to the environment such as nature restoration, waste management and recycling, woodland management and arboriculture.

the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) has convened a Green Apprenticeships Advisory Panel (GAAP) to:

work with employers to align apprenticeships to net-zero objectives

endorse existing apprenticeships which support green career pathways specific to the environmental sector, such as arborist, forest operative, agriculture or horticulture professional advisor and ecologist

map existing apprenticeship standards against green occupations

identify opportunities to create new standards in areas including agri-tech and renewable energy

investment of up to £75 million in a National Scholarship Scheme will support high achieving disadvantaged students to reach their full potential while studying in higher education, including degree courses or apprenticeships that can lead to green careers

our network of Institutes of Technology (IoTs) across England are utilising their state-of-the-art facilities to:

offer training in green skills, such as in the built environment and agri-tech sectors

support increased participation from under-represented groups, including women, helping to grow the pipeline of individuals with STEM skills needed for green jobs

invest £120 million in the second wave of IoTs, to be set up by 2022

by 2025, as part of the pathway towards the Lifelong Loan Entitlement, we will trial short-course provision at levels 4-6 to support in-work adults to upskill or retrain, enabling learners to build flexibly towards a full qualification in subjects crucial for net zero, including STEM and digital innovation

by 2023, we will co-host an International Green Skills Conference with the higher and further education sectors to exhibit the best of UK green skills and education opportunities at further and higher education levels

we will link the Climate Leaders Award to skills required by employers and explore how participation in the award can act as a progression route to further study

by 2030, significant numbers of young people will have graduated from the Climate Leaders Award with the skills needed to enter the green economy

by 2030, we anticipate that participation in the National Education Nature Park, and increased opportunities to connect with nature, will increase the number of young people that become data scientists, ecologists and biologists, which are needed for nature's recovery

our specifications for new buildings set out low-carbon, climate-resilient standards - such as the installation of heat pumps for energy efficiency - while, as one of the largest construction buyers in the nation, these specifications will drive the market and assist in driving the development of technical fitting skill

3. Support and guidance for green careers

We are actively supporting young people and adults to understand the training and careers opportunities available to them and we will support existing organisations in their endeavours to promote green careers. This includes:

supporting schools and colleges to embed best practice in the delivery of careers information, advice and guidance, so young people are aware of the full range of training and careers available to them and have access to a broad range of employers and workplaces, including those in the green sectors - this will be delivered through the national roll-out of Career Hubs, Career Leader training, and the Enterprise Adviser Network

as part of wider improvements to the National Careers Service we will ensure the provision of relevant and accessible information on green career pathways, which will bring together all the learning and careers routes available to aid the development of a single source of government-assured career information

our educational building maintenance and procurement projects will provide opportunities for students to gain careers guidance, while installation of low-carbon boiler replacements, smart meters and energy monitoring or sustainable drainage systems, will be accompanied with assembly information and interactive class exercises allowing students to see and learn about a wide range of green careers and skills in action

Action area 3: Education estate and digital infrastructure

A green, sustainable education estate that is resilient to the impacts of climate change will normalise and inspire young people to live sustainable lives, with impact felt widely in their families and communities. By improving the physical environment in and around education settings, we can impact positively on both the physical and mental wellbeing of children and young people. We will act on both the challenges and opportunities the vast education estate presents.

There is still a lot of evidence to gather on new technologies and innovative approaches to sustainable building design, retrofit, ICT, building management and the surrounding environment. Our focus until 2025 will be piloting - gathering evidence and sharing research to learn from our experience. This work will build on and align with existing guidance currently available to help public sector organisations achieve net zero, for example, the Modern Energy Partners tools. From 2025 onwards, we will accelerate change once we understand the best value for money approach. Our approach can be summarised as innovate, test and invest.

1. New builds and new blocks

All new school buildings delivered by DfE (not already contracted) will be net zero in operation. They will be designed for a 2oC rise in average global temperatures and future-proofed for a 4oC rise, to adapt to the risks of climate change, including increased flooding and higher indoor temperatures.

Secure children's homes delivered by DfE will also be built to our net-zero standard.

In November 2021 we published our delivery framework for employer's requirements for school projects Part A and Part B and made it freely available so that all new schools and colleges can meet the same low-carbon, climate-resilient standards as centrally delivered projects.

We have uplifted basic need grant-funding rates to help local authorities deliver school capital projects to these standards. When planning the use of basic need funding allocations, local authorities will consider environmental sustainability, carbon reduction and energy efficiency to develop solutions for projects that are in line with government targets and objectives, regardless of their chosen delivery route.

From now on bids into our Further Education Capital Transformation Programme will also be assessed to determine if the new works will be net zero in operation.

We know many higher education institutions are already demonstrating innovation in this space and are going beyond these standards. We will look to the higher education sector to inspire and drive greater ambition through their net-zero buildings and campuses.

So that our education building standards remain world-leading, we will:

continue targeted and specific monitoring of education buildings to better understand their use and energy consumption

continually improve our technical standards and building specifications

This will include the use and assessment of nature-based classroom design to maximise access to the outdoors and opportunities for outdoor learning, so our education buildings positively impact on physical and mental wellbeing.

Sustainable ICT solutions will be integrated into new-build schools as standard, via sustainable procurement, design, implementation and management.

The implementation of ultra-low carbon education buildings will be accelerated. By 2025 at least 4 schools and one college will have been built via the Gen Zero Platform that we demonstrated at COP26.

We will also accelerate our Gen Zero programme and other pilots so, over time, all centrally delivered new-build projects are built using ultra-low carbon solutions.

2. Existing estate

Improved collation and use of data on energy usage, water, heat and biodiversity will allow individual settings, and DfE, to make evidence-based decisions on where to act and invest to make the greatest impact. Smart meters and energy management systems can reduce bills and usage. They also provide learning opportunities for data analysis and understanding the impact of human behaviour. We will:

continue to work with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ( BEIS) and water companies to trial the delivery of smart meters in schools and encourage the uptake across other settings

in 2022, work with the education and children's services sectors and energy companies to explore sharing smart meter data to avoid additional reporting requirements, and this data would also be used by DfE to help advise settings how they can reduce their energy bills and improve their energy efficiency

during 2022 and 2023, work with BEIS and Energy Sparks to trial the delivery of Energy Management Systems in schools which will provide schools with real-time information about their energy usage, presented within a user-friendly online portal

by 2025, have supported education settings to put in place Climate Action Plans, facilitating the use of setting-level data to inform action - these will increase carbon literacy and inform government on the implementation of decarbonisation solutions and nature-based solutions to alleviate flood risk, protect against increased heat, and improve air quality

A strategic approach to piloting new building technology will also be launched in order to support the future retrofit of the education estate and act as catalyst to the construction sector for implementing new technology. Our building technology pilots will support action to adapt the existing estate to protect against the current and future effects of climate change. They will also provide evidence for the efficient decarbonisation of the estate to mitigate the causes of climate change.

We will continue to seek opportunities for research, including developing innovative approaches for the delivery and use of digital infrastructure. Where opportunities arise, this will be tested in schools by retrofitting ICT to deliver energy savings.

We will also exploit existing research -higher education is already driving world leading building technology - and innovative solutions will be shared across the wider education sector

In 2022:

we will work with BEIS to help education settings access the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to support them in decarbonising their estates and, as part of that work, we are looking at how we can better align our application processes and funding windows

By 2023:

all bids for capital funding for further education and higher education will need to consider environmental impact, carbon reduction and adaptation measures, and align with the government's targets and objectives

we will share best practice and advice to help education settings in deciding where to invest money to reduce carbon emissions, improve sustainability and resilience, and share options and case studies for the retrofit of existing settings by building type

we will also develop the existing Good Estate Management for Schools guidance with updated tips and good practice on the sustainable management of the school estate, covering topics such as energy and water efficiency and addressing issues including ventilation and leaks

3. Resilience, adaptation, access to Nature and environment conditions

The 3 highest priority risk areas identified in the Climate Change Committee Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk were:

To meet these challenges and those outlined in the Third Climate Change Risk Assessment (the statutory cycle set out in the Climate Change Act 2008, specifies the next key milestone in the statutory cycle as the third National Adaptation Programme ( NAP3) in 2023) we have a duty to demonstrate:

a clear set of objectives for adaptation

policies

programmes

investments with clear timelines

measurable metrics

progress indicators

We know that nearly half of schools (10,710) are at risk of flooding, which is expected to increase to at least 13,662 by the 2050s, or 16,394 in the worst-case scenario. While overheating in education buildings is a significant threat, we need to continue to work with other government departments to get a greater understanding of the risk.

A formal Memorandum of Understanding between DfE and the Environment Agency ( EA) will ensure that our response to risk aligns with the objectives and measures set out in the National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy and is based on the latest environmental data, advice and intelligence.

We know there is hope if efforts are focused in the right way. The latest International Panel on Climate Change report outlines the power of nature against the worst effects of climate change. We will use the National Education Nature Park to champion the case for nature.

Through the National Education Nature Park we will provide opportunities and advice for education settings to initially improve their biodiversity and also, with time, their flood resilience and air quality. For example, we will work with EA and DEFRA to produce guidance for schools that explains how to improve their flood resilience and access free trees to improve shading and biodiversity of their grounds.

We will accelerate pilots to investigate:

We will also empower universities to lead the way in demonstrating models for resilient, biodiverse campuses. We will share best practice via the National Education Nature Park online hub.

By 2023, we will:

work with partners to explore how funding may support nurseries, schools, colleges and universities in driving on the ground innovation to link separate parts of the National Education Nature Park, improving the biodiversity, air quality, shading and flood resistance along the routes between settings

continue evaluating the UK's first 'Biophilic' primary school, which will provide evidence of the impact of a greater connection to nature within the built environment, on the health and wellbeing of children and young people

pilot the use of smart air and environmental quality monitors in schools to understand the practical implications, benefits and drawbacks of using smart monitoring devices with pilots providing a rich dataset on environmental performance, which can be used to help feed into school building design and understand where energy efficiencies can be achieved

support DEFRA's Clean Air Strategy which aims to diminish the highest concentration of exposure to fine particle matter (PM2.5) to help tackle air pollution and reduce emissions affecting education settings

provide guidance to all education settings for practical ways to reduce indoor and outdoor air pollution, encouraging schools and partners to expand anti-idling zones to reduce the impact of the school commute

support the Department for Transport in delivering initiatives to increase active and safe travel to school (such as Bikeability for children, their families and carers, Walk to School Outreach and School Streets), to improve wellbeing, reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality

support an EA pilot investigating offsetting carbon emissions from their flood scheme construction work by contributing to tree planting and greening on available, nearby school land

By 2030:

through the National Education Nature Park and cross-government collaboration, we will have significantly increased the biodiversity on the education estate and implemented 'Green Corridors' for access to education settings, improving climate resilience, physical and mental wellbeing, and protecting and enhancing wildlife and ecosystems along the routes between nurseries, schools, colleges and universities

we will have supported the Department for Transport to increase active travel to school, contributing to the Prime Minister's vision that half of all short journeys in towns and cities will be walked or cycled

we will have minimised barriers to nature in school building design programmes and education building standards, increasing opportunities to connect their users to nature

4. Heating solutions

The building energy efficiency survey indicates that approximately 60% of energy use in education settings is associated with high carbon intensity fuels such as natural gas, coal and oil. There is a need to reduce demand for heating and hot water use and to deliver through sustainable means.

We are launching 10 pilots to test our Energy Pods as a way of providing off-site manufactured, low-carbon, heating solutions on the existing school and college estate. The results of these pilots will inform our strategic approach to condition, safety and sustainability for the education estate and provide important research data for education and public sector net-zero projects.

