This event considered how we might determine whether policy is effective, efficient and equitable, and also how evidence is considered in the policy development process.

Mark Winskel and Niall Kerr introduced the ClimateXChange project ‘Policy Effectiveness in Energy Policy’, and Jan Rosenow and Paul Cairney presented on the policy making process, understanding policy effectiveness and the role of evidence and experts.

The event was organised with the Energy and Society group at the University of Edinburgh.

The ClimateXChange Wind Farm Impacts Study, published in July 2015, made a number of recommendations for developing better guidance on predicting and limiting the impact of wind farm developments. How noise impacts from wind farms are considered in the planning process in Scotland was raised in this Study.

As well as looking at wind turbines, this follow-on study considered the assessment of noise impacts for hydro schemes and air source heat pumps including the guidance and standards these impacts are judged against. The study findings will feed in to Scottish Government thinking on how noise impacts from renewable technologies are considered through the planning process, and potentially inform future guidance for developers and planning authorities.

The study made the following recommendations:

• Greater sharing of information via a community of practice focused on wind energy noise issues for EHO and planning officers.
• Preparation of a lay person’s guide for non-noise specialists to facilitate communication of noise issues in relation to renewable energy. 

The study also identified a number of recommendations for further research which include:

• An in depth review of the methodology within ETSU-R-97 and the IOA Good Practice Guide to identify areas where additional detail on interpretation would be required from a planning authority perspective, drawing specifically on the experience of stakeholders.
• Investigation of the value of a detailed local policy framework through a workshop event or similar for environmental health officers and planners. This would provide a forum for structured discussion and sharing good practice on noise policies and in particular, supplementary guidance. This could cover the scope, wording and potential for locally specific limits within policy and guidance. The outcome of this event could be recorded in a summary report to provide a reference source for local authorities addressing noise issues.
• A more detailed investigation of a sample of noise related complaints regarding wind farm developments would allow further conclusions to be drawn on ETSU limits and the nature and occurrence of noise related complaints.

Monitoring and evaluating (M&E) is a central part of assessing the effectiveness of our efforts to tackle climate change. Scotland (and the wider UK) was one of the pioneering countries in the development of an adaptation M&E framework, and is one of a handful of countries that have a system that is fully operationalised.

Our aim is to set out principles for metrics that better answer questions regarding whether Scotland is adapting to the impacts of climate change, and whether resilience is increasing and opportunities are being realised.

The research has looked at areas of strength and areas needing improvement and how to integrate this M&E approach into the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (SCCAP) using an outcomes focus. 

Read the Adaptation Sub-Committee’s advice on using an outcome focus in the SCCAP

Read more about the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme

The Scottish Government published its draft Energy Strategy in January 2017. The draft Strategy is Scotland’s first overarching, system­‐wide strategy for energy.

In the draft, the Scottish Government has committed to consultation, engagement and deliberation with consumers and communities about their energy future.

Evidence about Scottish public values and attitudes towards energy system transformation is essential to inform the development of those engagement processes. To that end, this report provides a summary of the current evidence.

The research draws on current thinking on public engagement with science and technology issues and a survey from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) on Public Values for Whole Energy System Change.

Public engagement on energy systems workshop

The research findings was discussed at a workshop looking at options for public engagement on energy policy. Download slides or watch the presentations, or look through the workshop exercises on the links below.

Slides:
Christina Demski & Nick Pidgeon: Public engagement with energy system change in Scotland
Kat White: Draft energy strategy
Helen Pallett: Systematic mapping of UK public engagement with energy: findings

Filmed presentations:
Christina Demski & Nick Pidgeon: Public engagement with energy system change in Scotland
Kat White: Draft energy strategy

Workshop exercises:
Exercise 1: What is happening already?
Exercise 2: Modes of engagement

Workshop notes:
Conclusions from the workshop

In its independent assessment of the first Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (SCCAP), the Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Climate Change Committee (ASC) described the programme as:

‘…a significant first step to bring together existing policies and activities into a more coherent programme. Moving forward, it could be improved in terms of its coverage, governance and impact.’

With this in mind ClimateXChange has prepared the following papers to frame discussions with Scottish Government on priorities for the CXC adaptation research resource:

• Three climate change adaptation research issues papers based on the issues identified in the independent assessment and the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017, literature searches, and stakeholder engagement. The three papers cover the themes in the SCCAP – Natural Environment, Buildings and Infrastructure Networks, and Society, and provide a long-list of possible research to support the development of the second SCCAP due in 2019. Though framed with a view to fit the policy process leading to the second SCCAP, many of the proposed projects are not achievable in the timescale. Some projects would also benefit from the climate information that will be published with the UKCP18.
• A paper looking at monitoring and evaluation in relation to adaptation outcomes at local and national level. This takes in reporting relating to the Climate Change (Scotland) Act from local authorities, Scottish Government and the Committee on Climate Change. Recommendations are also based on international best practice on climate change adaptation M&E.

