Alex Chisholm, the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS), indicated earlier this year that the UK Government will publish its ‘Emissions Reduction Plan’ by the end of February 2017. The Emissions Reduction Plan will set out how the Government intends to meet post-2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, including the Fifth Carbon Budget, which
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The energy system is inherently geographical; the current system is dominated by centralised points of large-scale transformation, connected spatially to sites of consumption through infrastructure that transports and transmits electricity and natural gas via the National Grid and the national transmission network. Yet this system is based on fossil fuels. To meet the legally binding targets within the UK’s 2008 Climate Change
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A fundamental change is required to the way in which we view flood management and flood defence in the UK: this was one of the take-home messages from the latest 21st Century Challenges Policy Forum, held at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) on Tuesday 8 November. Professor Colin Thorne, a member of the panel for the evening, drawing on
Read moreAn infographic from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) provides an at-a-glance overview of current trends in the UK energy system. Published in the summer 2016 edition of the ESRC’s magazine, ‘Society Now‘, statistics from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (now part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) provide an insight into the challenge faced
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A low-carbon economy – with a target of an 80% reduction in carbon dioxide levels, on 1990 levels, by 2050 – is a long-standing objective of UK energy policy. But what will a low-carbon economy look like and what will it be like to live there? A paper in Energy Policy by Gavin Bridge and colleagues (‘Geographies of energy transition:
Read moreIn advance of the 21st Century Challenges: Policy Forum, ‘Resilience to climate change: who pays (and who benefits)?’ on 17 November, the RGS-IBG Policy Team has pulled together brief background information to set the context for the event. It’s not too late to register to attend: please contact the Policy Team by Friday 13 November to reserve your space at the panel
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21st Century Challenges 