In 2022 we will:

test the feasibility of replacing school boilers with ground or air source heat solutions, and use the learning to consider how this can be scaled up to accelerate decarbonisation between 2025 and 2035

continue to work with BEIS to help education settings access the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to support them in replacing fossil fuel heating systems with low carbon heating

5. Water strategy

In partnership with EA, water companies and local authorities we will deliver our water strategy to improve:

We will work together to improve learning and awareness of risk and resilience and encourage all education settings to sign up to available weather and flood warnings. For schools at highest risk, we will share a flood risk plan template to set out emergency plans. In addition:

by 2023, the risk of school flood will be displayed alongside emissions and biodiversity on the National Education Nature Park

by 2026, we will have reduced the flood risk in over 800 schools through our Water Strategy initiatives

we will work with Ofwat and Market Operator Services Ltd to ensure their regulatory mechanisms and incentives enable and drive the water market to improve efficiency across the education estate and, should this prove successful, by 2030 we will have worked with water wholesalers and retailers to improve water efficiency at the 10,000 least water-efficient schools, significantly reducing usage and spend

we will align strategic action with the Environment Agency's National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy to ensure education settings are ready for, and resilient to, flooding and coastal change

6. Reporting Frameworks, Reporting Processes and Targets

With increased legislation on net zero, environment and nature, it is inevitable that we are going to have to ensure consistent reporting on the activity of our sectors.

The government's Net Zero Strategy commits to legislate reporting of emissions if insufficient progress is made voluntarily. We will work with BEIS in the development of guidance on monitoring and reporting for the education sector and we will look to support and facilitate reporting.

We will work with energy providers to receive data from the school estate directly (unless individual schools choose to opt out), so that by 2024 all schools are reporting their emission via a standardised framework. The installation of smart meters will improve the accuracy of this data.

We have supported the Queen's Jubilee Challenge for the further and higher education sectors to accelerate a sector-led review. This review will enable all further and higher education settings to report their emissions via a standardised and comparable framework by 2024. From 2025 we will publish targets and institutional progress for the further and higher education sectors. We will also work with nurseries and schools to set standardised reporting frameworks and implement effective data-gathering mechanisms. With the campaign Let's Go Zero, we will set targets for schools between 2025 and 2035.

Action area 4: Operations and supply chains

We have a valuable opportunity to drive change by introducing children and young people to more sustainable practices, such as:

We can inspire and instil habits that they will take into their wider communities and adult lives. Sector representatives have also confirmed that they have had the greatest results in driving sustainability in their operational processes when action has been linked to learning.

Coordination and leadership are required to bring this type of change. We recognise how much is already being done across the sectors by enthusiastic individuals, governance boards and leadership teams. They are driving effective whole-setting approaches to the challenges of sustainability and climate change - not only in teaching and learning or the decarbonisation of the estate - but in the way settings are operated and regulated.

Within DfE we will also publish and monitor progress against a DfE Corporate Sustainability Strategy. This will demonstrate how we will embed sustainability across everything we do - from how we maintain and use our office estate to our decision-making and business processes. We will align action with this strategy, the Greening Government Commitments and our overall organisational strategy.

By 2023 we will:

start rolling-out carbon literacy training for at least one person in every locally maintained nursery, school, college and university to build their knowledge of climate change, access to public funds, engagement with the nature park and Climate Leaders Award, understand emissions reporting and how to develop a climate action plan so that they can share learning and training within their own setting as appropriate, for example with leaders, support staff, care takers, cooks and teachers

support the work of the National Climate Education Action Plan to bring together universities with STEM Learning to identify Climate Ambassadors to support schools and further education institutions in the delivery of their sustainability and climate change action plans

update Good Estate Management for Schools ( GEMS) guidance to include the latest sustainability and climate change advice, covering topics such as efficient waste and water management - we will signpost to other relevant third-party materials

encourage and support education settings to procure from companies that commit to achieving net zero by 2050 and have a plan in place, showing how they will meet this target

ensure sustainability is part of the assessment and validation criteria for including suppliers on procurement frameworks, to support sustainable purchasing of products and services, including energy, in schools

support schools to buy from procurement frameworks that offer sustainable goods and services

work with education settings and partners to share best practice for delivering and improving uptake of nutritionally balanced, affordable and sustainable meal choices

pilot a food curriculum and whole-school approach to food, promoting accountability and transparency of school food arrangements by encouraging schools to complete a statement on their school websites, which sets out their whole-school approach to food, with voluntary reporting initially, and the intention that this will become mandatory when schools can do this effectively

pilot new training for school governors on a whole-school approach to food as set out in the forthcoming Government Food Strategy (school governors have a responsibility to ensure compliance and should appropriately challenge the headteacher and the senior leadership team to ensure the school is meeting its obligations)

support schools to drive up their sustainable practices in line with the school food standards, particularly in relation to school food contracts and their food preparation and practice, with consideration of the ingredients they use and their environmental impact

encourage and support education settings to gather data and take action on food waste, and to share their evidence-based best practice for sustainable waste prevention and management

work with DEFRA and the Waste and Resources Action Programme ( WRAP) to share resources for schools and children that support food waste prevention

support education settings in aligning with DEFRA 's Resources and Waste Strategy to reduce all waste, moving away from single-use items and towards reusable alternatives where possible

continue to encourage all settings to drive initiatives that promote the circular economy - providing guidance to reduce reliance on single-use items in favour of alternatives, such as reusable nappies, as well as recycled materials, second-hand uniforms and other consumables, such as sustainable cutlery and cleaning products

continue to offer a range of free sustainable period products to learners in schools and colleges across England and use the success of this programme as a catalyst for similar initiatives

seek opportunities to rationalise deliveries to education settings, through minimum order values or changes to delivery models, and encourage settings to consider a rounded approach to providing food, including practical guidance on consolidating food deliveries and sourcing food locally where possible

By 2025:

all education settings will have nominated a sustainability lead and put in place a climate action plan

all services and products procured by DfE for schools through the 'get help buying for schools' programme will go through environmental procurement frameworks

we will review existing procurement frameworks and identify those where net-zero targets can be applied, highlighting these frameworks to education providers as sustainable and net zero-compliant buying frameworks

we will ensure there is a clear route to market and associated support for schools to buy goods and services that help them to generate their own energy or reduce their existing energy consumption, for example, solar panels and LED light bulbs

we will eradicate single-use plastics and encourage the use of reusable and recyclable materials in schools and encourage all other education settings to match this target

we will work with DEFRA to provide guidance to education settings for meeting the requirements of the Environment Act 2021 - this will require settings to arrange for the collection of a core set of materials for recycling, including glass, paper and card, plastic, metal and food waste, increasing the amount of material recycled and diverted from landfill

we will develop a sustainable assessment model in partnership with the Standards and Testing Agency, considering the environmental impact of digital testing and the trade-offs with existing testing methods

we will continue to support DEFRA with implementing the Resource and Waste Strategy, to eliminate unnecessary plastics in education settings

By 2030:

education settings will be supporting a circular economy through their participation in the Climate Leaders Award and National Education Nature Park - for example, by using food waste to produce compost that can then be used directly or in the local community

Action area 5: International

We set out our vision for the United Kingdom education sector to be world leading in sustainability and climate change by 2030. In achieving this vision, we want to both inspire and respond to international action and make a difference to children and young people all over the world. There is no time to lose: extreme weather events are increasing in severity and frequency, and Safe Schools: The Hidden Crisis shows that it is disrupting the education of nearly 40 million children a year worldwide. Children in the UK say they are worried about how climate change is affecting children and families in developing countries.

The UK Foreign Policy Integrated Review positions climate change as the UK's number one international priority. Education is one of our nation's greatest strengths. We will take positive international action to enhance climate change and sustainability learning in and outside of the classroom and, in particular, through DfE 's key bilateral relationships.

In doing so we will work across government with the:

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)

Department for Business and Trade (DBT)

Cabinet Office

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

British Council

Together we will provide young people and adults everywhere with the knowledge and skills needed to:

Our action will align with and support the UK Government's International Education Strategy and supplement the great work the UK already does overseas, led by the FCDO, through education partnerships with around 20 poorer countries as leading donor to the Global Partnership for Education ( GPE) and Education Cannot Wait Fund, to support countries to respond to weather related disasters and make education systems more resilient.

The international action set out below represents the whole of the UK. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England each bring unique offers to an international strategy, and we will work closely with the governments of each nation to champion them effectively.

At COP26 we put education on a global stage, bringing education and environment ministers together to pledge action on climate education. We will continue to encourage other countries to make pledges. We will also track progress on our international commitments to complement and promote the Glasgow Works Programme on Action for Climate Empowerment ( ACE) negotiations agreed by countries at COP26 through our work and partnerships.

This work programme positions education as integral to the achievement of long-term climate goals, and calls for an approach which is grounded in principles of collaboration, flexibility and inclusivity.

Champion education and learning on the global stage

We will promote education as a key tool for tackling climate change through:

We will elevate the voices of youth in these discussions, as well as the rich experiences of other countries and stakeholders.

We will work across government and convene international partners to build a coalition for action for sustainable education. We will:

work closely with youth partners and multilateral institutions, such as UNESCO, UNEP and OECD, and in the G7 and G20 to exchange good practice through global discussions on climate education, learning and sustainable development

showcase our Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy and activities, sharing our strategy as a model for others to learn from

build an international evidence base on the support and solutions needed for a range of contexts

share our latest lessons, challenges, insights and evidence from the delivery of all action areas of our strategy

learn from others, including those working at local, national, regional and international levels

Trade and exports

We will provide expertise, services, trade and exports overseas to support others in achieving their net-zero targets, increasing resilience and adaptation, and improving climate education. We will work with FCDO, DBT and the UK international trade network to:

identify appropriate export opportunities for our climate learning programmes, including the National Education Nature Park and Climate Leaders Award, sharing our expertise on flood resilience and flood risk assessments, and export innovative sustainable products such as the Gen Zero Platform and Biophilic Primary School

continue work with the further and higher education sectors to ensure prestigious green-skills learning, training and research opportunities are developed to attract overseas students

International initiatives

We will identify opportunities to broaden our actions to share innovation and provide opportunities for young people from across the world to connect and learn, ensuring we align with the UK government's Child Safeguarding Due Diligence guidance. We will:

Leadership, engagement and next steps

Leadership

In recognition of the importance of this agenda to the Department for Education, the Secretary of State for Education will also be Climate Change Minister for the Department for Education. The Secretary of State for Education will also oversee the Climate Leaders Award.

The Secretary of State for Education will be supported in his role of Climate Change Minister for the department by:

Baroness Barran - net zero of DfE-delivered buildings, procurement and supply chains (this also includes the biodiversity of the education estate)

Minister Donelan and Minister Burghart - green skills, green jobs and net zero in further education and higher education

Minister Walker - climate education

Minister Quince - physical and mental wellbeing

DfE will nominate a non-executive director for climate change. They will champion climate issues on departmental boards and provide further leadership and expertise to support the department with its unique climate mission.

Engagement

From November 2021 to March 2022, sector representatives and young people reflecting a diverse range of voices, backgrounds and experiences brought together feedback on this strategy from those they represent.

We will continue to engage formally through a quarterly youth panel and user group as we develop and deliver the strategy, to ensure it meets the needs of those it serves.

Next Steps

Each year we will publish progress against the strategy and set out new action.
The following actions will support this:

Vision: the United Kingdom is the world-leading education sector in sustainability and climate change by 2030.

Strategic aims

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Sustainability and climate change: a strategy for the education and children's services systems

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This strategy applies to: the Department for Education (DfE), its agencies and public bodies the education and children's services systems in England - including: early years schools (and independent schools where applicable) further education higher education children's social care DfE has an important role to play in all aspects of sustainability.

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Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education

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Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education

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The UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE) is based at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, and brings together experts from across UCL to transform the UK's approach to teaching climate change and sustainability in schools.

Led by Professor Nicola Walshe, the Centre will conduct high-quality research to shape teachers' and school leaders' professional development across all phases, subjects and career stages.

Initial work by CCCSE will see academics conduct rapid research on teachers' knowledge and preparedness to teach climate change and sustainability education across the UK. Other upcoming work includes equipping teachers with the tools to develop the curriculum for more sustainable futures, and exploring how secondary schools' engagement with climate change and sustainability education in England varies.

In addition to academics at UCL working together, the Centre aims to work with a range of partners, including teachers, students and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to form a truly interdisciplinary institute.