This summary paper draws together the research that could be delivered through the CXC resource, and through coordinating and initiating research delivered elsewhere. We focus on the evidence gaps where research would help develop indicators (connected to recommendations on monitoring and evaluation), scoping studies, and options for research to develop a systems approach to adaptation policy.

Recent experience has focused minds on flooding but we are conscious of the risk relating to all forms of extreme weather events, and recognise the importance of understanding potential impacts from e.g. drought or storm force winds as specifications are refined.

Climate projections are an important tool in assessing the impacts climate change will have.

We have produced two forward-looking reports that provide a firm evidence base for what we know about future temperature and precipitation based on best available climate science. They are a complement to Sniffer’s climate trends handbook 

The information in the reports and the at-a-glance presentation will be useful for:

• helping organisations prepare their Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP’s)
• helping organisations undertake their Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessments
• helping to justify collaborative partnership working on shared issues (e.g. Climate Ready Clyde)
• informing investment decisions
• informing spatial strategy and policy direction within emerging development plans
• identifying business risk and opportunities
• preparing developer toolkits for adaptation
• training and capacity building
• identifying future research needs
• preparing briefings

During a citizens’ jury, participants need to learn more about the topic at hand before they go on to deliberate the issue and agree collective recommendations. Citizens’ juries are one of several deliberative processes, which are a useful ‘tool’ in the toolbox of policy practitioners. Such processes have been used in a variety of ways to support decision making processes.

Following ClimateXChange’s project on citizens juries we have reviewed ten similar projects to understand how witnesses are being involved in different ways.

The report looks at a range of issues relating to the expert witnesses, including scope and selection, recruitment, and their specific roles. A more detailed research report will also be published at a later point.

A key aspect of the Scottish Government’s aspirations is inclusive economic growth. That is, growth across the income distribution. This project looked at the pattern of uptake of small-scale (domestic) photovoltaic devices under the UK-wide Feed in Tariff programme.

The feed-in tariff (FiT) was introduced in April 2010 for small-scale renewable electricity technologies in Great Britain. This promised the installing household a fixed price per unit of electricity – comprised from a “generation” tariff which was differentiated by technology, and an “export” tariff which was technology-blind. FITs have spurred significant development, particularly of Photovoltaic (PV) systems. During our sample period of the first 26 months of operation, over 1GW of domestic renewable electricity capacity and almost 300,000 installations were added. In all, 99.5% of these installations were PV, and 98.7% of capacity was in PV systems.

We found that installation of domestic scale PV devices is a financial, rather than an environmental consideration. There is also a clear early adopter advantage with respect to these renewable devices and our models suggest that the rate of uptake of household renewable energy devices in one area is spatially dependent upon the uptake in neighbouring areas.

As a spatially- and income-blind levy on electricity consumption, and given that uptake is greatest in wealthier areas, policies like FiTs could exacerbate economic inequalities between wealthier and less wealthy areas.

The UK has a rich history of wave energy technology innovation stretching back to 1976 when it launched its first wave energy programme. Whilst funding was discontinued in the 1980s a new programme was established in the 2000s as wave energy was considered a critical solution to meeting the government’s climate change, energy and economic objectives. Despite committing approximately $150m to wave energy development over the past 15 years the UK has still failed to deliver a commercially viable wave energy device. This raises questions about the effectiveness of government policy designed to support wave energy innovation.

In this seminar Dr Matthew Hannon, Chancellor’s Fellow of Technology and Innovation at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde’s Business School, presented research examining how the level and type of innovation support from UK government has contributed to this slow progress and how these weaknesses could be addressed to help accelerate wave energy innovation in the future.

The research finds that government policy was indeed partly to blame for this slow progress including poor coordination of policy support, duplication of investment, stop-start R&D programmes that fostered knowledge depreciation and schemes that encouraged developers to go ‘too big too soon’. Despite these failures significant ‘policy learning’ has taken place, triggering a major reconfiguration of UK wave energy innovation support such as a refocusing on component versus device development, treating wave and tidal energy innovation separately and greater coordination of innovation programmes. Even so outstanding policy recommendations include strengthening coordination between UK and Scottish governments and collaboration between universities and device developers.

Finally, the research finds that government policy wasn’t the only factor that contributed to this slow progress such as developers overpromising and under-delivering, as well as the high capital cost and practical difficulties associated with device testing at sea.