There are many technological and infrastructure changes that will help Scotland to reduce its carbon emissions. But we will also have to change our habits and the way we live. This project is developing a well-evidenced positive narrative for a low carbon lifestyle to help communicate with and engage people across Scotland.
The specific aims of the project are:
- to provide narrative descriptions of a low carbon life in Scotland in 2030, which are meaningful at a household level;
- to explore the feasibility of describing the wider social and economic benefits of low carbon living;
- to create a narrative/narratives relevant to different communities and types of households; and
- to develop narratives that include mitigation and adaptation measures.
These narratives will then be used in a wider Scottish Government project to describe what life may look and feel like in a low carbon future as we in Scotland meet our emissions reduction targets. What will be different and what will stay the same? How will we interact with technology? How will our behaviours differ from now? This will include looking at how we heat our homes and the energy we use, the way we get around, the food we eat and the goods and services we consume.
Useful links
Individuals and households can make a significant impact in reducing their carbon emissions by improving energy efficiency in the home. However, there is a wide range of individual, social and material factors that influence attitudes to and uptake of home energy efficiency measures. In many cases, factors such as social norms, individuals’ values and existing infrastructure can act as barriers to improving household energy efficiency. Understanding these factors can help policy makers in developing effective interventions to encourage household energy efficiency.
This report reviews the evidence on householders’ attitudes and behaviours in relation to home energy efficiency, focusing on the different measures that the householder can take to improve the energy efficiency of their property.
The report identifies certain ‘trigger points’ during the life of the home when energy efficiency measures may be easier to implement. These trigger points may provide valuable opportunities for policymakers to target households with energy efficiency policy interventions.
The work in this report is based on the Scottish Government’s ISM model for behaviour change.
Useful links
Co-hosted by ClimateXChange and the UK Energy Research Centre, this event featured a presentation by 
Professor Jim Skea CBE, titled ‘Innovation in the energy sector: paradigm busting or paradigm reinforcing?’
Professor Skea presented research currently being undertaken by the RCUK Energy Strategy Fellowship to assess the effectiveness of systems of energy innovation. The question at the centre of this research is whether technological change is enabling or frustrating carbon reduction goals.
This presentation provided an articulate explanation of international energy development drawing on empirical evidence relating to the public sector R&D portfolio, private sector activity and evolving institutional arrangements in a number of countries. It also highlighted the changing shape of energy R&D portfolios and the balance between public and private sector activities.
The slides presented at this event are available for download on this page.
Speaker
Jim Skea is the UK Research Councils Energy Strategy Fellow and a Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College. He was founding Research Director of the UK Energy Research Centre. He has operated at the interface between research, policy making and business throughout his career. He is a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change and a Vice Chair of IPCC Working Group III. He was awarded a CBE for services to sustainable energy in 2013 and an OBE for services to sustainable transport in 2004.
Launch Event – Social Assets in Community Renewables – This report was launched by ClimateXChange on November 8th 2013.
The Scottish Government has a target of 500 megawatts of community and locally-owned renewable energy by 2020. This means that government policy needs to maximise the uptake of community renewable energy projects. This report looks at the factors that underpin successful community energy projects.
Scotland has a significant potential for community energy, with 360 projects currently initiated. Despite the potential, only 44% of the proposed projects have become operational.
Drawing on a database of 276 Scottish community projects, this report identifies the social factors which influence the success of community energy projects through the various stages of development, from idea to operation.
Knowing these success factors can help policy makers to improve the uptake and success rate of community energy projects by:
- Investigating the motivators and barriers to community energy projects
- Identifying the key prerequisites for success, especially community social capital
- Recommending potential policy interventions to enhance social capital
- Assessing the potential and limitations of the predominant business models for community energy
Offshore renewable developments can have significant impacts on local and regional economies. The Scottish Government asked ClimateXChange to review UK and overseas examples where communities and community groups benefit financially from such projects.