Professor Nicola Walshe, Executive Director of CCCSE, said: "The importance of education for preparing children and young people to understand and adapt to and mitigate issues of climate change and sustainability is increasingly well accepted. However, a significant proportion of teachers feel underprepared to teach it, unsure of where to access appropriate support, and concerned as to how to go about talking to young people without negatively impacting their mental health and wellbeing.

"Teaching young people about climate change and sustainability must include but also go beyond the science of climate change and develop knowledge and values to help them to adapt to a changing world and to embrace the opportunities that more sustainable lifestyles might offer. This becomes a whole curriculum issue, with a need for engagement by teachers of all subjects and all phases. We know that existing resources and support for teachers are variable in coverage and quality; our aim is to provide high-quality, research-informed support for teachers across all career stages, subjects and phases."

Dr Alison Kitson, Programme Director at CCCSE, added: "The need for better support for teachers in this area was acknowledged in the Department for Education's recent Climate and Sustainability Education draft strategy. IOE is uniquely placed to provide this support at scale for all teachers and school leaders because of the breadth of our interdisciplinary and cross-phase expertise. We are also able to draw on an incredible wealth of expertise in climate change and sustainability issues across UCL which will ensure that our resources and teacher education programme are informed by the most recent research."

Professor Li Wei, IOE Director and Dean, said: "Tackling climate change and adapting to a net zero world is the greatest challenge that humanity faces. Teachers have a vital role to play in teaching young people about climate change and preparing them with the skills and knowledge that will allow them to adapt to a changing world. The Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education will be absolutely critical in this urgent work."

The Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education's launch event will take place on 26 April.

Links

Images

Credit: Phil Meech for IOE

Media Contact

Rowan Walker

Tel: +44 (0)20 3108 8515

Email: rowan.walker [at] ucl.ac.uk

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New Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education launches

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The UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE) is based at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, and brings together experts from across UCL to transform the UK's approach to teaching climate change and sustainability in schools.

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Several routes for refreezing are being developed. One involves the manipulation of sea ice to increase the overall rate of growth during the early winter. Two different approaches have been cited which have not received in-depth research: the breaking up of newly formed sea ice in the winter in order to increase the thickness of some areas whilst consequently exposing more sea water to cold air which could increase the overall rate of formation of ice whilst also providing zones of thicker ice which could potentially remain frozen over a complete summer; the spraying of sea-water onto the top of ice, thereby causing more ice to form. Both of these approaches require detailed modelling of saline water with ice and Cambridge has expertise in sea-ice assessment. Prof Grae Worster in the Department of Applied Mathematics has a wealth of experience in modelling of sea ice and will be supporting a review of ideas over the course of summer 2021 by a summer intern based at CCRC. The intern will also be guided by Dr. Peter Wadhams, one of the most experienced Arctic ice scientists who has been at Cambridge for many years and now joins us in the CCRC.

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Several routes for refreezing are being developed. One involves the manipulation of sea ice to increase the overall rate of growth during the early winter.

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Professor Sir David King

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The Climate Crisis Advisory Group includes leading authorities in climate science, carbon emissions, energy, environment and natural resources. Some of the members also participate in governmental advisory groups. Its function is complementary, not an alternative, to these other roles. It will look at in-depth policy and financial issues, including ones not currently on governmental agendas.

The Climate Crisis Advisory Group aims to help in the development of constructive proposals and policies that will help the public, international governments, and financial.

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The Climate Crisis Advisory Group includes leading authorities in climate science, carbon emissions, energy, environment and natural resources. Some of the members also participate in governmental advisory groups. Its function is complementary, not an alternative, to these other roles. It will look at in-depth policy and financial issues, including ones not currently on governmental agendas.

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The power of dance? It's literal at a Glasgow arts center that is installing a geothermal heating and cooling system that runs on heat from dancing bodies.

Credit... Guillem Casasus

In the pre-vaccine pandemic days, as shutdowns dragged on, odes to the lost joys of the dance floor became a motif in media. Recollections of sweaty nights out in crowded clubs captured much of what Covid had taken from us: community, freedom, gloriously messy physical proximity.

When restrictions began to loosen, teeming dance floors became a symbol of recovery around the world. At SWG3 - an arts center in Glasgow, Scotland, that hosts some of the city's largest dance parties - tickets for club nights sold briskly during the summer and fall of 2021, before the arrival of the Omicron variant. "The appetite for these events has been stronger than ever, and it's fueled by the long period of time we were all denied it," said Andrew Fleming-Brown, SWG3's managing director. "We've missed that shared body-heat experience, being packed together in a full venue."

What if dance-floor catharsis could be good not only for the soul but also for the planet? This month, SWG3 and the geothermal energy consultancy TownRock Energy will begin installing a new renewable heating and cooling system that harnesses the body heat of dancing clubbers. The plan should eventually reduce SWG3's total carbon output by 60 to 70 percent. And it may be replicable. TownRock and SWG3 recently started a company to help other event spaces implement similar technology.

There is poetry in the idea: the power of dance, made literal. "Conversations about sustainability can be pretty abstract," said David Townsend, the founder and chief executive of TownRock. "But if you can connect it to something people love to do - everyone loves a dance - that can be very meaningful."

Heat, ready to be captured: A show in 2020 at SWG3 in Glasgow. Credit... Euan Robertson

A mutual friend introduced Townsend and Fleming-Brown in 2019, after Fleming-Brown expressed interest in exploring low-carbon energy systems for SWG3. Townsend, 31, is a regular on the club scene and had been to the location several times. ("You'll usually find me right at the front of the room, always dancing, sometimes with my shirt off," he said.) At that point more than 250,000 people were coming to SWG3 annually, Fleming-Brown said. Townsend knew from experience how large, and how hot, the crowds could get.

Many geothermal energy projects involve deep wells that tap the naturally occurring heat of the earth. But digging them can be prohibitively expensive. "Trying to do a geothermal well would have been millions of pounds," Townsend said. "Instead, we thought, why not collect the heat you've already got in your customers and then use the ground to store it?"

At rest, the human body produces about 100 watts of energy. Strenuous dancing might multiply that output by a factor of five or six. Dr. Selina Shah, a specialist in dance and sports medicine, said club dance floors can be especially good at creating heat. "If it's really high-energy music, that generally results in very fast and high-energy movement, so you're looking at a significant level of heat generation - potentially even the equivalent of running," she said.

To capture that energy at SWG3, TownRock developed an application for an already widespread technology: the heat pump. One of the most common heat pumps is the refrigerator, which maintains a cold interior by moving warm air to its exterior. The SWG3 system, called Bodyheat, will cool the space by transferring the heat of dancing clubbers not into the atmosphere, as in conventional cooling, but into 12 boreholes approximately 500 feet deep. The boreholes will turn a large cube of underground rock into a thermal battery, storing the energy so it can be used to supply heat and hot water to the building.

Development of the system began in 2019. Pandemic shutdowns, and the financial uncertainty that came with them, paused the project for several months. But with their events calendar emptied, SWG3 leadership had time to develop a larger sustainability plan for the building, setting the goal of achieving "net zero" carbon emissions by 2025. "That moment allowed us to pause and really assess what's important to us as an organization," Fleming-Brown said. "We decided to make it a priority."

The club space at SWG3. Credit... Michael Hunter

Bodyheat became a central component of the plan when work on the project resumed in fall 2020. The first phase of installation should be complete by early spring, and will provide heating and cooling to SWG3's two main event spaces. Later phases will offer hot water to the bathrooms and heating to the foyer and art studios. At that point, SWG3 will be able to get rid of its three gas boilers, reducing its annual carbon output by up to 70 metric tons.

The system is not cheap. Fleming-Brown estimates that a conventional heating and cooling system for a similarly sized space would cost £30,000 to £40,000, or $40,000 to $53,000; phase one of Bodyheat will require an outlay of £350,000, or $464,000. But the timing was fortuitous, as Glasgow's hosting of the 2021 United Nations global climate summit created "a lot of momentum behind this kind of project," Fleming-Brown said. A grant from Scotland's Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Program covered half of the costs for phase one, and a government-backed low interest loan helped with the rest. Fleming-Brown estimates that savings on energy bills will make the investment recoverable in about five years.

While developing Bodyheat, Townsend and Fleming-Brown realized their system could work elsewhere, too. The new TownRock and SWG3 joint venture Bodyheat Club, established in November, aims to help a range of event spaces and gyms refit their buildings with some version of Bodyheat. The Berlin club SchwuZ, a British chain of gyms and the Scottish arts council, which runs a variety of creative spaces, have already expressed interest.

Townsend emphasized that the idea is not proprietary. "If we end up with other companies also trying to put in systems similar to Bodyheat to be more sustainable, that's fantastic," he said. "We just want to galvanize momentum around renewable heating and cooling."

Dancing has been used to generate energy before. More than a decade ago, the Dutch company Energy Floors introduced a line of tiles that convert dancers' steps into electricity. Club Watt in Rotterdam installed the tiles to media fanfare in 2008, and they have since been used in hundreds of other projects. The band Coldplay plans to use a similar "kinetic" floor, designed by the British company Pavegen, during its eco-friendly 2022 tour. Townsend said that TownRock and Pavegen have been discussing a possible collaboration.

Kinetic dance floors make only small quantities of electricity. Bodyheat should have a more meaningful impact on carbon output, though broadly speaking, dancing isn't a very efficient way to make body heat. Dr. Shah said that dance studios probably wouldn't be great candidates for a Bodyheat-style system, because most of the dancing done there isn't aerobic. Slow, methodical warm-up exercises, which make up large chunks of most dance classes, create little heat; vigorous movement tends to happen only in short bursts.

Gyms, with their emphasis on aerobic exercise, seem like more obvious fits for projects that harness the work of the body. Townsend mentioned that in addition to capturing body heat, gyms could use equipment like stationary bikes to help generate electricity.

Dancing may not be the best source of renewable energy, but it has proved important in another way: storytelling. There is something vaguely grim about harvesting heat from gym rats pumping away on treadmills. Energy born of dancing - born of joy - captures the imagination in a different way.

"We did not initially think that dance would be such a big part of this project," Fleming-Brown said. "But you need a visual language to communicate an idea, and it quickly became apparent that the emotional connection people have with live music and dance was a winning streak."

To help tell the Bodyheat story to the crowd at SWG3, Fleming-Brown and Townsend are considering ways to illustrate the amount of heat dancers create, perhaps with a large thermometer, or a heat map similar to those used on weather reports. Townsend spitballed about having competitions to see which dancer could generate the most renewable energy - sustainability as performance art.

For nightclubs, renewable energy systems might be business-friendly as well as eco-friendly options. The young clubbing demographic is particularly engaged in discussions about climate change. Natalie Bryce, 30, an SWG3 regular, said she takes a club's greenness into account when choosing where to go dancing. "All my friends who like to go out, we all care very much about sustainability and how what we do is affecting the climate," she said. Fleming-Brown said he's also had D.J.s and other artists inquire about the organization's environmental policies while negotiating bookings.

Technology that depends on large crowds of people is, however, not lockdown friendly. Fleming-Brown expressed concern about the Omicron surge in Britain affecting turnout or leading to capacity restrictions, which would make Bodyheat less sustainable - particularly early on, before the system's thermal battery has time to "charge" with clubbers' heat. He is also simply eager to see the thing installed and functioning. "We've still got a system to deliver," he said. "We've discussed it a lot and everything's been really positive, but it needs to work."

As soon as Bodyheat is ready, clubgoers - Covid permitting - will be too.

"The fact that you can do some good by just having fun and doing what you love is brilliant," Bryce said. "Is it going to encourage me to go out more? I can't afford it, but yeah!"

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Harnessing an Unusual Kind of Natural Energy: Dancers' Body Heat

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The power of dance? It's literal at a Glasgow arts center that is installing a geothermal heating and cooling system that runs on heat from dancing bodies. In the pre-vaccine pandemic days, as shutdowns dragged on, odes to the lost joys of the dance floor became a motif in media.

