BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:The key stakeholders' response to climate change - Speaker to be c onfirmed DTSTART:20101125T120000Z DTEND:20101125T140000Z UID:TALK27212@talks.cam.ac.uk CONTACT:18154 DESCRIPTION:*Abstract*\n\nEnergy has become an essential component of econ omic\, institutional and social development. Evidence suggests\, however\, that the ways in which we consume energy have significant negative envir onmental and social impacts. Climate change\, energy security and fuel pov erty are the three main energy challenges currently facing the UK. Tacklin g these challenges is a crucial and complex task which governments have pa ssed legislation to address. Under the 2008 Climate Change Act\, the UK ha s set legally binding targets to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% compared with 1990 levels by 2050. In 2009 the EU published a directive committing Memb er States to increase their share of renewable energy consumption to 20% b y 2020. Achieving these objectives presents a formidable challenge. Norma tive scenarios that meet existing targets generally describe an age of tra nsition similar in scale to the industrial revolution in the 19th century. \n\nOver half of all UK energy consumption takes place within the built en vironment\, where much of the existing stock is deemed to be inefficient. Improvements in both residential and non-residential buildings are essenti al if carbon reduction targets are to be met. Landlords\, business and res idential consumers all have a role to play in adopting a wide range of ava ilable technological and operational solutions There are a number of barr iers to implementation\, however\, that have not yet been resolved. A bett er understanding of these barriers\, as well as the drivers of behavioural change will allow us to design appropriate incentives for all actors in t he economy.\n\nThis seminar will explore how key stakeholders are addressi ng energy efficiency in the built environment. It will also discuss the ma in hurdles still facing stakeholders as well as potential solutions.\n\n*S peakers*\n\n* Simon Chubb Sustainable City Manager\, Cambridge City Counci l\n* Aidan Parkinson PhD student\, Centre for Sustainable Development\, Un iversity of Cambridge\n* Elcin Akcura PhD student\, Faculty of Economics\, University of Cambridge\n* Aoife Brophy Haney PhD student\, Judge Busines s School\, University of Cambridge\n* Murat Basarir MPhil student\, Depart ment of Engineering\, University of Cambridge\n\n*Speakers' Abstracts*\n\n *Simon Chubb: "Title TBC"*\n\nAbstract TBC\n\n*Aidan Parkinson: "Managing Thermal Comfort in Large Scale\, Mixed Use Developments Towards 2050."*\n\ nUK markets are exposed to increasingly volatile wholesale energy prices. This coincides with peak production of indigenous UK oil and gas productio n reached around the year 2000 prompting an increase in energy imports. Th e consequences are that since 2003 a trend for a reduction in the number o f people in fuel poverty has reversed. The UK Climate Change Act 2008 sets legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 . Providing affordable and secure energy\, whilst meeting government targe ts for greenhouse gas emissions is a significant challenge.\n\nMany instit utions and businesses have published scenario planning documents in this a rea to determine strategy with an outlook of increased uncertainty. Normat ive scenarios generally describe an age of significant transition looking towards 2050. In order to achieve 80% greenhouse gas emission cuts whilst maintaining affordable and secure energy provision these documents describ e a rapid uptake of renewable electricity generation\, the electrification of transport and 50% reductions in the energy consumption of buildings.\n \nProperty firms will be required to adapt to the effects of volatile ener gy prices and climate change. My research investigates the factors affecti ng the retrofitting of energy efficient solutions across large scale\, mix ed use developments for providing thermal comfort to occupants towards 205 0. This presentation will show the results of a pilot study where these is sues have been explored. Some initial conclusions will also be presented.\ n\n*Elcin Akcura: "UK Households Attitudes on Electricity and Environment" *\n\nUnder the Climate Change Act\, UK aims to reduce CO2 emissions to 34% below 1990 levels by 2020 and has committed to increasing the share of re newables to account for 15% of its energy. The achievement of these object ives presents a formidable challenge. The public have a significant role t o play in the formation of the necessary measures to achieve the ambitious targets as energy policy is set at the national level against a backdrop of prevailing public sentiment. Moreover\, the public will have to alter i ts energy consumption behaviour as the residential sector accounts more th an a quarter of all energy used in the UK.\n\nThe presentation will discus s some results from household surveys conducted by Electricity Policy Rese arch Group (EPRG). The presentation will focus on householdsí views on en ergy policy as well as their energy conservation behaviour. \n\n*Aoife Bro phy Haney: "Energy efficiency in large organisations and the role of non-f inancial drivers"*\n\nUntil recently\, the main policy mechanism for encou raging efficient energy use in the UK business and public sectors was thro ugh price. The UK Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CR C) seeks to change this by above all focusing on reputation and organisati onal structure. In this presentation\, we firstly situate this new focus o n non-financial drivers within the wider theoretical and empirical literat ure. We then present a conceptual framework and set of hypotheses that aim to tease out the interactions between and the impacts of various drivers on the extent of energy efficiency in large organisations. Finally\, we ou tline our methodological approach to testing these hypotheses. This resear ch has theoretical\, empirical and practical contributions. By considering energy efficiency as one aspect of organisational performance\, we can en rich the existing literature on energy efficiency but also the wider econo mic and management literature on non-financial drivers.\n\n*Murat Basarir: "Energy Appraisal of Retail Units : Assessing the effect of open doors on energy consumption and thermal comfort"*\n\nThere is a vital need to impl ement energy efficiency measures in all range of businesses in the UK. Sta tistics by DECC state that the retail industry uses 31% of its energy for heating purposes. A portion of this energy will simply be wasted by poor p ractices such as leaving the doors open. To compensate for this heat loss\ , retailers turn up the heating or instal air curtains above doors that ra ise operating costs and increase their carbon footprint. \nMonitoring real -world performance of retail outlets will enable us to quantify the energy savings of keeping the external doors closed. The research involves setti ng up and deploying a wide range of wireless sensors to monitor the main f actors that affect energy consumption in a store. Along with the use of po wer meters to measure energy\; the internal temperature\, humidity and ext ernal weather conditions were monitored to grasp an understanding of their interactions with energy use. \n\nThe gathered heating season data indica te that significant energy savings can be achieved when the store simply s huts its doors and turns off the additional heaters above the door. In add ition to the energy saving benefits\, closing the doors also helps maintai n the recommended comfort range as published by CIBSE. When doors were lef t open\, the results indicate that the usage of heating equipment and air curtains failed to provide the desired thermal comfort throughout the day. This resulted in staff relying on additional heating equipment\, thus inc reasing total energy consumption. LOCATION:CRASSH Seminar Room 17 Mill Lane END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR