Issue 16 September 2022 airqualitynews.com THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WOODBURNING WHY WE DO IT AND HOW TO STOP How does air technologyTheAproduction?affectpollutionfoodspecialreport:roleof
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We also shed light on the often-underreported air quality impact of agriculture and speak to environmental defenders who risk their lives to protect the land, sea and sky for future generations.Ourinternational
Chloe Coules, Editor Tel: 07704 chloe@airqualitynews.com338277 airqualitynews.com
Want to find out more about air quality or learn from others in the industry? Why not join us in London on the 9th of November for a day of stimulating presentations and lively debate. Delegate spaces are filling up fast so book now to avoid missing out.
feature jets across the pond, meeting the savvy New Yorkers who make a living reporting idling vehicles to the authorities, and considers whether a similarly bold approach could work in UK cities.
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Thank you to our contributors, advertisers and sponsors for helping to produce another conversation-starting issue of Air Quality News.
With this in mind, our cover feature explores the psychology behind why people burn wood in their homes, allowing us to share insights on how to tackle the issue going into this challenging winter.
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This month’s special report discusses the theme of technology, from the normal people taking air quality monitoring into their own hands to the air quality and emissions impact of IT systems.Wealso consider whether technological solutions can beat the old-fashioned and simple approaches to cleaning the air, and how the old and new can work together.
With heatwaves ravaging the UK over the recent summer months, the scale of climate change and air pollution have perhaps never felt so obvious or so close to home. However, as we move into a winter plagued by prohibitive energy prices, we risk creating even more of an air quality problem in this country. With concern that many may turn to cheaper methods of heating like woodburning, levels of harmful pollutants like fine particulate matter could skyrocket, adding to the large health burden of wood heating that already costs Europe billions every year.
Editorial Comment and Contacts
CO2 NO2 PM100NO SO2 03 CO PM10 PM2.5 Know your air quality, everywhere. A hyperlocal view of air pollution for targeted interventions Make the invisible, visible. Measure. Monitor. Act. We make reducing air pollution simple. Automated 24/7 monitoring Web based UI dashboards with analytics ‘Always up’ self-healing wireless mesh network Fit & forget - no site visits Lifetime warranty Priced for scalable & high density deployments SIMSensing-as-a-Servicecardfree Start Monitoring today www.vortexiot.com
Client. Hammersmith & Fulham
Street-Level data accuracy of Air Pollution Public access to data on their neighbourhood We needed a system that allowed us to recognise subtle changes in local pollution relating to traffic behaviour. When searching, we found traditional monitors to be far too expensive to install in the density required to see the changes.”
LBHF became the first borough to declare a climate emergency in July 2020, pledging to resolve an air pollution and traffic congestion problem and addressing the 80% of congestion attributed to vehicles originating outside the Borough.
Solution. Vortex provided a low-cost air quality monitoring solution that enabled the deployment of a dense network of hyper-local air quality sensors to provide real time air quality data to the council. The sensors are all SIM card free and connected wirelessly through a mesh network that’s driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning configurations. Implementing this technology allows the system to identify and execute calibrations and updates remotely, reducing LBHF’s on-site resource costs. NO2 PM2.5
Partnering with air quality experts Vortex gave the council a detailed view of air pollution which led to targeted environmental action.
LBHF’s installation will further its dense concentration and become the largest scale air quality monitoring network in Europe with a total of 500 sensors deployed before the end of the year.
Hammersmith & Fulham Hammersmith & Fulham’s Congestion and Pollution Reduction Scheme
Problems caused by high traffic volumes became the largest contributors of air pollution in the borough, compounded by regular use of streets as a thoroughfare for vehicles originating outside the borough. The council wanted a method to measure the results and prove the effectiveness of the restriction zones to residents. Traditional air quality solutions available to Hammersmith & Fulham would not be sufficient in measuring air quality variations at the required frequency and density. LBHF needed spatial and temporal information with sufficient granularity to measure air quality changes at a per-road level, to review traffic interventions and prove their success in reducing pollution with an easy to deploy, affordable and detailed analysis of air quality per street.
Unprecedented Coverage – World’s densest deployment
solution Accurate Data for better informed decisions.
VTX Air has identified high pollution transmission points that were previously unknown. As a result, LBHF’s award winning Traffic Congestion and Pollution Reduction Scheme has reduced carbon emissions by 1 tonne a day and improved air quality by 50% for residents. Using the technology, the public have been able to see their air quality through a publicly available portal to better understand the impact that the Scheme is having on their health. The key benefit for LBHF was identifying where the pollution is originating and understanding the sources of pollution that are generated inside the borough.
Highlighting two events Partners Pages 26-28 Special Report: More data, more problems: How IT systems can save big on emissions and budget Environmental defenders: The activists risking their lives to protect the planet
Located in the southwest of London, with over 185,000 residents and several major corporations headquartered in the borough, The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (LBHF) is committed to improving air quality for residents through positive sustainability changes, making effective decisions in the right locations and measuring success with accurate data collected from hyper-local, low cost, air quality sensors with street-level accuracy.
Contents Features Contents
5airqualitynews.com Pages 6-8: News Pages 12-14 Feature: The psychology of woodburning: why we do it and how to stop Pages 16-18 Food Feature: How air pollution affects food production and how we can fix it Pages 21-23 Special Report: Technological mitigation versus prevention: The most effective way to clean our air Pages 26-28 Special Report: More data, more problems: How IT systems can save big on emissions and budget Pages 30-32 Special Report: Meet the people taking air quality monitoring into their own hands Page 33: Marketplace Pages 34-35 The Big Interview: The Big Interview Pages 36-37 International: Forced shut down: Could New York’s anti-idling laws work in UK cities? Pages 38-39 Local Government: How to roll out a successful Clean Air Zone scheme communication strategy in 2022 & beyond Pages 40-43 Legal: Environmental defenders: The activists risking their lives to protect the planet Thanks to our contributors: Martin andGeorgieGuttridge-Hewitt,Hughes,AdrianOdds,CharlieJaay, Pages 6-8 News: Black communities in UK living in ‘air pollution sacrifice areas’ Pages 12-14 Feature: The psychology of woodburning: why we do it and how to stop Pages 16-18 Food Feature: How air pollution affects food production and how we can fix it Pages 30-32 Special Report: Meet the people taking air quality monitoring into their own hands Pages 34-35 The Big Interview: Setting PACE: Hugh Helferty on Producer Accountability for Carbon Emission Pages 21-23 Special Report: Technological mitigation versus prevention: The most effective way to clean our air Pages 38-39 Local Government: How to roll out a successful Clean Air Zone scheme communication strategy in 2022 & beyond Pages 36-37 International: Forced shut down: Could New York’s anti-idling laws work in UK cities? Air Quality Monitoring within the council’s budget requirements
Case Study
John Galsworthy Director, Parking, London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham. “
How to know where to act?
Result: Improved air quality by 50% and reduced carbon emissions by 1 tonne a day.
Thousands of new EV chargepoints to be installed in £20m scheme
‘From Blackpool to Newham, the most deprived areas and communities are sacrificed to make room for roads, for airports, for polluting industries, and for profit,’ said Alexandra Wanjiku Kelbert, an academic and activist from Black Lives Matter UK. ‘Statistically, it’s no surprise that the first person in the UK to potentially have air pollution listed as a cause of death is a Black girl from Lewisham; nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah suffered a fatal asthma attack in 2013.’