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"Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast" by David Archer

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Main On-Line Models On-Line Classes Video Lectures Reviews Sample Chapter David Archer Report Problems

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NASA | Scientists Link Earlier Melting Of Snow To Dark Aerosols

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Explaining the science of Antarctic glaciers. We look at ice streams, ice shelves, recent change, modern Antarctic glaciology and past glacial geology.

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Roofs and pavements comprise over 60% of urban surfaces in some U.S. cities.1 On a sunny summer afternoon, these typically dark, dry surfaces get warm in the sun and in turn heat the air. The air in nearby rural areas tends to be cooler, because the rural surfaces are more reflective (absorbing less…

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3 mins

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The Climate Game - Can you reach net zero?

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See if you can save the planet from the worst effects of climate change

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A Scietist's Life - Helen Amanda Fricker

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A Scietist's Life - Helen Amanda Fricker

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A Scientist's Life in 99 Seconds: Glaciologist Helen Amanda Fricker

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Ventilation- Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery and other products

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While focusing on single room mechanical venitlation heat recovery, Ermen Systems provides a wide range of Ventilation products for a range of sectors.

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Fresh air in buidlings - ventilation without open windows

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Fresh air in buidlings - ventilation without open windows

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Modern homes have greatly reduced levels of unwanted ventilation which reduces heat loss and improves energy efficiency. A well designed mechanical ventilation system can provide the right amount of clean, fresh air that is vital for the health and wellbeing of a household.

Having adequate ventilation in your home is important for good health. It removes moisture and stale air along with odours and pollutants and replaces them with fresh air to breathe.

Usually, ventilation is achieved by simply opening windows and doors (known as 'natural' or 'passive' ventilation) and by using extractor fans in steamy rooms such as kitchens and bathrooms. Although this works well, it can account for around one third of space heating energy demand in an average home as a lot of warm air flows outside.

Draughts create a similar problem. While they serve to ventilate a home, they are a major source of heat loss and can make rooms feel uncomfortably chilly.

Modern energy efficient homes are more airtight (less draughty) than older buildings because they have to follow specifications for air-tightness in the Building Regulations. Because of this modern homes are sometimes fitted with Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) systems also known as 'whole house ventilation' systems.

How do they work?

Whole-house MVHR systems extract warm, damp air from the home and draw in fresh air from the outside. The warm, extracted air is passed through a heat exchanger to recover the heat before being expelled outside. The cool, fresh outside air is also passed through the heat exchanger, without coming into direct contact with the pollutant air where it is pre-warmed before being pumped in to the property.

These systems tend to comprise of concealed ducting in ceiling voids leading to the heat exchanger unit in a cupboard or utility room (the loft is not recommended). Some units have an automatic or manual boost setting which can be used when generating excessive moisture whilst cooking or using the bathroom. Air filtration is commonly built into MVHR systems to prevent pollen and other particles from entering the home which then provides a more comfortable environment for allergy sufferers. Systems typically run continually at 80% efficiency and are inaudible during normal use.

Cost and savings

MVHR systems do require servicing as all equipment such as filters and fans must be kept clean to ensure effective operation. MVHR systems start from around £3,000 but could cost well over £10,000, depending on the size and type of the system. It can be difficult to to retrofit MVHR because of the space needed for ducting and the unit, as well as the challenge of achieving the level of airtightness needed for MVHR to work effectively.

Because the fresh air is pre-warmed, heat loss from ventilation is largely avoided. This means the householder can spend less on heating their property, reducing costs by around 25%, therefore saving money and ensuring a healthy, well ventilated home.

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Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery

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Having adequate ventilation in your home is important for good health. It removes moisture and stale air along with odours and pollutants and replaces them with fresh air to breathe.

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Can nature help cities address the twin problems of air that is too dirty or too hot? Based on a new report released by The Nature Conservancy - in collaboration with C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group - the answer appears to be a qualified "yes."

The Planting Healthy Air report identifies the potential return on investment from tree planting in 245 global cities, which currently house about a quarter of the world's urban population. By collecting and analyzing geospatial information on forest and land cover, particulate matter, and population density and leveraging existing literature, the study estimates the scope of current and future street trees to make urban air healthier. The benefits that trees could afford to cities will be even more crucial in the future, the study finds, as a quarter million people could die each year because of urban heat by 2050, unless cities take proactive steps to adapt to global warming.

Urban Trees, Cooler Cities. © The Nature Conservancy (Erica Simek Sloniker)

While existing city trees already clean and cool the air for more than 50 million people, a global investment of $100 million per year in tree planting and maintenance could provide as many as 77 million people with cooler cities and offer 68 million people measurable reductions in fine particulate matter pollution. New city trees offer great potential impact, but maintaining existing city trees is critical, as many global cities are losing tree cover over time, due to development, pests and pathogens, and lack of budget for maintenance.

Urban Trees, Better Air Quality. © The Nature Conservancy

The Planting Healthy Air report and the accompanying website, with an interactive map and case studies for the report's top ranked cities, provide resources for those interested in using nature to make air healthier. These findings can help urban leaders and public health officials address outstanding issues about trees and air quality, such as which cities and which neighborhoods can be helped most, the fraction of the air quality problem can trees solve, how much investment is needed, and where are trees a cost-effective investment. In many cities, an individual neighborhood may offer a much higher return on investment (ROI) than the city's average, and the report's maps can be a useful tool for city leaders deciding where to make an investment in city trees.

For those searching for ways to address the challenges of air quality and heat, urban trees are the only solution to simultaneously address both. Trees also provide a range of co-benefits, including wildlife habitat, flood control, carbon sequestration, and recreational opportunity, which can have significant value for a city. While urban trees alone can't solve the challenges of urban heat and air pollution, they're a solution that can be put in place today and are comparable in cost and effectiveness in many neighborhoods to such solutions as limiting automobile traffic in cites, painting roofs white or installing scrubbers on smokestacks.

In the right spot, trees can help make our air healthier and our cities more verdant and livable.

Visit nature.org/healthyair to learn more and explore the interactive map.

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Planting Healthy Air: A Natural Solution to Address Pollution and Heat in Cities | Partner Articles, Cities4Forests

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Can nature help cities address the twin problems of air that is too dirty or too hot? Based on a new report released by The Nature Conservancy - in collaboration with C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group - the answer appears to be a qualified "yes."

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Lengthy document about possible plans

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See ClaimteAdam about this as well

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The Secret to Talking about Climate Change

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See ClaimteAdam about this as well

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The Secret to Talking about Climate Change

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How Much Energy do You Use to Heat Your Home, and What’s the Cost? | OVO Energy

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Wondering how much energy you use for your heating? Read on to find out how to calculate your energy use, and the costs of running your central heating.

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The UK's housing emissions are "off track" to meet the country's climate targets, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says in a new report.

These should have fallen to 13% below 1990 levels by 2017, the government's official climate adviser says, yet the actual reduction was just 9%.

The country's housing stock is also far from ready to deal with the effects of rising temperatures, says the CCC, including flooding, overheating and water scarcity.

The "shocking fact" is that most of the UK's near-30m homes are "not in a condition to keep us comfortable and safe and productive in the changing climate", Baroness Brown, chair of the CCC's adaptation committee, tells Carbon Brief.

The UK's homes are "not going to be fit for us to live in" and "are big part of causing the problem of climate change," she says.

The government must pay for home energy efficiency retrofits, the CCC says. It should also ban new homes from connecting to the gas grid beyond 2025.

Home emissions

Homes account for around 15% of the UK's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through their use of oil and gas for heating and hot water.

By 2030, these emissions need to be cut to 24% below their level in 1990, according to earlier CCC analysis, in order to help meet the UK's legally binding climate goals. This means they should have fallen 13% by 2017, the CCC says, yet the actual cut was just 9%.

Moreover, household emissions rose by around 1% in 2017, when annual temperature fluctuations are taken into account.

The CCC has criticised the government for neglecting emissions cuts in transport and buildings, with overall progress flattered by rapid reductions in the power sector.

"Now that we are getting towards the end of what we can get out of the electricity system, these have to be absolutely critical," Baroness Brown tells Carbon Brief.

But policies to reduce household emissions have been weakened or withdrawn, says the CCC. These include the Zero Carbon Homes regulation and the Code for Sustainable Homes, both scrapped in 2015. "This has led to many new homes being built only to minimum standards for water and energy efficiency," says the CCC.

Occupants of new homes could be saving more than £200 per year on their energy bills if the properties had been built to the Zero Carbon Homes standard, according to the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

Yet just 1% of new homes completed in 2018 were built to the highest Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band A, says the CCC.

The EPC ratings of the current English and Scottish housing stock are shown in the chart below. Top-rated properties make up just 1.4% of the total.

Tackling housing emissions needs "urgent funding", including from the Treasury, says the CCC. In particular, low-carbon heating (currently only funded up to 2021) and building control enforcement need to be funded "as a matter of urgency", it adds.

Building standards

Reducing emissions from homes is a difficult area to address, partly because of the complex landscape of home ownership and renting, says Baroness Brown.

The government aims to build 300,000 new homes in England a year and building then to a higher standard would be far cheaper than retrofitting later on. But performance standards are often not enforced, Brown says, meaning people are being "cheated" with homes not at the level claimed. She adds:

"They're being told they're getting really well insulated, sustainable homes and these homes are nothing like as good as they should be...To me, this is a scandal of the Volkswagen proportions, and greater really."

The UK, therefore, need much greater levels of inspection and stricter enforcement of building standards, the CCC says, with higher penalties for non-compliance.

The recent review of building standards and safety by Dame Judith Hackitt, which was in response to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, also identified "worrying deficiencies in the current system of building regulations", says the CCC. But this also means there is currently an opportunity where building regulations could be changed, says Baroness Brown.

Design standards for new homes themselves also need to be improved, says the CCC. New homes should use low-carbon heating, have "ultra-high" levels of energy efficiency and be timber-framed where possible, it says.

The chart below shows how far energy consumption could be reduced if new homes were built to tighter standards and used electric heat pumps instead of gas boilers, compared to the average existing home.

Local authorities need to be given more resources to take action on housing, adds the CCC. Climate change has been "de-prioritised" in the land-use planning system and clarity is needed on how far authorities are allowed to set tighter new build standards, it says.

In March 2018, the Green Finance Taskforce published recommendations on accelerating green finance, including on green mortgages and loans. Implementing this advice would support both uptake and financing of low-carbon measures in homes, the CCC says. New support to train people in housing design, construction and the installation of new technologies is also needed, it adds.

Chris Stark, chief executive of the CCC, tells Carbon Brief:

"It does require public investment to make this work - and substantial public investment. Of course, we need a stable footing for low-carbon public support post-2021, which I hope we'll have some clarity about where we're going with that from the Treasury.

"But we need much more than that and the best place to look for that is the recommendations of the Green Finance Taskforce. So they talk about a mixture of public funds, plus steps that ensure that there's private finance available for some of these big measures. That really is something that the Treasury must own."

Ensuring no new houses are connected to the gas grid by 2025 at the latest would also drive a "real uptake" in low-carbon heat, says Baroness Brown. "We see that as being the way to really start driving up the skills and driving down the cost," she adds.

Homes that are already connected to the gas grid could use hydrogen gas to cut emissions, as set out in an earlier CCC report.

New housing developments also need to be designed to facilitate sustainable travel, including electric vehicles, public transport, cycling and walking, says the CCC.

Upgrades

Energy efficiency upgrades of existing homes have also stalled, says the CCC, including uptake of "highly cost-effective measures", such as loft insulation.

Loft and wall insulation in 2017 was just 5% of the peak market delivery in 2012, says the CCC, as the chart below shows.

The story is similar for the rollout of low-carbon heat, such as heat pumps and heat networks, the CCC adds.

The government aims for every home to have some form of low-carbon heat by 2050, which could also include hydrogen gas. Currently, just 1.7% of homes do, when not including closed stoves or wood used on open fires. (The CCC says these are "in general not consistent with the long-term best use of limited bioenergy resources except in niche uses".)

Energy efficiency retrofits should be supported by both the Treasury and devolved governments as a "national infrastructure priority", says the CCC.

Householders can also make a big difference with small changes, adds the CCC, such as ensuring boilers are not set too high, installing shading (such as using thick curtains or planting trees outside) and increasing insulation.

