|
|
Upper Tay Group’s Climate Change Impact Study
UPPER TAY RESIDENTS may recall receiving a questionnaire with your post about 15 months ago from the Upper Tay Group (UTG) asking you a number of questions about your energy use. The questionnaire was put together by Andy Cole for the UTG and delivered to almost all the households and businesses in the area.
The aim was to gather information that could be converted to emissions of carbon dioxide, the number one greenhouse gas (GHG), with a view to seeing if it is practical for the area eventually to become carbon neutral, ie, making no net addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
A grant for the purpose was obtained from Leader Plus and it was intended from the outset that the data would be analysed by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM), a small company based in Edinburgh that has a history of calculating energy and carbon budgets for both small and large companies. And that is where I came into the story, as a Director of ECCM, although not part of the project from its outset. After some unfortunate delays through 2005, I took the data to ECCM for analysis late last year and here is a summary of the results.
|
|
|
Questionnaires were returned from 292 (12%) of households and 28 (32%) of businesses. The figures that I give below have been scaled up from these responses on the basis that the samples are representative of all the 2,453 households and 89 businesses in the Upper Tay Area.
On that basis, the GHG emissions from all households in the Upper Tay Area are approximately 33,379 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, and from all businesses 12,084 tonnes, totalling 45,463 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. These are underestimates because the questionnaire did not include emissions associated with waste disposal, or with travel on public transport or by taxi in a manner that could be incorporated in the analysis.
It is important to appreciate that the total emissions for the Upper Tay Area, and the estimates of their avoidance, also have limitations because of the small sample sizes. It is a great pity that more residents and businesses did not return completed questionnaires! I have compiled the following synopsis based on the analysis and report produced for the Upper Tay Group by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management.
Summary
The household emissions include consumption on the properties of electricity (17%), gas (10%), oil (21%), LPG (<1%), coal (13%), and consumption of petrol (19%), diesel (6%), LPG (<1%) for travel by cars, as well as travel by aeroplane (13%).
The business emissions include consumption on the premises of electricity (25%), gas (35%), oil (25%), LPG (<1%), coal (0%), and consumption of petrol (1%), diesel (12%), LPG (<1%) for travel by company-owned vehicles, as well as travel by aeroplane (1%).
Average emissions per household are 14 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, a figure that is appreciably higher than the national UK average of 9.9 tonnes, most likely because of larger emissions associated with heating and travel as a result of our northern, rural location.
Fuel for heating, particularly oil, dominates household emissions. Houses with loft insulation and double glazing used slightly less gas, oil, LPG and coal, avoiding about 1 tonne per household of carbon dioxide emission or 0.53 tonne per person. The eight households with solar water heating systems avoided emissions of 4 tonnes of carbon dioxide per household or 2.46 tonnes per resident. If this technology was installed on all houses throughout the area, 9544 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions could be avoided.
Average annual emission from car travel per household is 3.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide, rather higher than the Scottish average of 2.3 or the UK average of 2.6 tonnes per household, most likely as the result of limited public transport in our rural location. Public transport has lower associated GHG emissions than car travel.
If public transport were to be improved so that 50% of current car journeys were made by bus, current total carbon dioxide emissions from households would be reduced by 8%, i.e., 2670 tonnes,
Electricity consumption by households accounts for 17% of emissions. If one contracts to buy electricity from a renewably generated source, DEFRA (the Government Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) states that emissions otherwise attributable to the use of electricity can be set to zero. Thus the potential exists to avoid 17% of the total annual household carbon dioxide emissions, i.e., 5808 tonnes, by changing electricity supplier. Failing that, energy saving technologies, such as low energy light bulbs, would reduce emissions arising from the use of electricity, but by a comparatively small amount.
Electricity consumption also makes a major contribution to business emissions (25%) and the same criterion applies as to households. Thus 3021 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions would be avoided if all businesses in the area switched to electricity from a renewably generated source.
Fuel for heating also dominates overall emissions from business premises (60%), particularly gas, so that, as with households, businesses with insulation and double glazing also use less fuel, resulting in average avoided carbon dioxide emissions of 9 tonnes per employee or 72 tonnes per business. Thus, if all businesses in the area followed suit, 4348 tonnes of dioxide emissions would be avoided.
Travel
Use of diesel for cars and other vehicles is a relatively large annual source of carbon dioxide emissions by businesses in the area, 1449 tonnes or 12% of the total. Diesel has slightly lower emissions per mile than petrol, resulting in a small annual reduction in emissions of 86 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The use of a 5% bio-diesel blend would also reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by a small amount. An effective way forward for both businesses and households would be to purchase fuel-efficient vehicles and to replace petrol vehicles with diesel alternatives.
If all householders and businesses were to introduce the emission reduction measures recommended in the report, annual emissions of 11,820 tonnes of carbon dioxide (26% of the total current emissions) could be avoided. The UK government has pledged to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide equivalents by 20% of their 1990 amount by the year 2010 and 60% by 2050!
Copies of the full report can be obtained from Anthony Blythe, Chairman of the Upper Tay Group, or directly from ECCM (ECCM-CMS-171-2005), phone 0131 666 5070.
The Upper Tay Group will now consider how to take this project forward and Anthony Blythe would welcome any suggestions at daytime tel: 01796 473559 or email: sheepshop@supanet.com
by Paul Jarvis
|