Black communities in UK living in ‘air pollution sacrifice areas’
6 Tredges protect school children from air pollution Plants bedded around playgrounds can help to reduce toxins in the air, safeguarding the lungs of young people, according to research led by Lancaster University. Many schools sit in pollution hotspots, due to heavy traffic flow and idling vehicles. Scientists have installed so-called tredges – trees serving as hedges at head height – around three Manchester schoolyards during the 2019 summer holidays. Meanwhile, a fourth school received no hedging at all. Air quality readings showed positive results, with red cedar tredges performing best. In this instance, 49% of black carbon particles, and 26% of PM2.5 and PM1 microparticles from passing traffic were blocked, significantly reducing expose to air pollution. ‘Our findings show we can protect school playgrounds with carefully chosen and managed tredges, which capture air pollution particulates on their leaves,’ said team leader Professor Barbara Maher. ‘This helps to prevent at least some of the health hazards imposed on young children.’ Spike in wood burning sales fuel UK air pollution fears Log sellers are reporting booming firewood sales as rising energy prices cause British households to look for alternatives to gas central heating, with potentially catastrophic results. According to The Independent, log sellers in Britain have reported a 60% jump in demand compared with the same time last year, with new customers making orders on a daily basis. The impact on local and national air quality could be significant. Stoves that use solid fuels are known to emit high levels of PM2.5 - one study in London suggests between 23 and 31% of particulate matter in the capital is from wood burning. This is despite most of the city – and the UK – being Smoke Controlled Areas since 1956, preventing people from emitting smoke from chimneys except in very specific circumstances, including burning smokeless fuel. Nevertheless, in the five years to 2021 London councils had issued zero fines for illegal wood burning. in brief News
The government is boosting its electric vehicle (EV) chargepoint installation programme with a £20m pilot scheme, after local authorities have been struggling to deliver infrastructure over the past few months. T
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hrough the Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot scheme, local authorities and industry will work to place new EV charging infrastructure, from street charging to larger petrol station-style hubs. 1,000 new public chargepoints are expected to be built in areas which have won funding, including Barnet, Dorset, Durham, Kent, Midlands Connect, North lackgovernmenthavereportedWarrington.Nottinghamshire,Yorkshire,SuffolkandHowever,recentlyit’sbeenthatlocalauthoritiesbeenfallingbehindambitions,duetoaofresourcesandguidance.Thegovernmentaimstohave 300,000 chargepoints installed by 2030, but just 10% of these have been delivered, according to EV charging company Liberty Charge.Decarbonisation
Black, Asian, and other minority residents in UK cities are being exposed to illegal levels of air pollution more frequently than any other ethnicities, according to a major new report by Runnymeade Trust UK and Greenpeace UK. So-called ‘air pollution sacrifice areas’ exist, where highly diverse areas with low cost private and social housing, high levels of deprivation and limited access to green spaces are sites for pollution-heavy infrastructure. Lambeth and Newham in London were specifically mentioned, as were areas in Birmingham home to large Black and minority populations. The report blames systemic racism for forcing marginalised groups into impoverished conditions, with insecure jobs and lower paid work and few options in terms of where to live. Overall, 20% of the most deprived UK areas are home to one-third of waste incinerators, while only 90 such facilities are found in the wealthiest 20% of neighbourhoods.
Minister Trudy Harrison said: ‘We want to expand and grow our world-leading network of EV chargepoints, working closely with industry and local government, making it even easier for those without driveways to charge their electric vehicles and support the switch to cleaner travel.‘This scheme will help to level up electric vehicle infrastructure across the country, so that everyone can benefit from healthier neighbourhoods and cleanerLibertyair.’Charge revealed that councils complained government funding allowed them to allocate only 15 hours per week to delivering EV infrastructure, while 90% of UK households are further than a five-minute walk away from their nearest chargepoint.
Striking differences in air quality between affluent, largely white neighbourhoods and minority areas have been identified, again.
Air pollution has been linked to diabetes (again) Insulin resistance and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus have been linked to poor air quality. More research has been published showing a direct relationship between trafficrelated air pollution and diabetes. Exposure to air pollutants associated with combustion engines has already been considered a trigger for type 2 diabetes mellitus, which can also be caused by tobacco smoke. Specifically, experts consider nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter to play a significant role in this.People who regularly breath in particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide are more likely to have diminished insulin-dependent glucose uptake, leading to resistance. Blood-cell function is also impaired, causing reduced insulin secretion and promoting subcutaneous fat accumulation. The most recent findings were published in the Atmospheric Environment journal, following a study by scientists from the Environmental Defense Fund and Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.Theyanalysed data from a joint block-by-block air pollution study conducted in Oakland, California, and five years of health records for more than 25,000 members of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, aged 65 and over. The investigation, and its results, back up previous work from 2020, which found air pollution had a comparable effect on the human body as eating a high fat diet, including heightened incidence of insulin resistance, and abnormal metabolism, as is commonly found in a pre-diabetic state.The same year, a team at the University of Colorado Boulder linked exposure to ozone with increased obesity and diabetes risk.
7 News
Parking bay suspensions 115x more expensive than weekly parking permits
Scientists used satellite data and ground-level readings to compile a global picture of fine particulate (PM2.5) and NO2 air pollution in more than 7,000 cities across the world for the new State of the Global Air Overall,report.thework concluded that, in comparison to pollutants such as PM2.5, larger PM10, and carbon dioxide, the issue of NO2 was far less widely studied, with much weaker infrastructure in place to monitor the situation. Specifically, a limited number of stations capable of detecting the gas was cited as a major issue. While NO2 is not considered to pose the same mortality risk as PM2.5, it is linked to a number of serious health problems, including childhood asthma, and severe breathing difficulties in vulnerable people.
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Research by the U.S. Health Effects Institute has revealed the world’s worst cities for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution, which has serious implications for public health and the Chineseenvironment.megacity Shanghai topped the list, with NO2 levels exceeding 40µg/m3, followed by Russia’s capital, Moscow. Iran’s biggest sprawl, Tehran, St Petersburg, and Beijing complete the top five. Elsewhere, Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, the Belarussian city of Minsk, Istanbul, Turkey, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, all featured in the top 10. It’s also worth noting China is home to 18 of the mostimproved cities for NO2 levels.
Nitric oxide and particulate matter cause heart attacks in non-smokers
Heart attack incidents were cross referenced with pollutant concentrations and weather conditions on the day of the cardiac event, in the previous 24-hours, and preceding three days.
Analysis by climate charity Possible has revealed how councils are prioritising private car ownership over community spaces, due to expensive parking suspension costs.
There were also considerable differences within the other seven cities analysed, including London and Manchester, with parking bay suspensions between 33 and 353 times more expensive than a parking permit.
A new study highlights metropolitan areas in relatively prosperous countries have serious nitrogen dioxide problems, which are comparatively overlooked by policymakers.
The charity obtained data from local authorities based in the UK’s ten biggest cities and found Bradford, Leeds, and Nottingham did not charge for a weekly parking permit, while parking bay suspension costs come to £70, £187.60 and £23.38 respectively.
If more parking bays were suspended, they could provide room for social spaces with seating or cycle parking and improve air quality.
They discovered that with every 10µg/m3 increase in nitric oxide, the rate of heart attacks in non-smokers was 1% higher. High average PM10 concentrations in the three preceding days was also linked to more cardiac emergencies, rising 4% for every 10µg/m3 increase. Incidence was reduced with warmer weather, running at 6% lower for every 10C rise in temperature.
The charity found the weekly costs of a parking bay suspension are, on average, 115 times more expensive, at £115 a week, while the costs of a weekly parking permit come to approximately £1.38.
Researchers have found new evidence there is a direct link between heart attacks in non-smokers, and levels of nitric oxide and particulate matter in the Scientistsair. assessed 17,873 Berlin patients who’d suffered heart attacks between 2008 and 2014. They also considered daily PM10 particulate matter and nitric oxide readings, the number of direct sunshine hours, minimum and maximum temperatures, and precipitation levels.
in briefWorst NO2 pollution cities revealed, experts criticise poor monitoring
Researchers develop sensor to detect nanoplastics in the air
8 Decision to designate National Highways a relevant public authority welcomed The government’s announcement that National Highways will be required to work more closely with local authorities to tackle air pollution has been welcomed by UK100.
National Highways has become the first designated “Relevant Public Authority”, placing a legal requirement on it to work with councils to deliver air quality standards and objectives. Additionally, updated Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) Policy Guidance reflects legislative changes introduced through the Environment Act 2021 and clarifies responsibilities within local government. UK100’s Chief Executive Polly Billington said: ‘This is a move UK100 has advocated for and one which allows National Highways and local authorities to work together effectively on reducing air pollution.
A research team at Ben-Gurion University of Negev investigated whether a carbon-dot based technology they’d previously invented to monitor the presence of bacteria could be adapted to sensor
The team’s now wants to see if their system can distinguish the types of plastic in mixtures of nanoparticles.
Antonia Roberts, deputy chief executive of CoMoUK, said: ‘Westminster has some of the worst air quality in the entire country, and shared e-bikes are a vital part of the solution to delivering the council’s Climate Action Plan.’ in brief News
Researchers have developed a sensor that detects nanoplastics in the air, determining their types, amounts and sizes.