A government spokesperson says it will "carefully consider" the CCC's recommendations.

Moving to a cleaner economy is "at the heart" of the UK's Industrial Strategy, they add, with a commitment to halve energy use in new buildings by 2030, a shift to clean heating, and halving the cost of renovating existing buildings. The government has committed to spend £6bn on improving the energy efficiency of lower income and vulnerable households over the next decade, they add.

The government also has an " aspiration " for "as many homes as possible" to be upgraded to EPC Band C by 2035. It is set to publish an action plan for home energy efficiency this year.

Later today, the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) parliamentary committee will start a new inquiry on the government's approach to energy efficiency.

Resilient housing

There is also a lack of support for measures to increase housing flood resilience, water efficiency, ventilation and shading, says the CCC. It adds:

"Often, these measures are not considered or installed by home owners or housing developers, because of a lack of appropriate regulation, guidance and communication with householders."

Around 20% of homes currently overheat even in cool summers, says the CCC, and current requirements to minimise this risk fall short. There are also no targets for the uptake of property-level flood resilience, it adds.

In addition, the average daily water consumption of around 140 litres per person across the UK needs to fall to well below 100 litres by 2050 to address the risks of future lower water availability, the CCC says. This would also cut carbon emissions and reduce water and energy bills, it says.

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UK homes 'shockingly unprepared' for climate change, says CCC - Carbon Brief

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The UK's housing emissions are "off track" to meet the country's climate targets, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says in a new report. These should have fallen to 13% below 1990 levels by 2017, the government's official climate adviser says, yet the actual reduction was just 9%.

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This article, whilst for investors, makes clear just how much our tech future depends on supples of this element, how it is finite and endangered in so many ways.

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How A Helium Shortage Could Crash The Internet

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LONDON, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, all the biggest names in tech are likely to find themselves scrambling to get their hands on more of this ultra-rare commodity. Without it, Netflix couldn't stream movies and shows to TVs around the world. Google couldn't support the 5.6 billion searches made per day.

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1. What is V2G and V2X?

V2G stands for "vehicle to grid" and is a technology that enables energy to be pushed back to the power grid from the battery of an electric car. With electric vehicle-to-grid technology-also known as car-to-grid-a car battery can be charged and discharged based on different signals - such as energy production or consumption nearby.

V2X means vehicle-to-everything. It includes many different use cases such as vehicle-to-home (V2H), vehicle-to-building (V2B) and vehicle-to-grid services. Depending on whether you want to use electricity from an EV battery to your home or building electrical loads, there are different abbreviations for each of these use cases. Your vehicle can work for you, even when feeding back to the grid would not be the case for you.

In a nutshell, the idea behind vehicle-to-grid is similar to regular smart charging . Smart charging, also known as V1G charging, enables us to control the charging of electric cars in a way that allows the charging power to be increased and decreased when needed. Vehicle-to-grid goes one step further and enables the charged power to also be momentarily pushed back to the grid from car batteries to balance variations in energy production and consumption.

2. Why should you care about V2G?

Long story short, vehicle-to-grid helps mitigate climate change by allowing our energy system to balance more and more renewable energy. However, to succeed in tackling the climate crisis, three things need to happen in the energy and mobility sectors: Decarbonisation, energy efficiency, and electrification.

In the context of energy production, decarbonisation refers to the deployment of renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power. This introduces the problem of storing energy. While fossil fuels can be seen as a form of energy storage as they release energy when burned, wind and solar power function differently.

Energy should be either used where it's produced or stored somewhere for later usage. Therefore, the growth of renewables inevitably makes our energy system more volatile, requiring new ways to balance and store energy to be used.

Simultaneously, the transportation sector is doing its fair share of carbon reduction and as notable proof of that, the number of electric vehicles is increasing steadily. Electric vehicle batteries are by far the most cost-efficient form of energy storage since they require no additional investments in hardware.

Compared to the unidirectional smart charging, with V2G the battery capacity can be utilized more efficiently. V2X turns EV charging from electrical demand response to a battery solution. It enables the use of the battery 10x more efficiently compared to unidirectional smart charging.

Globally there will be 140-240 million electric vehicles by 2030. This means that we'll have at least 140 million tiny energy storages on wheels with an aggregated storage capacity of 7 TWh.

Vehicle-to-grid technology enables us to make the best use of the existing population of vehicles.

Virta vision for vehicle-to-grid solutions

Stationary energy storages - big power banks in a sense - are becoming more common. They are a handy way of storing energy from, for instance, large solar power plants.

For example, Tesla and Nissan offer home batteries also for consumers. These home batteries, together with solar panels and home EV charging stations, are a great way to balance out energy production and consumption in detached houses or small communities.

Currently, one of the most common forms of storage is pump stations, where water is pumped up and down to store energy.

On a larger scale, and compared to electric vehicles, these energy storages are more expensive to supply and require significant investments. As the number of EVs is continuously rising, electric cars provide a storage option with no extra costs.

At Virta, we believe that electric cars are simply the smartest way to help with renewable energy management and production, as EVs will be part of our lives in the future - regardless of the ways we choose to use them.

3. How does vehicle-to-grid work?

When it comes to using V2G in practice, the most important thing is to make sure that EV drivers have enough energy in their car batteries when they need it. When they're leaving for work in the morning, the car battery must be full enough to drive them to work and back if needed.

This is the basic requirement of V2G and any other charging technology: The EV driver must be able to communicate when they want to unplug the car and how full the battery should be at that time.

With Virta's V2G solution, the car battery is always charged to 70-90% when the driver needs to go.

When using smart charging, the possibility of balancing the grid ends when the battery is fully charged. With V2G, the grid balancing can continue the full time the vehicle is plugged in.

A practical example

Firstly, let's go through the very basics of how electricity behaves in the grid - it always takes the shortest possible way to the nearest location where it's needed. A vehicle-to-grid charging device absorbs electricity from the car battery and simply just pushes it back to the grid, where it continues its journey to the nearest location where it's needed.

At Virta Headquarters, we currently have two V2G charging stations in use. These stations are located in the office building garage, next to regular, publicly available smart charging points.
When the V2G station is discharging, the electricity here at Virta HQ transfers directly to the nearby car batteries charging at the regular stations - they are the nearest locations where the electrical demand is continuous.

If no cars are being charged, the discharged electricity will be used on garage lighting or air conditioning. This reduces the total energy consumption of the building, which balances the energy system around our office.
Let us take you on a virtual tour at Virta HQ to test our V2G charging solution:
Another example is the eFuture project where Virta has enabled Nissan to kickstart vehicle-to-grid (V2G) electric vehicle charging together with E.ON.

Virta provided a digital EV charging platform for E.ON that will automate charging and energy export in line with signals such as grid demand, energy prices, and the carbon intensity of the energy mix.

During the project, vehicles will be connected to the chargers at intervals designed to replicate corporate fleet schedules - mainly overnight, but also for chunks of time during the day.

4. The benefits of vehicle-to-grid
Summary of the benefits depending on your targets:

Reduce total cost of ownership of fleets

Car OEMs (manufacturers) are able to sell vehicles with added value

Energy market parties can trade and optimize their balance

Network operators can optimize investments & stabilize the grid

For real estate

When installing a charging device, step number one is to review the electrical system of the building. The electrical connection can become a hindrance to the EV charging installation project or increase costs significantly in case the connection needs to be upgraded.

Vehicle-to-grid, as well as other smart energy management features like Dynamic Load Management (DLM) , help enable EVs to charge anywhere, regardless of the surroundings, location, or premise.

The benefits of V2G for buildings are visible when the electricity from car batteries is used where it is needed the most (as described in the previous chapter). Vehicle-to-grid helps balance out electricity demand and avoid any unnecessary costs for building an electricity system.

With V2G, the momentary electricity consumption spikes in the building can be balanced with the help of electric cars and no extra energy needs to be consumed from the grid.

For the power grid

When power consumption increases, it can overload the power grid in that area. A building's ability to balance its electricity demand with V2G charging stations also helps out the power grid on a larger scale.

This will come in handy when the amount of renewable energy in the grid, produced with wind and solar, increases. Renewable energy sources are volatile and create challenges to areas that rely on wind and solar power.

These circumstances cause "grid congestion" or bottlenecks that can prevent electricity from reaching its destination. Luckily, intelligently controlled EVs can offer a solution to grid congestion and prevent the need for expensive grid infrastructure upgrades.

Without vehicle-to-grid technology, energy has to be bought from reserve power plants, which increases electricity prices during peak hours, since striking up these extra power plants is a pricey procedure.

Without control, you need to accept this given price but with V2G you are master to optimize your costs and profits. In other words, V2G enables energy companies to play ping pong with electricity in the grid.

For consumers

Why would consumers take part in vehicle-to-grid as a demand response then? As we explained earlier, it does no harm to them, but does it any good either?

Since vehicle-to-grid solutions are expected to become a financially beneficial feature for energy companies, they have a clear incentive to encourage consumers to take part.

After all, the technology, devices, and vehicles compatible with the V2G technology are not enough - consumers need to take part, plug in and enable their car batteries to be used for V2G.

We can expect that in the future on a larger scale, consumers are being rewarded if they are willing to enable their car batteries to be used as balancing elements.

5. How will vehicle-to-grid become mainstream?

V2G solutions are ready to hit the market and start doing their magic. Yet, some hurdles need to be overcome before V2G becomes the mainstream energy management tool.

A. V2G technology and devices

Multiple hardware providers have developed device models compatible with vehicle-to-grid technology. Just like any other charging devices, V2G chargers already come in many shapes and sizes.

Usually, the maximum charging power is around 10 kW - just enough for home or workplace charging. In the future, even wider charging solutions will apply.

Vehicle-to-grid charging devices are DC chargers, since this way the cars' own unidirectional on-board chargers can be bypassed. There have been also projects where a vehicle has an onboard DC charger and the vehicle can be plugged into an AC charger. However, this is not a common solution today.

To wrap up, devices exist and are feasible, yet there's still room for improvement as the technology matures.

B. V2G compatible vehicles

Currently, CHAdeMo vehicles (such as Nissan) have outpaced other car manufacturers by bringing V2G compatible car models to the market. All Nissan Leafs on the market can be discharged with vehicle-to-grid stations. The ability to support V2G is a real thing for vehicles and many other manufacturers will hopefully join the club of vehicle-to-grid compatibles soon. For instance, Mitsubishi has also announced plans to commercialize V2G with Outlander PHEV.

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Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G): Everything you need to know

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V2G stands for "vehicle to grid" and is a technology that enables energy to be pushed back to the power grid from the battery of an electric car. With electric vehicle-to-grid technology-also known as car-to-grid-a car battery can be charged and discharged based on different signals - such as energy production or consumption nearby.

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Electric Vehicles are an essential element in our transition to a clean, green future, and it's not just because they're ultra-low emissions. We're right at the forefront of a pretty incredible alternative use for the car batteries. It would do massive good for the UK's fuel mix, save you money, and ensure our energy infrastructure can support an all-electric world. It's called vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging.

With vehicle-to-grid, your EV can be used as a battery pack, letting you sell stored excess battery back to the grid when demand for energy is peaking.

We're trialling this tech now with our groundbreaking Powerloop bundle, one of the world's first mass domestic V2G projects.

How does Powerloop work?

Customers with a Nissan LEAF have their homes kitted out with a special V2G compatible charger. The V2G charger can import energy to charge, but also export energy to feed it back to the grid. Like this:

Drivers can fully recharge their car in off-peak hours when electricity is at its lowest price, and then sell the same energy back to the grid when prices are high. It's a savvy investment that offers some of the cheapest charging rates possible.

With vehicle-to-grid, electric cars become a solution to the problem they create...

Vehicle-to-grid tech is getting a lot of attention at the moment for its potential to help balance the grid as we move towards a more electric world. Through vehicle-to-grid, much more electricity would be bought and stored when it's not in demand (and therefore much cheaper), usually during the night. This means far less energy would be being consumed at peak times, when the grid often has to call on gas-powered stations, for example, to meet the high energy demand. All these drivers charging overnight are therefore helping to reduce the UK's dependence on fossil fuels - and they're making money, too, by selling the energy back to the grid at a higher price than they paid for it.

