Tuesday 27 March 2012

Low Carbon Cities Research

The Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development (OISD) is based at Oxford Brookes University and brings together a number of different disciplines including Real Estate, Construction, Planning and Architecture to address the issues surrounding sustainable development. OISD were commissioned by the RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) to produce a report to find out the success rate of UK cities are at reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. The full report: Hotting Up? An Analysis of Low Carbon Plans for UK Cities looks at 60 cities across the UK and is available on the RICS website.

Professor Tim Dixon, Director of OISD and author of the report said: "the battle against climate change and resource depletion will be won or lost in the world’s cities. Looking at the UK and internationally, the cities that are succeeding with their low carbon plans are those that set ambitious targets, place them in an integrated low carbon and climate change framework, have innovative financing in place, and use partnerships creatively. UK cities and government still need to do much more to work together in developing and transitioning to a low carbon future by 2050 and we can certainly also learn from best practice in cities such as Vancouver, Copenhagen and Stockholm".

So who is winning the battle in the UK? Coventry, Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent are the leading cities in the UK when it comes to reducing their overall greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report. And those who could do better? On a regional level there were significant variations with Belfast (-4%), Greater London (-10%), and Edinburgh (-11%) performing the worst in the country in terms of overall reduction in carbon emission reductions. Have a look at the full table which includes the UK average in the press release on the Oxford Brookes website.

Stoke-on-Trent Canal by Vicky Hugheston
Stoke on Trent - photo by Vicky Hugheston via Flickr

There is an interesting feature on the BBC website about the creation of a model low carbon city. Take a look at the video on the development of Masdar City in UAE.


Masdar City by GDS Infographics


PS: Remember to click on red text for interesting links!


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