The sensor can report the amount of particles from a certain plastic type either above or below a predetermined concentration threshold.Additionally, when polystyrene particles in three sizes – 100-nm wide, 200-nm wide and 300-nm wide – were aerosolized, the sensor’s signal intensity was directly related to the particles’ size.
Positive effects of Edinburgh’s 20mph limits felt more than three years later
Plastics can break down into nanosized particles –generally less than 1-µm wide – that often find their way into the soil, water and air, with animal studies suggesting they could impact human health.
Speeds are down from 23.77mph in 2016 before the roll-out, to 21.92mph in 2021 across the 65 streets surveyed. The proportion of streets with average speeds of 20mph or less had also increased from 25% to 37% in 2021. For every 1mph fall in speed research has shown a 5% reduction in accidents, while road traffic collisions have also continued to fall since the 20mph roll-out, resulting in a 30% decrease in collisions and a 31% reduction in casualties.Additionally, since 2015, the percentage of residents cycling at least once a week in Edinburgh has gradually increased, while active travel on a regular basis has stayed consistent since 2019. The report acknowledges a decrease in harmful NO2 emissions across monitoring stations, but national statistics reflect this trend across the country. Due to this, and the fact 2020 may be an atypical year, air quality trends should be considered with caution. The 20mph network, which currently covers around 80% of the city, may be extended following a consultation held later this year.
Charity calls for designated e-bike parking in London In response to the seizure of shared dockless e-bikes in Westminster, transport charity CoMoUK is calling for designated parking and a further dialogue between the Council and e-bike CoMoUKoperators.believes a combination of designated and carriage way e-bike parking, funded by e-bike operators would help solve the current vehicle clustering issues in Westminster. Operators are committed to working with Westminster and London boroughs to implement designated parking bays for e-bikes, replacing existing car parking spaces. Shared e-bikes schemes are growing in popularity, totalling 2.8 million trips in London over the past year and reducing car mileage for each user by an estimated 3.7 miles or 1kg of CO2 every week.
They found that when the electrodes were exposed to airborne nanoplastics, the team observed signals that were different for each type of material.
Cllr Scott Arthur, Transport and Environment Convener said: ‘The citywide network of 20mph speed limits was introduced to help create safer, more liveable streets. When the scheme was first introduced it was hugely controversial, but now it has been confirmed as the right decision.
‘Toxic air doesn’t recognise local authority borders, and many sources of local pollution are outside local authority control. The national road network is a major source of pollution, so it is critical to get local leaders and National Highways to work together.’
Edinburgh’s citywide network of 20mph limits may have positive impacts on active travel and air quality over three years after its roll-out.
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nanoplastics.‘Nanoplastics are a major concern if they’re in the air that you breathe, getting into your lungs and potentially causing health problems,’ said Raz Jelinek, Ph.D., the project’s principal investigator. A simple, inexpensive detector like ours could have huge implications, and someday alert people to the presence of nanoplastics in the air, allowing them to take action.’ Carbon dots can have different surface properties that can attract various molecules. These were spread in thin layers onto tiny electrodes with an electric field.
Because clean air should be a right, not a privilege. We are proud supporters of the 2022 Air Quality News Northern and National Conferences. www.alphasense.com
community may not always be aware of the advances in non-chemiluminescence based instruments, and the choice of equivalent instruments that are now available. So, what’s wrong chemiluminescence?with
airqualitynews.com Advertorial 10
Why do you think the new TAPI N500 CAPS NOx-NO2-NO instrument is so disruptive and revolutionary?
ET’s Duncan Mounsor discusses the revolutionary new Teledyne-API N500 CAPS True NOx – NO2 – NO analyser, and why he thinks that it’s the biggest development in ambient NOx monitoring since the 1970s.
Sure, for the past 40-50 years, we’ve been mainly measuring ambient concentrations of NOx using an ageing technology called chemiluminescence. This technique has been extremely successful and is based on a welldeveloped and widely accepted measurement technology that has become a ‘Gold Standard’ reference method around the world. But it has now been surpassed by newer and better ways of measuring NOx and in particular the regulated component of which limit values exist for, namely NO2 Really? So why are our networks and local authorities still using older chemiluminescent NOx analysers today, in the 2020s? That’s a good question. I think it comes down to several things. 1, chemiluminescence is written into CEN standards as a reference method, 2, air quality monitoring networks are very conservative and slow to change (unless a measurement technique is found to be seriously flawed as has been the case in the past with particulate measurement equipment) and 3, the air quality
dependable.Significantly faster than chemiluminescence, inherently more precise and consuming a whopping 75% less energy per kW/h, the N500 CAPS brings massive operational cost savings in energy consumption alone. Not only does it use a fraction of the power of chemiluminescence NOx analysers, but it also requires considerably less servicing, and with in-built long life sample filters and automatic calibration checking, can pretty much do away with local site operator (LSO) visits.
Limitations of chemiluminescent NOx analysers include the fact that they don’t measure NO2 directly (NO2 being the most important component of NOx). NO2 is instead calculated by subtracting the NO measurement from the NOx measurement, and evidence suggests that in some locations, chemiluminescent NOx analysers overestimate NO2 concentrations – not very good if measurements appear to be at, or close to the 40 µg/m3 annual limit value!Also, because a reaction cell must be maintained under vacuum, a powerhungry external pump must be used. A typical chemiluminescent NOx analyser with external pump consumes approximately 0.5kW/h of electricity continuously, day in, day out. With electricity unit costs soaring, this is an awful lot of money. And finally, because of the switching time between NOx and NO measurement channels required for the calculation of NO2, chemiluminescent NOx analysers tend to be quite slow in responding to fast changing concentrations of NO2 which can be typical at some kerbside sites and in certain applications.
That’s quite a claim, can you explain more?
The N500 measures NO2 (as well as NO and NOx) using one of the most exciting modern non-chemiluminescent technologies called CAPS, (Cavity Attenuated Phase Shift). Without going too deeply into the physics, CAPS measures NO2 directly and precisely using wavelength/ molecule specific absorption. It’s an ‘absolute’ measurement, without any conversion or calculation, and as such, is less uncertain and potentially more
And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, in June 2022, the Teledyne-API N500 CAPS True NOx–NO2–NO analyser became MCERTS approved. In short, it’s a real game-changer!
airqualitynews.com Welcome to the new generation MCERTS approved NOx analyser that uses 75% less power than its chemiluminescent equivalent! EnviroTechnologyServices Ltd ET SIRA MC 220407/00 u Ultra-low power (110W) u Superior speed and precision u Low maintenance Raising the bar for NOx, NO2 and NO measurement. N500 CAPS True NOx -NO2- NO Analyser World Leading Environmental Monitoring Systems +44 (0) 1453 733200 l info@et.co.uk l www.et.co.uk
Fine particles can also affect lung function and worsen medical conditions such as asthma and heart disease, with long-term exposure associated with increased rates of chronic bronchitis, reduced lung function and increased mortality from various types of cancer and heart disease. For every 10 microgram per cubic meter (µg/m³) of increased exposure to PM2.5, the risk of dying from any cancer rises by 22%, according to researchers at the University of Birmingham. This makes the health burden of woodburning a major issue, with research by the European Public Health Alliance finding that wood-based home heating costs Europe €17bn a year in health-related costs to society.
The psychology of woodburning: Why we do it and how to stop
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AirQualityNews Editor, Chloe Coules , explores why people choose to burn wood in their homes and how psychology can help us develop interventions for this dangerous behaviour. The warm glow of a fire is a sight that fills many of us with feelings of safety and comfort, but we often overlook the dangers of burning wood, with disastrous consequences for air quality and our health.According to research from King’s College London, woodburning accounts for between 23 and 31% of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions in major cities like London and Birmingham. PM2.5 is one of the most dangerous pollutants for our health, causing short-term effects such as eye, nose, throat and lung irritation, coughing, sneezing, runny nose and shortness of breath upon exposure.
With research giving us a greater understanding of the dangers of woodburning, we are left questioning – why do people still turn to wood to heat their homes and how can we stop it?
Over the last year, Impact on Urban Health has been collecting data on why people burn wood in the UK, with the aim of designing behavioural interventions to tackle woodburner use.
Rachel Pidgeon, Portfolio Manager for the health effects of air pollution programme at Impact on Urban Health, tells AirQualityNews that the majority of people who burn wood indoors live in cities and, of those, most of them are not burning wood out of necessity.
He suggests that we could see an increase in people burning wood out of necessity as energy prices spike, but this would cost the country more in the long term.
‘Evidence from Defra shows most people are burning wood for leisure or for aesthetic purposes – for this nice, cosy, warm feeling – and that feels to us like it’s just another area where air quality becomes a social justice issue. It’s the wealthiest people who are burning wood, but everyone experiences the consequences.’ Research by Kantar Public, which was supported by Impact on Urban Health, has found that people have strong emotional responses to woodburning – even those who do not do it themselves. They found positive associations between woodburning and environmental benefits, like being low carbon and locally sourced. ‘Even among non-burners, people really appreciate the appeal of fire and loads of us can relate to that,’ says Rachel Pidgeon.Professor Don Hine adds: ‘Because many people that grew up in colder climates often grew up with open fires and have strong positive emotional associations with those fires, they tend to be quite deep seated.
In Professor Hine’s research, the people with the strongest positive emotional associations with those burners were also people who perceived far less health risks than others and were most reluctant to trade in for alternative heating sources. Like in Professor Hine’s research, Impact on Urban Health found burners and people who aspired to burn wood struggled to believe that it came with health risks.
Why do people burn wood?
‘When we were dealing with this issue in Australia, one of the views that was expressed on a regular occasion was that any attempt to phase out wood heating would disadvantage the lower socioeconomic status individuals living within the town, and that was taken seriously,’ says Professor Hine.
‘Wood heating could go up in this day and age if alternative sources become prohibitively expensive,’ he adds. ‘Ultimately that’s going to be bad for people’s health and probably will end up costing the country more than if the government invested in subsidies that would allow people to make the transition or that allowed them to access energy in a slightly less expensive way.’
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Professor Don Hine, Head of School for Psychology at the University of Canterbury, has conducted research on why people burn wood in Australia for many years, and he found that one of the main oppositions to phasing out wood was the financial implications.
With the cost-of-living continuing to rise and energy prices spiralling out of control, there is speculation over whether people may turn to cheaper heating methods like woodburning to stay warm this winter.
For many burners, personal experience outweighs health warnings, according to Rachel. ‘Many people who fall into the burner category have been doing it for years without experiencing direct health consequences, and that ties to more generally when we are talking about air pollution as a
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However, research suggests that despite wood being a cheap source of heat, the majority of people who do burn wood in their homes in the UK do not do it because they need to, but rather because they want to.
‘You could probably even go back to evolutionary history, in hunter gatherer times where people would gather around the fire and that would be a place of warmth and safety, so it is deeply ingrained in us.’ Woodburning is also often seen as a personal choice, according to Rachel. ‘[Even] for people who were more receptive to health messages and to the negative impacts of woodburning, there’s still a real hesitancy to challenge the behaviour because it is seen as something that you are doing within your home – it’s your choice. I think as soon as you are getting into people’s personal spaces, that’s another kind of nuance around this.’
‘When you interview people about their wood heaters, as we did in Australia more than 15 years ago, people would talk in glowing terms about just how much they love the feel of the heat that comes off those woodburners, and many of them had positive emotional associations and memories from their youth of sitting in front of the fire.
Feature
Due to the strong opinions that people hold about woodburning, Rachel advises that any interventions should avoid calling out behaviours directly, as this can backfire leading to defensiveness. She explains that tone is crucial and needs to reflect that this is the start of an ongoing conversation, informing and explaining about the issue without coming across as judgemental. Due to low awareness of the health impacts of woodburning and emotional attachment, Impact on Urban Health’s research concluded that people respond better to fact-based approaches that do not play on emotions.
‘Our research found that people don’t naturally or immediately link burning wood indoors to being harmful or link it with air pollution at all, in comparison to things like transport and industry where people are much more aware of the fact that those areas are linked with pollution,’ explains Rachel. How do we stop it?
For many people there isn’t an immediate impact, it’s over the course of a lifetime or at key stages in your life.’
‘Emotional platforms on the other hand generated a really strong pushback,’ she adds. Who delivers the message also plays a role in whether people will listen. Impact on Urban Health’s research found that burners and non-burners were cynical about government messaging, and independent NGOs with public health interests or invested celebrities like David Attenborough or Michael Mosley were best placed to raise awareness.Itisalso important to tailor messaging to different groups with different attitudes towards woodburning. Rachel explains that it is a different issue in urban and rural areas, and there is a lot more acceptance of the need for action in cities, so messaging should reflect this.
Targeting people before they start woodburning has the most potential for immediate impact, according to Rachel: ‘What the research really reinforced was the most potential for impact quickly lies in preventing new take up among non-burners.’ProfHineadds that for the most passionate woodburners, other solutions may have a greater effect in the short-term: ‘You have to recognise that there are some segments of the population that are really hard to reach and don’t want to take the time or energy to learn how to use their wood heaters more effectively. For those types of individuals at least, maybe a simple technological solution would be a better option for them.’
‘Raising awareness is a real starting point, so that’s where we are focusing initially, but it’s not going to be enough unless it’s reinforced by other interventions like targeted marketing and point of sale interventions or ultimately hopefully increased regulation and policies,’ says Rachel.Professor Hine reflects that persuading people to change is hard work, so a more effective strategy would be to ban wood heaters if there is political will. With more evidence stacking up about the dangers of woodburning, especially in urban and vulnerable communities, public health messaging is needed as a crucial first step to scrapping these harmful sources of heat.
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airqualitynews.com health issue, that sometimes it’s almost a few steps removed.
‘Data really helped challenge preconceptions that wood burning is harmless, and it tended to lead to engagement and a desire to learn more,’ says Rachel.
Ultimately, raising awareness will not be enough unless it is backed up by more robust measures.
With these psychological barriers in mind, researchers and campaigners have been developing interventions to reduce wood burner use and improve air quality and health.
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AirQualityNews reporter, Georgie Hughes examines how air pollution affects crop production and what can be done to achieve more sustainable farming.
How air pollution affects food production and how we can fix it
N itrogen fertiliser, when first invented in the 19th century by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, revolutionized farming. By combining nitrogen and hydrogen, ammonia produced fertilisers were born. The results have been huge, with a six-fold increase in crop yields in the USA within 70 years.However, what the inventors did not envision was how their creation could soon be over-used and have potentially detrimental effects on nature, wildlife and crop yield itself.
Fertilisers release nitrogen oxides which can indirectly create ground-level ozone through chemical reactions. This directly damages crop cells and produces particulate matter aerosols which scatter sunlight away from crops and can affect human health, making it harder to breather and leading to respiratory issues.
Fertilisers, now so widespread, are slowly wearing away the farmland they are sprayed on, degrading soil and creating a ground-level ozone layer which affects plants. ‘I've definitely seen a deterioration of soils in my working time,’ says owner of farming education centre FarmED, Ian Wilkinson. ‘Soils that have been farmed with no rotation for a long period of time are lacking structure and organic matter. We've been applying a lot of nitrogen on our annual crops and have been stripping out the carbon without really noticing it. ‘All the farmers out there like me who started back in the 1970s and 80s, none of us intended these consequences whatsoever. We genuinely thought we were doing the right thing following public policy.’
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A study by researchers at Zhejiang University found the economic cost associated with loss of human life due to air pollution from nitrogen emissions accounted for 23.3 million years of life lost in 2013 or an annual welfare cost loss of $420bn. It can also penetrate plant
‘It's going to be a slow fix. But the good news is we're beginning to understand we don't have all the answers and we're beginning to understand what a farming system might have to look like.’
10 years ago, he started FarmED where he passes on the knowledge he has gained. A variety of grains and seeds are grown at Honeydale Farm, where there is also an orchard, woodland, natural flood defences and permanent pastureland. While Wilkinson has lowered his levels of air pollution by avoiding fertilisers, he has also committed to localised supply chains to keep emissions down. ‘Now what we've got is a system that is highly targeted to grow what's suitable for this farm and we've found a shorter supply chain direct to market, so our food is consumed in our bio region,’ he explains. ‘We're deliberately growing food for our Food
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‘We demonstrate conventional farming but mainly the different sorts of farming systems that could evolve for a greener future,’ he tells AirQualityNews. ‘We’ve lost a substantial amount of our organic matter over the past 150 or 200 years of destruction. And the question now is, well, what can we do to fix it?
airqualitynews.com 17 structures and impair their ability to develop, causing relative global crop losses of 6-16% for soy, 7-12% for wheat and 3-5% of maize, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). This has a profound economic impact with a study by the European Market Research Centre, University of York and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology valuing the losses in the year 2000 caused by the impact of ozone on 23 crops at €6.7bn. With crop growth already so affected, is it possible agricultural air pollution could lead to food insecurity? ‘No, probably not a food crisis, but rather a biodiversity crisis,’ explains Jan Willem Erisman, Professor of Environmental Sustainability at the Institute of Environmental Sciences of Leiden University in the Netherlands. ‘Nitrogen is one of the major components that contributes to biodiversity loss in water, the mainland and terrestrial systems. So, I think diversity loss is the main worry for nitrogen emissions. ‘In eastern China and the Midwest of the US, air pollution is high and losses in agriculture due to over fertilisation are possible. But in all other areas where nitrogen fertilisation is limited and the amount of pollution is low, then it is more of a stimulant of agriculture than natureStill,reduction.’theeffects of air pollution on food production should not be understated. While research is still relatively new in this area, there is evidence nitrogen oxide – a common pollutant found in car exhausts and released from ammonia fertilisers - limits crop yields. A Stanford-led study completed this year has found that reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by about a half in each region could improve crop yields by 25% in the winter and 15% in the summer in China. Yields would also increase by 10% for both winter and summer crops in Europe and roughly 8% for summer and 6% for winter crops in India. Previous research led by Stanford professor David Lobell has also revealed that estimated reductions in ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide between 1999 and 2019 contributed to a 20% increase in US corn and soybean production.Erisman says there are a few ways to tackle this problem and reduce the amount of emissions released by fertilisers: ‘There are two sorts of no regret options which is to change our diets and reduce food losses in the whole food chain, as currently 30% is lost. Optimising the nitrogen cycle in agriculture would also help. You can limit nitrogen losses while producing enough food for people. ‘But I think diet changes will have a large effect, especially in those countries which are growing in meat consumption, like China for example. If we are able to limit meat consumption, that would really help the climate, limit nitrogen and address all the other issues.’ Ian Wilkinson is currently working on the ground to encourage sustainable farming techniques which don’t involve use of fertilisers and promote rotational use of land. Like many farmers, he was taught intensive farming techniques at college which focused on increased productivity and economic growth. But after talking to older farmers who were using traditional techniques, he began to see a pattern and looked for a more sustainable and less intensive way of farming.
To do this, of course, the agricultural industry needs financial support. Farmers need to make enough profits to keep their land going, so a more sustainable farming system can only be upheld if farmers are being fairly paid for it. Government programmes which encourage natural farming, like the sustainable farming incentive, is one way to achieve this, according to Wilkinson. ‘If you're going to encourage other farmers to enhance the environment, if you say well look, here's the money to create these natural schemes, then the farmers will do it. The will is there.’
However, investment is still low in this area and is not enough, at the moment, to bring all British farmers onto these schemes. ‘Currently the situation in Ukraine means there is very little grain moving out of the county and it has a big impact on the world. So, farmers have been directed to grow more food. If the government is directing policy towards a more sympathetic farming system with cover crops, green cover over the winter to protect our soils, for example, they don't have a lot of money to do it.
Whoever you are, if you own the land or are responsible for it, you know it's happening and you want to fix it.’
Food Feature airqualitynews.com18 locality and are also encouraging other farmers to do the same thing. Rather than growing it for Canada, or for Spain, we are growing it for relatively local consumption in the UK. We’re hoping that we will see the emergence of a new food system, but in the meantime, we're trying to adapt what already exists.’ As the effects of over intensive farming are becoming clear and with the climate crisis impacting food production, it’s becoming more necessary that the agricultural industry finds a new system.
‘I think about £3bn has been offered to farmers based in England which sounds like a lot, but if you divide that across the 88,000 English farmers, you'll see it's not a huge amount of money for businesses. But they are at least heading in the right direction.‘Some money is there and it's helpful, but I think it's the money at the other end which is the issue. It's the food money that will probably determine what they do on their land.’ With evidence that air pollution is impacting the world in so many ways, from our health to our food production, it’s only a matter of time before decisive action is taken on this issue.While harm has been caused by fertilisers, it’s not too late to undo the damage and grow food in a more sustainable fashion, for our own health and the health of the planet.
Wilkinson says the general mood amongst other farmers is also changing and many are willing to try new methods to revitalise their farmland.‘Farmers are really adaptive people. They are very mindful of the need for change and they know that we have trouble in terms of the organic matter in their soil disappearing,’ he says. ‘The people that trained me when I was in my teens and 20s, they used to talk about keeping your soil in good heart.‘Their biggest concern is if their soil and biggest capital asset is eroded, – for whatever reason, that's bad news.
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THE ROLE TECHNOLOGYOF The people taking monitoring into their own hands The mitigation vs prevention debate The air quality impact of IT systems AnAirQualityNewsSpecialReport
Alex Bottrill, Programme Lead for Urban Liveability at Sustrans, comments: ‘Technology will no doubt play a key role in helping us all to tackle the climate crisis. However, we cannot underestimate the importance and impact of simple actions such as walking, wheeling or cycling in reducing our emissions and improving air quality for ‘Travellingall.in sustainable ways is crucial if we are to meet net zero targets as transport currently makes up a third of all emissions in the UK. By creating quality places to live, with links and routes that meet the needs of people traveling on foot, wheeling or cycling, we can make it easier for others to choose to join them. Increased investment will be critical to help towns and cities thrive, with healthier, happier people, who will ultimately benefit from breathing cleaner air.’ Duncan Dollimore, Head of Advocacy and Campaigns at Cycling UK, echoes that active travel is the most effective way to tackle air pollution and can address a whole host of other issues as well, like public health and road safety. However, the schemes still aren’t high enough on the agenda in government.‘InEngland, although active travel spend is much higher than it was four or five years ago, it's still well below Scotland and Wales,’ he explains. ‘The Scottish Government has made a commitment to reduce car kilometres travelled by 20% in 2030. This is the only government to make a real conscious acknowledgement that some of the solutions involve reducing some of those car journeys that we make, particularly short journeys around cities.
Technological mitigation versus prevention: The most effective way to clean our air
Founder, CEO and Inventor of Roadvent, Thomas Delgado, says: ‘We employed a company called Cambustion to set up and run a series of experiments to calculate exactly how much we were improving air quality and we were blown away. We initially wanted to halve the problem and then the scientific study came back saying that we had reduced roadside pollution levels by 91%.’The results are certainly impressive and the potential benefits Roadvent could have on public health are huge - the company is in talks with local authorities over placing the vents outside schools and However,hospitals.itdoesnot remove cars from roads and pollutants are still being released into the atmosphere. Similarly other products aimed at lessening the effects of air pollution on human health, like air purifiers, are being introduced to market. Could relying on simpler methods which prevent pollutants from being discharged be more efficient?
‘So, there is room for active travel to move up the agenda of the various governments, as not enough has been done when you consider it from an air quality perspective. The red flags and warnings have been sounded for years and then when you look at it in terms of the emergency, in terms of climate, the
AirQualityNews reporter Georgie Hughes investigates whether technological innovation is the best way to tackle air pollution or if simple prevention methods are the most effective. The question of whether technology will be the thing to save us is one that's often pondered, as air pollution spreads and takes a toll on our health. More and more devices are coming to the fore with the ability to reduce our intake of dirty air. But are these products worth investing in or should the focus be on simple methods which prevent the release of harmful pollutants? One such product with the ability to limit air pollution is Pollution Solution’s Roadvent. The vacuum-like vents are installed into roadways and suck in air when they sense vehicles above. They’re placed as close as possible to the source of emissions, about 30cm away from car exhaust pipes, capturing polluted air before it gets diluted. A series of filtration mechanisms then clean the air, ridding it of particulate matter and absorbing harmful gases, such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. Tests of the system, installed at an independent vehicle proving ground in Milton Keynes, have shown Roadvent to be hugely efficient at reducing roadside pollution levels.