To help you to understand why this is important, let's use the analogy of the Tube, London's Underground system.

It's notoriously rammed between 7am and 9am and again between 5pm and 7pm. But the rest of the day, Tube carriages are half-empty. So the system needs to be prepared for those times when it is under the most stress.

It's the same thing with the grid. In the small hours of the morning, you're most likely to see lovely renewable energy from wind farms being fed into the grid in large quantities. But, no one is using energy at this time.

That makes it the optimum time to charge your EV and also to store any surplus, generally renewable, electricity. (Lots of solar energy being produced during business hours, when no one is at home, has a similar impact.) Then at the time of most stress, the early evening, the grid is forced to call on fossil-fuel providers to cover the extra demand of the 'rammed tube' peak.

The benefit of V2G is two-fold.

One, you're not adding to demand upon the grid at times of stress (at peak hours when the system is under most demand, meaning it's all hands to the pump for the national grid and worrying about where the electricity comes from is a luxury that, up until now, the grid has been unable to afford).

In other words, at times of stress, the grid is forced to call upon "dirty" energy from fossil-fuel providers. It's estimated that the spend that will be saved by enabling a smart energy system - that is, one that can identify exactly what mix is coming from renewable sources, at what time and how much of the energy that you consume comes from these sustainable sources - will be between £17bn and £40bn by 2050. This means that you can manage your consumption in a smart way and choose to use only renewables. The cost to the grid - and, of course, the planet - if we don't achieve a 100% reduction in carbon emissions by then scarcely bears thinking about.

And second, selling your typically renewable surplus electricity, harnessed in the middle of the night, back to the grid means more of the energy being consumed at peak times comes from renewable energy, and we can rely less on fossil fuels.

With EVs, instead of driving around in a shell on top of a petrol container with fuel that just sits there being gradually depleted, you are instead driving around in a stylish new car that's effectively a mobile battery pack that you can drive to the shops, pick up the kids AND use to store cheap energy that you can sell back to the grid when prices are far higher than you paid for it. Win-win-win - you can earn while you sleep.

Enter the Powerloop bundle

The Octopus Powerloop bundle ensures that making the most of this cutting-edge technology doesn't require you to pore over a bank of screens. It's designed to let you drive without analysing every kWh you consume or export.

Using a simple app that we have developed, you control when you want to charge your EV and how much charge you need your EV to have by 8am (let's say, 70%). We're building in a baseline that will never allow the charge in your EV to drop below a certain amount so you're always covered for emergencies. And the excess that you store to sell back to the grid will be interrupted if the charge falls outside of these parameters. It really couldn't be simpler.

Thinking of replacing your car?

If you haven't already done so, there's never been a better time to switch to the car of the future. Discover the Octopus Powerloop bundle today:

Lease agreement of a new Nissan LEAF, the What Car? 'Best Electric Car 2018'

A V2G compatible charger (free of charge)

100% renewable electricity for home and car

A Secure SMETS2 smart meter installed free of charge (if you don't have one already)

An app to control your car's charging profile, and minimum battery charge required

Up to £30 off your lease every month - the equivalent of powering a Nissan LEAF for more than 10,000 miles every year (more than enough for the average UK driver)

Dedicated Powerloop customer support line

Published on 23rd July 2019 by:

Eugene Costello

Journalist-in-Residence

Hey I'm Constantine, welcome to Octopus Energy!

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Octopus Energy Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales.

Registered number: 09263424. Registered office: UK House, 5th floor, 164-182 Oxford Street, London, W1D 1NN.
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Your car could act as a giant battery to power your home

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We're trialling this tech now with our groundbreaking Powerloop bundle, one of the world's first mass domestic V2G projects, and the most cutting-edge work being done by Nissan in this field. Click here to read about Nissan's work with this technology.

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Young People's Trust for the Environment

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Young People's Trust for the Environment

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Young People's Trust For the Environment

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The fact that human activities are increasing the rate of climate change is now almost universally accepted by scient...

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Wind turbine developments - fabric strucutres for future blades. 

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Wind turbine developments - fabric strucutres for future blades. 

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Wind turbines made with fabric: a new frontier for efficiency and sustainability

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Enel Green Power has launched a partnership with the startup ACT Blade to develop a new type of innovative wind turbine made of fabric, capable of generating more energy, reducing costs and making it easier to recycle its component materials

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A new synthesis contributed by 68 research institutes, covers different regions and sectors, and the recent trends of methane emissions and sinks, using atmospheric observations and bottom-up models.

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A new synthesis contributed by 68 research institutes, covers different regions and sectors, and the recent trends of methane emissions and sinks, using atmospheric observations and bottom-up models.

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Water vapor is Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas. It's responsible for about half of Earth's greenhouse effect - the process that occurs when gases in Earth's atmosphere trap the Sun's heat. Greenhouse gases keep our planet livable. Without them, Earth's surface temperature would be about 59 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) colder. Water vapor is also a key part of Earth's water cycle: the path that all water follows as it moves around Earth's atmosphere, land, and ocean as liquid water, solid ice, and gaseous water vapor.

A simplified animation of the greenhouse effect.

Since the late 1800s, global average surface temperatures have increased by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius). Data from satellites, weather balloons, and ground measurements confirm the amount of atmospheric water vapor is increasing as the climate warms. (The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report states total atmospheric water vapor is increasing one to two percent per decade). For every degree Celsius that Earth's atmospheric temperature rises, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere can increase by about 7 percent, according to the laws of thermodynamics.

Some people mistakenly believe water vapor is the main driver of Earth's current warming. But increased water vapor doesn't cause human-produced global warming. Instead, it's a consequence of it. Increased water vapor in the atmosphere supercharges the warming caused by other greenhouse gases.

Earth's water cycle. Credit: NASA

It works like this: as greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane increase, Earth's temperature rises in response. This increases evaporation from both water and land areas. Because warmer air holds more moisture, its concentration of water vapor increases. Specifically, this happens because water vapor does not condense and precipitate out of the atmosphere as easily at higher temperatures. The water vapor then absorbs heat radiated from Earth and prevents it from escaping out to space. This further warms the atmosphere, resulting in even more water vapor in the atmosphere. This is what scientists call a 'positive feedback loop.' Scientists estimate this effect more than doubles the warming that would happen due to increasing carbon dioxide alone.

This diagram shows the mechanisms behind a positive water vapor feedback loop. Increases in carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, cause a rise global air temperatures. Due to increased evaporation and since warmer air holds more water, water vapor levels in the atmosphere rise, which further increases greenhouse warming. The cycle reinforces itself. The background is a sunset through altocumulus clouds. Credit: NASA and NOAA Historic NWS Collection

A Different Breed of Greenhouse Gas

The greenhouse gases in the dry air in Earth's atmosphere include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons. While making up around 0.05 percent of Earth's total atmosphere, they play major roles in trapping Earth's radiant heat from the Sun and keeping it from escaping into space. Each is driven directly by human activities.

Composition of Earth's atmosphere by molecular count, excluding water vapor. Lower pie represents trace gases that together compose about 0.0434% of the atmosphere (0.0442% at August 2021 concentrations). Numbers are mainly from 2000, with CO2 and methane from 2019, and do not represent any single source. Credit: Public domain

All five of these greenhouse gases are non-condensable. Non-condensable gases can't be changed into liquid at the very cold temperatures present at the top of Earth's troposphere, where it meets the stratosphere. As atmospheric temperatures change, the concentration of non-condensable gases remains stable.

But water vapor is a different animal. It's condensable - it can be changed from a gas into a liquid. Its concentration depends on the temperature of the atmosphere. This makes water vapor the only greenhouse gas whose concentration increases because the atmosphere is warming, and causes it to warm even more.

If non-condensable gases weren't increasing, the amount of atmospheric water vapor would be unchanged from its pre-industrial revolution levels.

Carbon Dioxide Is Still King

Carbon dioxide is responsible for a third of the total warming of Earth's climate due to human-produced greenhouse gases. Small increases in its concentration have major effects. A key reason is the length of time carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere.

Methane, carbon dioxide, and chlorofluorocarbons don't condense, and they aren't particularly chemically reactive or easily broken down by light in the troposphere. For these reasons, they remain in the atmosphere for anywhere from years to centuries or even longer, depending on the gas.

This table shows 100-year global warming potentials, which describe the effects that occur over a period of 100 years after a particular mass of a gas is emitted. Global warming potentials and lifetimes come from Table 8.A.1 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report, Working Group I contribution.

* Carbon dioxide's lifetime cannot be represented with a single value because the gas is not destroyed over time, but instead moves among different parts of the ocean-atmosphere-land system. Some of the excess carbon dioxide is absorbed quickly (for example, by the ocean surface), but some will remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years, due in part to the very slow process by which carbon is transferred to ocean sediments.

** The lifetimes shown for methane and nitrous oxide are perturbation lifetimes, which have been used to calculate the global warming potentials shown here. Credit: EPA

In contrast, a molecule of water vapor stays in the atmosphere just nine days, on average. It then gets recycled as rain or snow. Its amounts don't accumulate, despite its much larger relative quantities.

"Carbon dioxide and other non-condensable greenhouse gases act as control knobs for the climate," said Andrew Dessler, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University in College Station. "As humans add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, small changes in climate are amplified by changes in water vapor. This makes carbon dioxide a much more potent greenhouse gas than it would be on a planet without water vapor."

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) showed that there has been an increase in the flow between the various stages of the water cycle over most the U.S. in the past seven decades. The rates of ocean evaporation, terrestrial evapotranspiration, and precipitation have been increasing. In other words, water has been moving more quickly and intensely through the various stages.

This map shows where the water cycle has been intensifying or weakening across the continental U.S. from 1945-1974 to 1985-2014. Areas in blue show where the water cycle has been speeding up-moving through the various stages faster or with more volume. Red areas have seen declines in precipitation and evapotranspiration and experienced less intense or slower cycles. Larger intensity values indicate more water was cycling in that region, primarily due to increased precipitation. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using data from Huntington, Thomas, et al. (2018).

Wreaking Havoc on the Global Water Cycle

Flooding in Roman Forest, Texas, on September 19, 2019, from Tropical Storm Imelda. Credit: Photo by Jill Carlson, used under Creative Commons license.

Increases in atmospheric water vapor also amplify the global water cycle. They contribute to making wet regions wetter and dry regions drier. The more water vapor that air contains, the more energy it holds. This energy fuels intense storms, particularly over land. This results in more extreme weather events.

But more evaporation from the land also dries soils out. When water from intense storms falls on hard, dry ground, it runs off into rivers and streams instead of dampening soils. This increases the risk of drought.

In short, when atmospheric water vapor meets increased levels of other greenhouse gases, its impacts on Earth's climate are substantial.

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national aeronautics and space administration

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Steamy Relationships: How Atmospheric Water Vapor Supercharges Earth's Greenhouse Effect - Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Water vapor is Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas. It's responsible for about half of Earth's greenhouse effect - the process that occurs when gases in Earth's atmosphere trap the Sun's heat. Greenhouse gases keep our planet livable. Without them, Earth's surface temperature would be about 59 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) colder.

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Climate Change Explainer from the R Met S

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Climate Change Explainer from the R Met S

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MetLink - Royal Meteorological Society The Earth's Energy Balance - the Basics

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What affects the climate of the Earth? Why has the temperature of the Earth stayed approximately the same over very long periods of time, without varying by hundreds of degrees? The temperature of the Earth can be represented by the level of water in a bucket which has a hole in the bottom and water [...]

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Cenex (Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon Vehicles) Case Study Resources

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Cenex (Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon Vehicles) Case Study Resources

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Cenex Resources | Reports, Prospectus, Analysis & Studies

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A variation of useful resources from Cenex, including reports, prospectus, analysis & studies.

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Everything you need to know about Vehicle-to-Grid Charging - FutureLearn course (Free)

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Everything you need to know about Vehicle-to-Grid Charging - FutureLearn course (Free)

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An Introduction to Vehicle-to-Grid Charging for Electric Cars - FutureLearn

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Learn all you need to know about how vehicle-to-grid charging works, and why this industry is big business in this course from Cenex.

