The Prime Minister, Theresa May, has signalled that the UK is on track to trigger Article 50 by the end of this month, following the Government’s decisive win for the ‘Brexit Bill’ in the Houses of Parliament on 13th March. There is no doubt that the process of the UK beginning to remove itself from the EU is a ‘defining
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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 more
On Tuesday, 8 November, the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) held the latest in our series of 21st Century Challenges Policy Forum discussion meetings, on ‘Achieving Sustainable Flood Risk Management in the UK‘. An audience of 100 professionals from a range of different sectors, from business and industry to academia, central and local government to Non-Governmental Organisations, convened at the
Read more
A new guide produced by the Know Your Flood Risk campaign and co-authored by one of the speakers at the RGS-IBG’s forthcoming Policy Forum on flood risk management, encourages home owners to do more to protect themselves and their properties from flooding. The ‘Homeowners Guide to Flood Resilience‘ aims to ’empower people to be aware, prepare and take practical precautions
Read more
Cookers at eye-level, water-resistant floor tiles, waterproof brickwork and water pumps: these are all measures that householders and businesses can install to protect their premises from the worst effects of flooding, and to allow them to continue their lives as normal after a flood event. Yet it is not yet standard practice in flood-affected areas to install such ‘Property Level Resilience’
Read more
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 more
The panel for the next in the series of 21st Century Challenges: Policy Forum events is now complete. ‘Achieving Sustainable Flood-Risk Management in the UK‘ will take place at the Society on Tuesday 8th November, chaired by BBC Environment Analyst Roger Harrabin. The panellists are: Martin Rogers, Flood Management and Access Adviser, National Farmers’ Union Carly Rose, Associate Consultant, Mary
Read more
Are we likely to meet our targets to increase the use of renewables to 15% of our total energy use by 2020, or to decarbonise our economy by 2050? In 2040, will we as citizens and will our elected Governments prioritise reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, or material wealth for consumers, with little regard for the environment? It is of
Read more
21st Century Challenges 