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airqualitynews.com 23 pace of change needs to be quicker.’
The government has been slow to introduce active travel measures and has invested little in schemes. In 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed £2bn to active travel, while £27.4bn has been secured for road improvements up to 2025. A lack of quality infrastructure means people are still heavily reliant on cars and a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars isn’t due to come in until 2030. Mr Delgado agrees Roadvent isn’t the sole solution to improving air quality but points out that even if active travel schemes and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) are greenlit the product will still be necessary.
‘I'm all for banning cars in areas near schools and streets that really don't need them, but there are 38 million of them on the road at the minute in the UK and they're not going to go away overnight,’ he explains. ‘These cars are unfortunately, but inevitably, going to be on roads for some time now and if we don't take what we call pollution control measures, then people are going to die.’
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While technological solutions can produce positive results and will help to meet the giant task ahead, it’s evident that without behavioural changes air pollution will persist. Both Mr Delgado and Mr Dollimore agree that a joined-up approach is the only way this issue can be well and truly solved. ‘I think it's just a case of leaving no stone unturned,’ says Delgado. ‘I think we need to do everything that we physically can to stop people suffering and dying as a result of bad air quality. So we want to work in conjunction with those measures like LTNs and car bans.’ To achieve this, changes at a government level will need to be made, so policies are more consistent across regions, towns and cities. Connectivity between local authorities and government bodies is vital and investment should be focused on prevention methods which can most effectively tackle pollution in the longterm.‘We need a holistic approach to these things,’ explains Dollimore. ‘Because more people out of their cars, walking and cycling instead, isn't just good for air quality, it's best for a whole host of reasons. But too often these policies are not integrated and joined together in terms of the overall benefits of particular measures.‘Weneed a more joined up policy across departments that applies at a national government level, applies within councils and that also involves more money being made available by government authorities.’
The way people live, and the way they travel has a direct impact on the air that they breathe, which is why accessible data and public engagement is needed. It empowers the large-scale behavioural changes that are critical for cleaner, and safer air across whole cities. Identifying this need in the market, EarthSense developed MyAir®, a versatile air quality web and mobile application that consolidates air pollution data and can be tailored for its users, from local authorities to transport professionals and smart city planners, for accurate and usable air quality data.MyAir® allows users to visualise localised and city-wide mapped air quality levels for both modelled and measured data. Users can explore pollution episodes, hotspot locations, and identify the intrinsic links between heavy emitters, such as transport, through simplified graphs, icons, and downloadable data.
Awareness of network-wide pollution spikes that exceed safe levels are necessary for learning when and where issues occur, and recent developments to MyAir® have seen the addition of flexible, configurable alerting capabilities. Alerts allow for active responses to conditions that could deteriorate without action by providing notifications about the times and locations at which Zephyr® monitors measure pollution that has passed pre-determined concentrations.Anintegral part of air quality monitoring is observing and managing how the full monitoring network is functioning. EarthSense provide a complete view of network health in one place through status updates in MyAir®, where users can view battery charge, power, sampling, and data communications. With multi-platform data access, MyAir’s air quality data, network health statuses, alerts and more can be accessed whilst out in the field through a mobile phone application or whilst sitting at a desk via web access.
Driving Behavioural Change with EarthSense’s MyAir® Air Quality Data Application
From discovering how traffic behaviour is affecting air quality across the city, to providing publicly available air pollution data to encourage sustainable travel choices, EarthSense can tailor its solutions to suit budgets and project needs across a variety of sectors. Read through a host of case studies, technical information, and news on EarthSense’s website and learn how Zephyr® monitors, MappAir® and MyAir® are helping the world understand its air pollution issues and work towards cleaner and safer air for all: www.earthsense.co.uk.
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Delivering regional insights into air quality concentrations, MyAir® is helping to boost public awareness and in turn, engagement that drives behavioural change in communities. In collaboration with its UK distributor to local authorities, Enviro Technology, EarthSense is working with Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council to display real-time Zephyr® air quality data in faith centres across the borough through MyAir®. Public facing data is helping to inform and educate residents about how their daily activities affect ambient air quality. With this insight, residents of Sandwell are more equipped to change their
Harmful ambient air quality is attributed to 4.2 million deaths that occur around the world every year. Unsafe air quality heightens the likelihood of developing and worsens symptoms of health problems such as asthma, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).
travel and lifestyle choices to help create a healthierMyAir®environment.capabilities also include access to current, historic, and predictive MappAir® modelled data, providing air quality insight into areas without deployed Zephyr® monitors and enabling pre-emptive measures in advance of high concentrations. Leicester City Council is using combined MappAir® modelling data and Zephyr® measurements in MyAir® to identify and manage locally sourced fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions from domestic woodburning. With pollution forecasts and integrated weather data, the council can issue guidance to the public about elevated concentrations and days to avoid woodburning, facilitating pre-emptive measures ahead of potentially harmful conditions.Comparing and contrasting various datasets enables a comprehensive overview of the behaviour of air pollution.
MyAir® consolidates readily available third-party measurements from the
DEFRA owned Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) networks, Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA) and regional met station data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Its integrated datasets provide a basis for understanding how air pollutants are influenced by external factors and for developing strategic pollution management plans which take into account environmental elements that may be impacting local and wider air quality.
View your measured and modelled air quality data in the MyAir® web app designed for businesses to help analyse pollution data. Select third party data overlays (weather, AQMAs and Met stations amongst others) to correlate datasets and receive status updates for your Zephyr® network. Easily download real-time, historic and forecast pollution data to help understand pollution trends over time and drive public engagement via public portals through web and mobile apps.
air quality data for decision making with MyAir®
www.earthsense.co.ukVisualise
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With digital infrastructure at the heart of any organisation, Martin Guttridge-Hewitt gets to grips with the growing need to audit and adjust how networks run in order to minimise wastage that amounts to a hidden environmental catastrophe.
‘There’s a saying we use a lot in our industry - you can’t reduce what you can’t measure,’ Christopher Bowyer tells us. Far from more throwaway corporate jargon, it took less than five minutes of our half-hour Zoom call to understand the relevance of his phrasing: organisations have no hope of cutting back on waste, whether that’s energy or costs, if they don’t have a grasp on expenditure.
A Cost, Procurement and Carbon Solutions Specialist at Auditel, Bowyer and company conduct audits of various ‘cost centres’ within organisations, then advise on efficiency savings to maximise performance and value. Established as BT lost its monopoly on the UK telecoms market in the early 1990s, when a raft of new competitors entered the sector, today Auditel has expanded significantly, with carbon budgets, net zero, and emissions among the areas with the strongest demand from customers, who are all-too-aware regulation and responsibility mean inaction is no longer an option.‘Interms of the single most effective thing an organisation can do to reduce footprints from IT systems, it’s the data centres. Organisations have big demands in this area, whether that’s CRM systems, support applicationsany tech that is used to deliver their services. And this could be provided by a third party, directly or indirectly, or hosted internally. It doesn’t matter, ultimately the energy usage needs to be factored into the overall environmental impact of your organisation,’ says John Gerard, another of Auditel’s specialists.Butwhat exactly does that mean? When AirQuality News first reached out online for firms with experience helping enterprise-level organisations understand the environmental impact of their IT systems, Auditel offered a prime example of just how hidden associated emissions are, and the level of possible savings with the right expertise. The company, which essentially acts as a network connecting those who want to make cuts with specialists who can facilitate, is currently conducting verification checks on a potential new partner, Safenames. This global domain search, registration and protection company analysed Auditel’s overall digital portfolio. The resulting report showed that each time someone lands on auditel.co.uk, 27.01g of CO2 is used. By comparison, switching to Safenames as host would see that figure plummet to 0.82g. An impressive difference, the fact many organisations are unaware each website hit equals energy used at a datacentre, in turn leading to emissions, accentuates how urgent the need is for this type of service. data, more problems: How IT systems save big on emissions and budget
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Especially given any private firm actively pursues high web traffic.‘It’s all about understanding where your IT systems are being held and working with those third parties to understand what energy they are using, and the impact of that,’ Gerard continues, clarifying these types of emissions are classed as Scope 3, which is anything resulting from assets which are not owned or controlled by an organisation, but which the organisation contributes to indirectly by performing its function. By comparison, Scope 1 emissions come from owned or fully controlled sources, while Scope 2 applies to things like electricity bought from a supplier.