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Introduction to Low Emission Road Transport - FutureLearn course (free)

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Introduction to Low Emission Road Transport - FutureLearn course (free)

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This course has been certified by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles. Find out more.

Explore the role of low carbon transport technologies in tackling climate change

This course explores the key transport technologies, trends, and policies that are enabling a transition to low emission vehicles.

You'll build a strong understanding of transport carbon emissions that will stand you in good stead to further explore the many different topics around low emission transport in more depth.

Explore how carbon emissions are affecting urban air quality

The transition to low emission road transport is gathering pace as the world battles to control emissions-induced climate change and urban air quality issues.

On this course, you'll compare and contrast the leading low emission technologies in road transport.

Whether you work in the automotive or energy sectors or you simply own a vehicle, as the world becomes more environmentally aware, more and more of us will be involved in the low-emissions transition.

Compare hydrogen fuel cell, biofuel and electric vehicles

Low emission vehicles come in various forms. After exploring different types of net zero transport, you'll study the benefits and challenges that arise from using hydrogen fuel cell and electric cars.

You'll find out about the requirements of recharging and fuelling low-emission vehicles, and consider the challenges these pose for existing infrastructure.

Study low emissions technology with experts at Cenex

This course is created and delivered by Cenex, The Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies.

With over 15 years of experience conducting research and development and consultancy for low carbon transport and energy systems projects, Cenex is working to accelerate the shift to low emission transport.

They are also a CPD-accredited training provider and have been providing training through the LEVEL network (Low Emission Vehicle Enterprise and Learning) since 2016.

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What topics will you cover?

The impact of climate change and air quality and the role of road transport emissions

An explanation of the key low emission road transport options

An overview of the trends, policies and innovations in the industry

An introduction to the supporting refuelling/recharging infrastructure required

Who is this accredited by?

The CPD Certification Service:

The content of the following course has been certified by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles.

Learning on this course

You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone looking to develop their knowledge of key sustainable transport technologies.

This may include STEM students with a special interest in emission solutions or transport policy, as well as professionals - particularly in the automotive or energy industry - responsible for sustainability or Net Zero targets.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps, but you can complete them as quickly or slowly as you like

Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities

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Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners

Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course

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With new charge points being added daily, the UK's charging point infrastructure is continually changing. The tables and charts below track charging point distribution by speed, region and network market share; the charging point figures are updated live directly from the Zap-Map database. In addition, the profile of electric vehicle sales is also tracked and updated monthly from official sources.
Note that this data can be used by third parties as long as the source is clearly attributed to Zap-Map, a logo is added to any graphs and if online, a link is added back to https://www.zap-map.com.
Zap-Map offers a suite of analytical reports and insights to help organisations get "EV ready" and also an annual EV Charging Survey. To find out more get in touch.

How many charging points are there in the UK?

As shown in the table, the total number of locations which have a public charging point installed is 18601, the number of devices at those locations is 29684 and the total number of connectors within these devices is 50039. There have been 940 new devices added to the Zap-Map database over the last 30 days which equates to 1551 new connectors.

Number of public charging points by speed (2016-to date)

The chart shows the breakdown of charge point devices by slow (3-5kW), fast (7-22kW), rapid (25-99kW) and ultra-rapid (100kW+) power rating for the past five years and 2022 to date. As the chart reveals, the past few years has seen a dramatic increase in the number of public EV charge points in the UK. Between the end of 2016 and 2021 there has been an increase of 335% in the number of public chargers. Another trend is the growth in slow chargers, as local authorities install on-street charging options to enable EV purchase for people without off-street parking.

The pie-chart above shows the number of chargers for the largest charging networks in the UK. As can be seen, ubitricity, with its lamp post chargers now operates the most public charging devices in the UK.

Distribution of UK charging points by geographical area

The pie-chart above shows how many chargers there are across each of the UK regions. Greater London has the most charging points followed by the South-East and Scotland.

How many rapid charging points are there in the UK?

The table shows the total number of locations which have a rapid (incl. ultra-rapid) public charging point installed (3325), the number of rapid devices at those locations (5354) and the total number of rapid connectors within these devices (11996). There have been 157 new rapid devices added to the Zap-Map database over the last 30 days, which equates to 319 new rapid connectors.

Number of rapid public charging points by type (2011-to date)

As shown in the chart, there has been strong growth in the number of rapid chargers in the UK from just over 30 CHAdeMO connectors in 2011 to over 11,500 rapid connectors across CHAdeMO, CCS, Tesla and Type 2 Rapid chargers by the end of 2021. From 2019 to 2021 CCS connector types saw the largest increase due to the emergence and demand for ultra-rapid charging speeds.

Market share UK rapid charging points by network

The above pie chart displays the largest rapid charging networks in the UK. As can be seen, the bp pulse network operates the most rapid charging devices in the UK.

How many electric vehicles are there in the UK?

With increasing consumer demand, greater availability of vehicles and government support, the sales of electric vehicles is growing strongly in parallel to the development of the UK charging point infrastructure. The profile of new registrations of electric vehicles in the UK since 2012 are shown in the charts below. For clarity when looking at the figures, there are two main types of electric or plug-in vehicle included in the analysis - battery electric vehicle (BEV), which are also referred to as a pure electric vehicle, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).

Cumulative number of plug-in vehicles registered in the UK (2012 to date)

The chart above shows the number of electric cars registered in the UK - as of the end of January 2022 there were more than 760,000 plug-in vehicles with approx. 410,000 BEVs and 355,000 PHEVs registered. Last year saw the biggest annual increase in number of registrations, with more than 305,000 electric vehicles registered showing a growth of 74% on 2020. 130,000 additional plug-in vehicles were sold in 2021 vs the number sold in 2020.

Number of new plug-in registrations by month

The above chart shows the number of registrations and market share of plug-in vehicles each month over the past 13 months.

Electric vehicle registrations continue to rise in absolute numbers, with 23,480 new registrations in January 2022 (14,433 BEVs and 9,047 PHEVs), the market share last month was 20.40%. Note that, in the UK, March and September are new registration plate months, which accounts for the twice-yearly peaks in sales and drop in market share in these periods.

Annual market share - plug-in market share of new car registrations (2012 to date)

As shown in the chart, the number of electric vehicles as a proportion of all new vehicles showed a significant increase in 2021. In 2015 just 1.1% of new vehicles registered had a plug compared to 3.2% in 2019; by the end of December 2021, this figure has accelerated to 18.6% (11.6% BEV and 7.0% PHEV). These numbers reflect both the increase in demand for electric vehicles and the decline in demand for traditional, particularly diesel, vehicles.

Over the past few years the majority of the new registrations were PHEVs, but in 2020 with longer range and greater model choice available as BEVs, this reversed with pure EVs leading on monthly sales and annual market share (see previous chart). This trend continued in 2021.

We're confident that plug-in sales will continue going from strength to strength in 2022 and they have certainly started that way in January.

Note that this data can be used by third parties as long as the source is clearly attributed to Zap-Map, a logo is added to any graphs and if online, a link is added back to https://www.zap-map.com.

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How many charge points are there in the UK 2021

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With new charge points being added daily, the UK's charging point infrastructure is continually changing. The tables and charts below track charging point distribution by speed, region and network market share; the charging point figures are updated live directly from the Zap-Map database.

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Hydrogen or Electricity Powered Lorries? - The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight

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Hydrogen or Electricity Powered Lorries? - The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight

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There is an increasingly vociferous debate between those who think that future long-haul heavy goods vehicles should be powered by Hydrogen and those who favour direct electrification.

Most Hydrogen-powered vehicles use fuel cells to convert Hydrogen and Oxygen into electricity and water. The electricity drives electric motors to propel the vehicle - for example, the Nikola fuel cell lorry. Direct electrification involves either: (i) carrying the electricity in large batteries (eg as proposed by Tesla); or (ii) using an 'Electric Road System' (ERS) to transmit the electricity to the vehicle in motion (eg the eHighway by Siemens).

The major benefit of Hydrogen over electrification is its flexibility. A Hydrogen truck can be refuelled in approximately the same time as a diesel truck and the operating range and operating patterns are similar. So Hydrogen-powered trucks could fit into the existing logistics system without too much change. However Hydrogen is much more energy intensive than electricity and consequently is inherently more expensive for the economy, the environment and probably for the vehicle operator.

Electrification of road freight transport would require some modifications to logistics practice [1], but would be significantly lower cost and lower environmental impact to operate. Both would require infrastructure investments at large scale. Given the urgent need to limit Carbon emissions in the short term to avoid the 1.5 deg C global temperature rise, there is a further imperative to deploy solutions quickly.

The decision about which 'energy vector' to use for lorries is very important. Proponents of both electricity and hydrogen recognise that the choice of energy systems for freight transport interacts with the overall energy economy: including electric power, all modes of transport and heat. Consequently, system-level considerations are needed. So 'electricity vs hydrogen' is a milestone decision, with major long-term ramifications at national and international levels.

Hydrogen

There are two main ways that Hydrogen can be manufactured to power future heavy lorries: (i) 'Green' Hydrogen, manufactured by electrolysis - using electricity to split water into Hydrogen and Oxygen; and (ii) 'Blue' Hydrogen, manufactured by Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) - using high temperature steam to convert Methane into Hydrogen. ( Click here for definitions of 'Green', 'Blue' and 'Grey' Hydrogen.)

'Green' Hydrogen Generated by Electrolysis

Figure 1 shows three option for powering long-haul vehicles. It follows the same methodology as used in my previous blog on hydrogen-powered vehicles. The left hand pathway illustrates use of 100 kWh of renewable electricity to generate 'Green' Hydrogen by electrolysis and use of the resulting Hydrogen to power fuel-cell electric vehicles. Each step in the process introduces energy losses and the overall energy performance is the product of the individual efficiencies. The 'round-trip' process of using renewable electricity to make Hydrogen by electrolysis, storing and transporting it on a vehicle, then converting it back to electricity in a fuel-cell and powering the electric motors - is only about 23% efficient overall. That is, for every 100 kWh of 'renewable electricity' purchased from the grid, only 23 kWh will reach the road wheels of the lorry.

The middle pathway shows that 69kWh (of the original 100 kWh) reach the wheels of a battery electric vehicle and the right hand pathway shows that 77 kWh reach the wheels of a lorry travelling on an Electric Road System (ERS). The ERS is the most efficient pathway because the motors are powered directly from the electricity supply (via an inverter), avoiding energy loss through charging and discharging a battery.

The very low efficiency of the 'green' Hydrogen (electrolysis) pathway means that the process uses a lot of renewable electricity to make the necessary quantity of Hydrogen. The (unsubsidised) cost of Hydrogen created by electrolysis is therefore high and the amount of power required is very large. This latter point can be illustrated by estimating the land area of renewable energy generation systems (assumed here to be land-based wind turbines) needed to supply the power used by the UK's lorries - either by direct electrification (ERS) or via the Green Hydrogen (electrolysis) route.

The UK's HGV fleet transports about 189 billion t.km of freight per year. A 44t lorry at 75% load factor uses about 0.19 kWh/t.km. Spreading this over 12 hours per day, 365 days per year, the power requirement is approximately 8.2 GW. If the 'wind turbine to road wheel' efficiency is 77% (as for the ERS solution), powering the vehicles would require 10.6 GW, ie approximately 3,500 x 3MW wind turbines. These would require a land area of about 5,300km 2, as shown to scale by the smaller circular area on the map in Figure 2.

If the 'wind to wheel' efficiency is 23%, as for the Green Hydrogen pathway, powering the vehicles would require 35.6 GW, ie approximately 12,000 x 3MW wind turbines. These 12,000 wind turbines would require a land area of 18,000 km 2 as shown by the larger circular area on the map. (For reference, the average electricity demand of GB in 2019 was 31 GW. So an additional 35.6 GW would approximately double the average electricity demand of the country.)