This brief looks at specific community benefits schemes including schemes for payments to communities, direct ownership of assets or community investments. These examples can provide lessons for how communities and community groups in Scotland may benefit from offshore renewable energy development.
ClimateXChange has reported equalities issues in the renewables industry in Scotland since 2012. The reporting feeds into the 2020 Renewable Routemap for Scotland, and is based on a voluntary survey of small, medium and large organisations across the industry carried out by the Crichton Carbon Centre. It covers all renewable energy technologies.
The survey for 2015 was open for an extended period and promoted widely. Despite this, returns fell below the minimum required for a meaningful analysis, and we are unable to produce a report.
The survey came at a time of challenge for parts of the renewables sector and ClimateXChange will work closely with key stakeholders to learn any lessons and refine the monitoring programme for 2016.
ClimateXChange has reviewed the current and projected economic benefits of expanding community and locally owned renewables in Scotland.
We used a survey of operational community renewable energy projects in Scotland to provide technology-specific income and cost savings figures. Given the limited sample size of this survey and the assumptions necessary to extrapolate from this, our results should be seen as illustrative of the scale of the economic benefit to community and locally owned renewable energy projects in Scotland.
We estimate that the renewable energy capacity operational in January 2012 provided an illustrative annual net income of £42 million to community and locally owned organisations. (‘Income’ here means both direct income from energy generation and cost savings). Within that total, our analysis suggests that total net incomes to the category “Community groups” are approximately £5 million per year.
Over the anticipated operational lifetime of existing and projected community and locally owned capacity, our estimates suggest that this could translate as a total net income of £1,932 million and total gross income of £3,361 million. In 2012 value terms, this equates to between £1.3 and £2.2 billion.
However, it is important to bear in mind that the evidence base here is very limited and we recommend a national database to gather more robust economic data.
In 2008 the Moffat Centre published a comprehensive study on the economic impacts of wind farms on tourism in Scotland. It concluded that existing and proposed wind farm developments would have little overall economic effect on tourism in Scotland.
Given the increase in wind farm development in Scotland, the Scottish Government asked ClimateXChange to identify what new information exists on the impact on tourism of wind farms, and to consider what new conclusions may be drawn from this information.
We considered new evidence on public and tourist attitudes towards wind farms. We also analysed data from regions comparable to those studied by the Moffat Centre and found no evidence to suggest that subsequent wind farm development in these areas has had an adverse economic effect on tourism. Overall, we found no new evidence to suggest that wind farms are having a discernible negative economic impact on tourism in Scotland.
Our report has fed in to policy understanding of the wider implications of renewables development. We hope it will provide a useful starting point for further research in this important area.
In view of the on-going proposals for further wind farm developments, the Scottish Government asked ClimateXChange to compare approaches used in a wide variety of studies that have considered the impact of onshore and offshore wind farm development on tourism. The report was published in March 2015. It concludes that mixed and interdisciplinary methods can offer the most comprehensive understanding of the effects of wind farm developments on tourism and recommends an approach for future work.
The Scottish Parliament agreed ambitious targets for reducing Scotland’s greenhouse gas (carbon) emissions in 2009. Setting a price on carbon – through taxes or trading schemes – is widely recognized to be essential to deliver the transition to a low carbon economy.
Currently, carbon pricing is achieved through the EU-wide Emissions Trading Scheme on energy intensive industry, along with UK-wide taxes related to energy or carbon emissions. However, these carbon taxes on domestic electricity use are not matched by carbon pricing for other forms of energy including heating (natural gas) and transport.
This report explores how a carbon tax can be introduced on household energy use and private transport in Scotland in a way that ensures that low-income households are protected.
The study illustrates how a green tax needs to interact with the wider benefit and tax system – particularly Universal and Pension Credit – to ensure that low-income households are protected and thereby balance environmental and social concerns.
The findings are based on modelling of energy use, and benefit policy changes taking effect in 2017/18.