‘So, for example, a council might have some IT they host themselves, other parts are hosted on their behalf, but they both offer council services and therefore the emissions created are the council’s,’ he says. ‘Only when you start to break all this down do you start to understand whether it makes sense to continue outsourcing, to bring things inhouse, or look to other providers - for example, companies that can offer carbon neutral web hosting. That’s one of the things we’re talking about a lot and trying to find people that can deliver verifiable carbon neutral services in this area.’We ask for recommendations on carbon neutral hosting and are told the Auditel team currently don’t know of any, but a number of providers are committed to getting there. Again, energy reduction is key, something Rory Brown is similarly committed to, along with the idea that measurement is the most important route to reducing the impact IT systems have on the planet. Head of Sustainability at Greenpixie, his company develops software to analyse and assess the overall emissions caused by digital networks within organisations. It can also offer effective reductions and – perhaps most impressive - automate some processes to make those cuts. Or, to put that another way: the firm sells computer programmes that gauge the energy use of everything from email systems to websites to cloud storage. The software then reports this to the user, makes recommendations on how things could improve, and offers to automatically make many of those improvements. ‘We see this as a unique area, in that you can actually scale carbon emission reductions in a way that can’t really be done with other industries. Data centres are the western world’s modern factories. Like textile mills, or car production plants. They produce the most successful products we have – social networks, websites, any app you’ve ever used – but because there’s no smoke coming out of the roof the emissions they also produce are hidden,’ says Brown.‘The great thing with digital is that you can shift production and development, delivery of services, choosing a data centre based on the least intensive grid.’ His excitement isn’t misplaced. While addressing the environmental impact of our digital age is an urgent and rapidly escalating challenge we must get on top of, technology itself can be a huge advantage. In this instance, the ability to re-route data requests, ensuring any usage by an organisation always involves a datacentre that will produce the lowest emissions, which fluctuate depending on overall demand at facilities. The more a datacentre is being asked to do at any given time, the higher its energy requirement, and emissions, become.
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systems can
R&D organisations, innovation bodies, universities and even some parts of the NHS have either made inquiries or already installed the software and are now reaping its benefits.
To give some idea of the scale here, business IT publication ZDNet recently published estimates on how much money is being wasted by inefficient and misapplied cloud spend. Globally, it amounts to some $24bn. The UK government alone spent £1.32bn on the cloud in 2019. Even if just 1% of that was wasted, the potential cost savings are significant, especially as they also correspond to cuts in terms of energy and emissions.
Local authorities have also expressed significant interest, although many are still figuring out their plans for meeting requirements such as net zero and emissions reductions.
Instead, they’re potentially saving it,’ he continues.
‘It’s about optimising usage, in the same way you do at home – you make it more efficient with things that can reduce water use, or you switch energy provider to a renewable,’ says Brown. ‘We’re building all this into one product, one piece of software, that will identify and recommend reductions, and in some cases make changes for you. There’s also a side effect, which is cost reduction.
‘By default, each time you’re using something like the cloud, it directly correlates to the amount of energy you use, and any use of the cloud also incurs a financial cost. So, this is the only area I can think of where a team can take on a sustainability project and not actually need any money.
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Brown is keen to point out the door is very much open to forward-thinking councils.
Ultimately, it’s about understanding that, like any industry, the digital economy must embrace sustainability because it represents such a significant proportion of the emissions produced by almost every organisation on the planet. Ten years ago, recycling the devices we use to access the websites, apps, forms, and programmes within that digital space was hardly commonplace, today it should be standardSimilarly,practice.theneed to power-down at the end of the day, and not leave desktops and laptops on standby or sleep mode, is now widely understood. Gerard cites countless companies using timer sockets to ensure even when staff forget to switch off, the equipment won’t. Grasping that auditing and then adjusting how the networks we all rely on function, in terms of energy use and environmental impact, is another relatively simple concept, albeit the algorithms and programming involved are not. And this behavioural change is essential in terms of tackling emissions amid the spiralling climate emergency, and nothing short of vital to avoid wasting money on IT during one of the worst economic crises in living memory.
‘It’s a bit of a dark, theoretical model, cloud counting, but in the absolute best cases we’re helping people reduce their use by 90%. That’s 90% less emissions, and 90% less monetary spend. It’s proportionate to the organisation, of course. At the moment, cloud computing accounts for 4% of total worldwide emissions, similar to aviation. The Irish National Grid did a study that found data centres were using between nine and 11% of the country’s total electricity supply. So, you can see we are talking about massive amounts of energy, and environmental impact,’ Brown says. Unsurprisingly, then, while Greenpixie is still a company in relative infancy, it’s reaching a growing list of sectors.
19 October 2022 Park Plaza Westminster Bridge #highwaysawards22Who will be our next #HighwaysHeroes?FREEonline nomination open highwaysawards.co.ukatNEWfor2022:ActiveTravelSchemeoftheYearAward Open to organisations, highway authorities or joint submissions (including the client), this category will be judged on the qualitative and quantitative impact of the scheme and will cover design, use and safety criteria.
‘I started looking into air quality monitors to see if there was anything available at a consumer level. I assumed there would not be but was
Meet the people taking air quality monitoring into their own hands
Sush, Kings Heath Sush became interested in air quality after a documentary was made about air pollution on her local high street. ‘It sparked my interest having lived here for a fair while bringing up children and so on,’ she tells Air Quality News.
As more people become aware of the dangers that air pollution poses, there is increasing demand for accurate air quality data so that people can make informed choices. Despite there being a complex monitoring network spanning the length and breadth of the UK, the distance between air pollution monitors is too great to allow local communities to understand the true air pollution picture in their towns and cities.To fill the gaps in data, increasing numbers of people in communities left out of the national network are investing in their own air pollution monitors.Three individuals whose monitoring areas range from south Birmingham to Scotland tell Air QualityNews why they have decided to take monitoring into their own hands and what it has taught them about air pollution.
A couple of years on, her town was chosen for a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) pilot. Sush felt frustrated at the division this caused between residents and the ‘fake news’ being spread on social media about it, so she started looking into the possibility of collecting her own data to get the answers she needed.
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AirQualityNews editor Chloe Coules discovers why ordinary people are turning to technology to help them understand the air pollution picture in their local communities
‘I have found the monitoring personally really interesting,’ she reflects. ‘I could see the effects of a badly maintained bus or van or note that it was pollen season. ‘Readings were not quite as bad as I had feared and largely reinforced my opinions on the LTN.’
understand the need for a Low Traffic Neighbourhood in her area, and she plans to repeat the process when the second phase of her local LTN is implemented to measure its effects.
Sush encourages other people to get involved with air quality monitoring in their local areas: ‘Although there are council funded large monitoring stations dotted around, the reality is that air quality can change in a really smallThedistance.morepeople we have monitoring on a hyper local scale, the better the picture we can get of the state of the air we are breathing in our community.’ Mark, Chorley Mark first started monitoring air pollution levels when the house at the end of his parents’ cul-de-sac put in a solid fuel stove to heat their home. He submitted a few complaints to his local council about the smoke from their wood burning, but he later decided he needed to take matters into his own hands.‘Ittook me a good few years before
I found an affordable monitor that was reasonably accurate,’ he tells Air QualityFrustratedNews.with the accuracy of these early monitoring devices, Mark gave up on collecting air pollution data for a few years, until he bought his first home in 2014.
Trying to determine the source of the smoke, he looked out of his back window and noticed a wood burner just over his garden wall that was producing visible, thick smoke.
‘That’s what kickstarted me into looking around for new monitors,’ he remembers. By this time, a lot of new consumer monitors had started to come onto the market, and he was able to start collecting the data he needed to show his local authority and community what impact woodburning was‘Onehaving.weekend I got an hour average of about 53 micrograms per metre cubed in the living room during the weekend, and you could smell the smoke coming into the house,’ he says. ‘I looked into [using the existing monitoring network] and the nearest reference monitor is six miles away.
monitoring
surprised to find a company called Plume labs who had a wearable monitor at a reasonable price,’ she explains.‘Idecided to get one and start riding a set loop each day on my bike to see if I could get some actual data on what was happening on the ground. Later I added a camera to my bike to video the route so I could compare hot spots to what was there visually etc.