The world's largest electrolysis plant is currently being built by Hydrogenics in Canada. It has a capacity of 20 MW, which is about 1/1800 of 35.6 GW needed to run the UK's truck fleet. Given the amount of scaling-up to be done, it is questionable whether a Green Hydrogen economy could be deployed in time (by 2030) to avoid the 1.5 deg C global temperature rise.

Conclusion: The Green Hydrogen route would require approximately 3.3 times more power (from whatever renewable source), 3.3 times more land area and 3.3 times more money to power the same vehicles as an ERS solution. It is unlikely that Green Hydrogen could be scaled to power UK road freight before 2050.

Green Hydrogen for Electricity Storage?

A key issue in the low carbon future is electricity storage. Because of the variability of sustainable electricity (wind, solar) and its lack of synchronicity with the peaks of electricity demand, there is a need to store electricity at times of excess supply for use at times of high demand.

Proponents of a Green Hydrogen Economy propose to solve the electricity demand problem by using excess electricity to make Hydrogen by electrolysis; storing it in underground salt caverns; and converting it back to electricity at peak times. This is part of the argument for an overall 'hydrogen economy'.

Production and storage of Green Hydrogen turns out to be a very inefficient way to store electricity and it is not likely to be able to compete economically with some of the highly-developed alternatives. This is discussed in a separate Blog post on use of Hydrogen for electricity storage.

Conclusion: Electricity storage is not a reason for selecting Hydrogen to power the economy.

'Blue' Hydrogen generated by SMR

Steam Methane Reformation (SMR) strips the Carbon atoms from Methane (CH 4), creating CO 2 and Hydrogen (H 2). See Figure 3. It has been argued that 'Blue' Hydrogen generated by SMR could replace natural gas for heating and transport in a Hydrogen Economy. For example, 'H21' project in the North of England [3] proposes to extract natural gas from the North Sea oil fields, convert it to Hydrogen by SMR at facilities on the UK coast, inject the Hydrogen into the National Transmission System (NTS = the 'gas grid') to be used for heating buildings and pump the CO 2 back into empty oil/gas wells, to be sequestered under the sea ('Carbon Capture and Storage' - CCS).

Hydrogen is very inefficient and wasteful for heating buildings, compared with using electric heat pumps. This makes it a financially unattractive way to generate heat... That is, unless the Government decided to subsidise Hydrogen prices for the long term - which would be a very expensive political decision that would severely dent the competitiveness of the UK economy. (See separate blog post on use of Hydrogen for heating.)

Conclusion: Provision of heat for buildings is not a reason for using Hydrogen to power the economy.

In the 'net zero' Carbon scenario, all natural gas used by the nation will have to be replaced by Blue (or Green) Hydrogen and 100% of the CO 2 generated by SMR will have to be captured and stored. It is questionable whether CCS technology can achieve the necessary level of storage fidelity, with many predictions that significant leakage of CO 2 is likely in large-scale CCS schemes [4].

Furthermore, carbon capture from the SMR process is not 100% effective. Depending on the process used, the CO 2 capture rate is between 53% and 90%, with the remaining CO 2 being released into the atmosphere [5].

Conclusions: Creation of 'Blue' Hydrogen releases significant at least 10% of the CO 2 into the atmosphere, because the carbon capture process is not perfect. So 'Blue' Hydrogen is not that 'green' after all! Since there are no existing large scale carbon capture facilities in the UK, there is also an important question of whether this technology could be rolled-out in-time for full-scale deployment for the entire UK energy system, by 2030, 2040 or even 2050.

It is difficult to compare the energy efficiency of Blue Hydrogen with electricity for heavy goods vehicles because of the fundamental inefficiencies of converting chemical energy (thermodynamic 'heat') into mechanical/electrical energy (thermodynamic 'work') in a power station. One fair comparison is shown in figure 4 below. On the right is the pathway for creating Blue Hydrogen from 100 kWh of Methane by SMR; compressing and transporting it in a lorry, and converting it to electricity to propel the vehicle. Accounting for all the energy losses in the process chain, 29kWh would be available at the wheels of the vehicle. On the left of figure 4 is the pathway for using the same 100kWh of methane to generate 'clean electricity' in a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine, CCGT, (as used in modern gas-fired power stations), then transmitting the electricity via the grid and using it to power an ERS lorry. In this case 49kWh would be available at the wheels of the vehicle. Both processes would require capturing and sequestering the CO 2 to make them 'clean' (zero carbon).

The amount of methane (natural gas) needed to power the UK's heavy vehicle fleet for a year by these two pathways can be calculated using some of the assumptions in Figure 2. The answer is 73 TWh (TerraWatt hours = billions of kWh) of Methane (263 PetaJoules) for the electrification route and 124 TWh of Methane (446 PJ) for the Blue Hydrogen route. So 70% more natural gas would be needed to fuel Blue Hydrogen vehicles than to generate clean electricity and power electric vehicles. That inevitably means 70% higher energy costs. (Note that this calculation assumes that the CCS processes in both pathways have the same level of inefficiency, which is ignored. This is reasonable because both routes would need to use similar technologies for carbon capture. See [5].)

Why is the Blue Hydrogen route so much less efficient than the CCGT route? Because every time you convert energy from one form to another (change colour in figure 4) you waste energy. The electrification route involves one conversion (Methane-electricity). The Blue Hydrogen route involves two conversions (Methane-Hydrogen-electricity). The Blue Hydrogen route is therefore fundamentally less efficient.

Figure 5 shows the quantities of methane calculated in the previous discussion, in comparison with the total flows of natural gas in the UK in 2018, from UK government statistics [6]. On the left, it can be seen that the UK produced 450 TWh and imported 518 TWh of gas: ie 53% of gas was imported. If the additional 124TWh of methane needed to manufacture Blue Hydrogen for powering lorries was added to the imports, they would increase by a quarter to 642 TWh or 59% of the total. This increase in gas imports would have a detrimental effect on the country's energy security (most UK gas imports come from Russia and Qatar) and would cause a significant dent in the balance of trade.

One final observation about gas... If the UK's truck fleet was converted to use efficient 'High Pressure Direct Injection' (HPDI) gas engines, they could burn biomethane with very low equivalent carbon emissions. The amount of biomethane needed for this would be around 90TWh. This compares with 3.3 TWh of biomethane entering the gas system on the left side of Fig. 5. The Biomethane supply would therefore need to be increased by a factor of 90/3.3 = 27 to fuel the UK's lorries. This is probably not a practical proposition.

Conclusion: Use of Blue Hydrogen to power UK freight would cost about 70% more in ongoing energy costs than using the natural gas to fuel the conventional electricity generation system, with CCS to capture the Carbon dioxide, and using the electricity in ERS lorries. It is unlikely that the necessary facilities for manufacturing Blue Hydrogen (SMR + CCS) could be built in time for 2030, 2040 or 2050.

Electrification

Electrification with large batteries and fast chargers

As described in a previous blog about the Tesla electric truck, electrification of long haul lorries using large batteries and fast chargers requires the vehicles to carry batteries with capacities of 300 kWh-600 kWh or more. Typical power consumption levels for articulated HGVs are 2-3 kWh/km, so these battery sizes correspond to ranges of 100-300km. Such batteries are expensive, heavy and contain large amounts of scarce Cobalt. For example, the stated capabilities of the Tesla Semi would require batteries of mass at least 7 t (with a corresponding reduction in payload) and would cost $100k-$200k.

Charging the batteries quickly would require high local electric power capacity at depots, etc. For example, the Tesla Semi would need a 2 MW charger to meet the stated 30 minute fast charge [7]. This implies very large and expensive substations at depots, distribution centres and motorway services.

Electric Road Systems (ERS)

ERS technology, particularly the ' eHighway' version which uses overhead catenary cables, contacted by pantographs carried on the vehicles is well developed and has been tested in 4 major trials in the past few years. The trials have demonstrated that eHighway technology could be deployed reasonably quickly around the UK's road network, within the next 15-20 years, or possibly sooner. The cost of deployment over the entire major road network is estimated to be about £20b, which is comparable with £28.8b announced in the UK Government's 2018 Budget for the 'National Roads Fund' for spending on roads in 2020-2025; and about 1/5 of the projected cost of the HS2 railway project. Since 2/3 of all HGV kms occur on the major road network, this single measure would go much of the way to decarbonising the entire road freight system in the UK. The series hybrid and battery electric vehicles could all have batteries with capacities of 100kWh or less [1] and would carry relatively inexpensive pantograph mechanisms on their roofs.(The remaining 1/3 of heavy vehicle journeys perform urban deliveries and can be performed by battery electric vehicles.)

A detailed analysis of the implementation of an electric road system for UK lorries is available in a White Paper by the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight. See also a information about electric roads at the Virtual Tour of the ELISA eHighway project elsewhere on this website.

ERS technology would provide deep decarbonisation (approximately 90% from 2016 levels by 2040) [1]. Such a system would distribute the electricity charging requirements around the UK land area, with consistent power requirements through the day, instead of major electricity hot-spots in depots at night.

The remaining 1/3 of journeys mainly occur in urban environments. Current indications are that in the relatively near future, these journeys will be performed by battery electric lorries with modest ranges and battery sizes and possibly some opportunity charging at delivery points.

We have investigated provision of an eHighway infrastructure for the UK in a separate article and white paper. Click on this link for further information.

Overall Conclusions

The available evidence indicates that Hydrogen by electrolysis or by SMR are poor choices for energy vectors to power heavy goods vehicles and to power the economy as a whole. Both systems are fundamentally wasteful in energy terms. Consequently they would have high economic costs and would require major government subsidies to be economically viable.

An economy based on 'Green' Hydrogen would require very large amounts of renewable electricity to account for the energy losses in electricity-Hydrogen-electricity conversions. Using 'Blue' hydrogen to power fuel cell lorries would cost about 70% more than an equivalently clean system that used the Methane to generate electricity for powering ERS vehicles.

In an electrical economy, buildings can be heated using heat pumps and electricity demand can be managed using efficient, modern storage systems to store electricity. Using Blue (or Green) Hydrogen to meet these needs would be wasteful and very expensive.

A better solution for long-haul HGVs is direct electrification, particularly using an electric road system - ERS. This could be implemented in the UK within 10-15 years, for a cost significantly less than the UK Government's planned expenditure on roads for 2020-2025. The combination of a national ERS and battery electric urban delivery vehicles would decarbonise almost all of the UK's road freight operations.

So the ultimate question for politicians is whether the future road freight system should be more flexible for operators but have high energy consumption, high costs and high carbon emissions in the medium term, or be a bit less flexible but much lower energy, carbon and £ in the shorter term. The jury is out at the moment. But with the climate change imperative becoming much more urgent, I know which one I would choose...

David Cebon
19 February, 2020
rev 27 August, 2020

References

Nicolaides, D., Cebon, D., & Miles, J. (2018). "Prospects for Electrification of Road Freight." IEEE Systems Journal, 12, 1838-1849. https://doi.org/10.1109/JSYST.2017.2691408

Delloite, 'Energy storage: Tracking the technologies that will transform the power sector', 2015, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/no/Documents/energy-resources/energy-storage-tracking-technologies-transform-power-sector.pdf

'H21 North of England' project https://www.northerngasnetworks.co.uk/event/h21-launches-national/

Vinca, a. Emmerling, J, Tavoni, M. 'Bearing the cost of stored carbon leakage', Front. Energy Res., 15 May 2018 https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2018.00040

Collodi et al, 'Techno-economic Evaluation of Deploying CCS in SMR Based Merchant H2 Production with NG as Feedstock and Fuel', Energy Procedia, Volume 114, July 2017, pp2690-2712 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1533

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/820685/Chapter_4.pdf

Nicolaides, D. (2018). "Power infrastructure requirements for road transport electrification." PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.28055

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Long-Haul Lorries Powered by Hydrogen or Electricity? - The Centre For Sustainable Road Freight

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There is an increasingly vociferous debate between those who think that future long-haul heavy goods vehicles should be powered by Hydrogen and those who favour direct electrification. Most Hydrogen-powered vehicles use fuel cells to convert Hydrogen and Oxygen into electricity and water.