STAP

WinACC's Science and Technology Advisory Panel has produced a paper which sets out the technical basis for setting national and local targets to mitigate climate change.  It defines the overall energy budget that the district must keep to take its share of national and global emissions cuts required for there to be a chance of keeping global warming to less than 2 degrees C.  The paper shows that a local cut of 7% year on year until 2050 is required for this.

Members of WinACC's Science and Technology Advisory Panel (STAP) have published their predictions of what some aspects of life in Winchester could be like in the year 2015, expressed as they might be seen by someone living in that year.  Click here to view the Winchester in 2015 report.

Among the changes that they foresee are that sales of bottled water will have ‘almost dried up’ by 2015; there will have been a great uptake in home insulation – with virtually all houses with cavity walls properly insulated; an increase in youngsters cycling to school; and the demise of 4x4 and Sport Utility Vehicles on Winchester’s streets. 

WinACC's Science and Technology Advisory Panel is holding a discussion on Cap and Trade which will be facilitated by guest speaker Dr Nick Bardesley of Southampton University.  Cap and Trade is a regulatory system whereby limits are placed on the amount that each polluter can pollute.  If they don't use their allowance, they can then trade it to other pollutants.   All welcome.  For further information, please contact David Knight, david.knight77_at_ntlworld.com. 

The former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, Sir David King, has said of the new book by Professor David Mackay ‘Sustainable Energy – without the hot air’ that it ‘sets out with enormous clarity and objectivity the various alternative low carbon pathways that are open to us’.  The book, which is strongly recommended by members of WinACC’s Science and Technology Advisory Panel (STAP), can be ordered or downloaded from the website www.withouthotair.com.
 

The Science and Technology Advisory Panel has issued an update of its activities.

1. Infra red aerial survey: We have prepared a costed proposal to be submitted to Winchester City Council for an aircraft-based infra red survey of Winchester to determine with high resolution which buildings have poorly insulated roofs. We hope to submit this to the City Council within the next few weeks.

2. Ten Top Tips:  In conjunction with the Communications Group, we have prepared a list of 10 top tips to advise the general public on the most effective actions to reduce their carbon footprints.  This will be shortly published on the WinACC website and as a leaflet.

The Editor
Hampshire Chronicle

Dear Sir,

At a recent meeting of Winchester Action on Climate Change (WinACC) the question was raised ‘Why do shops leave their doors wide open in cold weather?’ In a recent survey of the Broadway and High Street in Winchester I noted 47 shops with their doors wide open when the outside temperature was only 6°C. Although I did not check the inside temperatures on that day it is common experience that many shops set their heating relatively high and far above the legal minimum for a workplace of 16°C. So it is not hard to imagine what happens to a lot of that warm air.

As one report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) follows another the consensus of scientific opinion points ever more sharply to the imperative of urgent action to reduce GHG emissions. It is European Union policy that the average increase in global temperatures (compared with pre-industrial temperatures) should not exceed two degrees centigrade, an increase that would itself be full of dangers. The latest reports from the IPCC make it clear that to keep global temperatures from crossing the two degrees line global emissions of GHGs must peak within the next eight years.