Post written by Emilie Vrain Image Attribution: Harbour Air seaplane image by Pixabay reproduced under the license Creative Comms CC0. When Canadian airline ‘Harbour Air’ became the first 100% carbon neutral airline in 2007 through carbon offset payments, they didn’t want to stop there. A new partnership with MagniX who create electric motors has led to the development of what will be the […]
Amory Lovins has been arguing the case for efficiency-led system transformation for over 40 years. His landmark paper back in 1976 challenged the orthodoxy of ever-rising energy demand, and is summarised in Wikipedia thus: “Amory Lovins coined the term ‘soft energy path’ to describe an alternative future where energy efficiency and appropriate renewable energy sources steadily replace […]
Charlie Wilson travelled to Potsdam outside sunny Berlin for a symposium on how to achieve the 1.5°C climate target. The symposium brought together IPCC lead authors, scenario modelling experts, and policy stakeholders to identify integral elements of 1.5°C decarbonisation pathways and how climate policy ‘entry points’ can drive transformative change. Together with Felix Creutzig at […]
Post written by Emilie Vrain Having spent the summer collecting and analysing data from an online survey about smart home technologies and social networks, one of our team members recently headed to Zurich, Switzerland to present some of her findings at the 4th European Conference in Social Networks. Emilie’s presentation highlights that current adopters of smart home […]
The Science and Technology Select Committee have published a report warning that current rates of car ownership will prevent the UK from meeting its target to be Net Zero Carbon by 2050. The report states that government strategies should aim to reduce the total number of vehicles required. Among the suggestions proposed by the committee […]
Post written by Emilie Vrain. Their is growing recognition of the environmental impacts taking a flight can have, and an anti-flying movement in Sweden who go by the name of Flygskam (meaning ‘flying shame’) have stormed media headlines this summer, encouraging people to stop taking flights to lower carbon emissions. Those who make a conscious […]
Post written by Emilie Vrain The UK’s Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) was the first ever unit set up to generate and apply behavioural insights to inform policy and provide societal benefits. Behavioural scientists from BIT recently published a book ‘Social Butterflies: Reclaiming the positive power of social networks‘ drawing upon a wealth of cutting-edge research, popularising […]
Well … almost. The recent G20 ministerial meeting in Japan included the following in their final announcement: “We recognize the importance of quantitative analysis on better understanding future energy demand and the role of innovation driven by digitalization … and the sharing economy”. The SILCI team couldn’t agree more! The G20 added: “We encourage efforts […]
Two SILCI team members, Charlie Wilson and Mark Wilson, recently gave a talk at the Pint of Science festival. The talk, entitled ‘Sustainable solutions – a greener, digital future’, was hosted at a pub in Norwich, giving members of the public an opportunity to learn about low carbon innovations and the SILCI team’s research. Pint of Science is an annual public engagement […]
Norway is an interesting test case for national energy transitions with an almost 100% zero-carbon electricity system (from hydro), the highest uptake of EVs anywhere in the world, and sizeable public resources for supporting energy innovation (largely accrued from fossil fuel rents!). Trondheim is the Norway’s answer to Silicon Valley, hosting a large and well […]