Special Report airqualitynews.com 31
‘The winter after I moved in, one evening I came home, opened the front door, and this pungent smell immediately hit me. It was like someone had lit a bonfire inside my home,’ he explains.
‘I started sharing my findings on a website and used it to try and simplify some of the jargon being used in and around the traffic scheme.’ Taking up monitoring helped Sush
BARRIERS TO AIR QUALITY MONITORING
• Appearance: Amy tells AirQualityNews that one of the biggest barriers she noticed in her research was how the monitoring equipment looked: ‘Image is a massive thing.’ Making monitors smaller and more concealable would help overcome this issue.
• Accuracy: It is difficult to make concrete conclusions from just one monitor, so although it can increase understanding of air pollution, personal monitoring is no substitute for monitoring networks. ‘Without more than one source the data is nothing more than indicative,’ warns Sush. quality monitoring, she saw it as an opportunity to learn more about the issue and how it might be affecting her. Amy, a PhD researcher at the University of Sterling, has recruited people with asthma across Scotland to take part in air quality monitoring, with the aim of designing interventions based upon the data they collect.
That might as well be on the moon when it comes to woodburning because woodburning creates highly localised PM2.5 hotspots,’ he adds. Once he had collected his first 12 months of data, Mark started emailing it to local councillors raising awareness of the problem woodburning was creating in Chorley, and he discusses the issue with the rest of his‘It’scommunity.amazingonce you make people aware of the widespread scale of air pollution how willing they are [to act],’ he tells Air Quality News.
• Cost: Finding a low-cost monitor that is still accurate is one of the biggest challenges for individuals hoping to take up monitoring. ‘The reference-grade monitors are tens of thousands of pounds, which are beyond mere mortals like me,’ jokes Mark.
‘I’m much more aware of ventilation that I ever was before, because you think that your extractor on the hood of your cooker would do the trick but no!’She has also invested in dehumidifiers and air purifiers and has switched out chemical cleaning products for more natural alternatives that don’t trigger her asthma.
Collecting data has also allowed Janice to bring her family with her on her journey, as she can show them exactly how different behaviours create air pollution and worsen her asthma symptoms.
Janice tells Air Quality News the research has changed her understanding of air quality: ‘I assumed wrongly that living where we do that I’d be exposed to less pollutants, but there was a lot of farm traffic and delivery vans,’ She noticed air pollution spikes while doing everyday tasks like cooking, showering, walking, catching the train, cooking, turning the heating on and even going to bed. ‘I learned a lot and I’ve actually changed quite a lot about what I’ve been doing in my life since then,’ she reflects.Forexample, she has tried to reduce how much gas she uses while cooking, and when she does use it, she now wears a mask and opens the windows.
Janice, Melrose Janice suffers from asthma, so when she saw an advert calling for participants to take part in air
Special Report airqualitynews.com32
‘My life has changed through this project I would say. It has a big impact on you, I was just amazed,’ she explains.Many of the other participants in Amy’s research also said they would change certain behaviours to limit their exposure to air pollution and invest in their own monitors.
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33 Marketplace AS
Having spent a lifetime working in research and leadership roles for one of the world’s biggest oil giants, a leading energy scientist and co-founder of PACE speaks to AirQualityNews’ Martin Guttridge-Hewitt about his career and asking energy bosses to store their own emissions. Can you picture yourself 28 years from now? How about the world, its industries, infrastructure, economies, and transport links? More specifically, what about the ways in which those worldwide essentials are powered? According to Hugh Helferty, the answer to those questions can mean the difference between understanding the importance of Carbon Takeback Obligation policy and missing the point entirely. A Canadian by birth, and chemistry PhD graduate, he spent decades working in the fossil fuels and chemicals industries, predominantly in research roles, meaning there are few people better qualified to assess the readiness of the energy sector in terms of adapting to a new global ecosystem defined by carbon neutrality. ‘I joined the Exxon company in Canada and worked for them for about a dozen years or so. Then the company transferred me for an assignment to the US, where I ended up spending the rest of my career… about 34 years,’ Helferty says, speaking to us via Zoom call. ‘I started in research, but then a large part of my career was spent in refining, working in manufacturing plants, and working in Exxon head office jobs in planning, business analysis, and the like.
‘Finally, I headed up what was called Global Chemical Research: it’s a little less well-known that ExxonMobil, in addition to energy, is just about the third largest chemical company in the world. I retired in 2015 and have done several things since.’
Those ‘things’ include developing a science leadership course for graduates at Queen’s University, Canada, and cofounding and sitting as president of Producer Accountability for Carbon Emissions (PACE). The group is made up of former oil executives and energy experts who are collectively calling for a new, innovative approach to reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere by proposing that fossil fuel firms capture an increasing percentage of the emissions resulting from their activities.
‘The industry has a lot of experience capturing CO2… these companies have now learned a lot about how to do storage, how to monitor their storage.’ This pay-as-you-go style system would mean energy companies are legally obliged to gradually increase the amount of carbon they sequester annually. Using Helferty’s example, this could start with 4% of emissions in 2025, and add 4% year-on-year to reach 100% by 2050. The approach would ensure this expensive but essential technology rollout isn’t paid for by the taxpayer, but – for the most part – the sectors responsible for the problem, and their contribution level is not tied to profitability, which is likely to significantly change in line with demand for oil, but actual production of CO2. ‘What is our goal here? Our goal is to get to net zero [carbon] emissions by 2050,’ Helferty says, citing the date by which many of the world’s richest countries – including the UK and European Union member states – have pledged to end or offset all CO2 emissions. ‘But the goal is not to get there in 34 airqualitynews.com
Setting PACE: Hugh Helferty on Producer Accountability for Carbon Emissions
The Big Interview
‘I came back to the research side and headed several organisations for ExxonMobil, starting with Global Products Research – so all worldwide development of fuel and lubricant products,’ he continues, explaining he then led Corporate Strategic Research, a team of around 165 PhDs and 80 support staff looking at fundamental science issues related to energy.
The Big Interview 2049, and go from zero to 100, or 100 to zero. Instead, it would be far better to do this in a linear fashion, learning along the way about the least expensive ways to do it… So what we need is a great framework that, in essence, compels companies to move in that direction. We saw this happen with lead in gasoline, and when the oil industry had to address sulphur in fuel. It can happen again.’
According to Helferty, a fundamental cornerstone of Carbon Takeback Obligation is acknowledging the fact that carbon zero is currently impossible, not least within the proposed timeframe. Simply put, even with renewables powering homes and roads filled with electric cars, vast swathes of the economy will still rely on oil. Meanwhile, less-developed countries are tied to reduce emissions at a slower pace. Overall, this means every region on the planet will inevitably still produce carbon emissions of some type in another three decades, from aviation to chemicals, but the wealthiest nations have an opportunity to push forward now with comprehensive sequestration roadmaps that can be the difference between hitting climate targets and missing vital opportunities to mitigate a major cause of climate change. ‘Right now crude oil has a very high cost, but I think that’s going to change. What is likely to happen between now and 2050 is, with the electrification of vehicle fleets and things like that, there will be too much crude chasing too few customers. So it will be cheap, liquid fuels will be cheap,’ says Helferty. ‘So maybe by 2050 crude demand will only 35airqualitynews.com be 55 or 60% of what it is today. That has taken substantial oil-related emissions out of the picture, but the rest needs to be sequestered. We can get an electric ride, that helps. People have ideas to eliminate emissions from trucks through electric or hydrogen power. And there are experiments using hydrogen infrastructure. But where you really get into trouble is with the airplane… I mean, nobody has figured out powering a 787 with‘Whenbatteries.you’re compelled to figure something out, when you really must do it, that’s when you start to see t it happen.’ ‘I think we’re OK in terms of development and deployment of the technology. The industry has a fair bit of experience at capturing CO2. It’s not all gone smoothly – that would be a mischaracterisation. But we can expect that from the plants that have been built, and operated, these companies have now learned a lot about how to do storage, how to monitor their storage… Now it’s a question of accelerating the pace of deployment. But that’s not going to happen unless companies are required to do it. And when you’re compelled to figure something out, when you really must do it, that’s when you really focus on things like the most efficient place for infrastructure to be built, and how to keep the costs as low as possible without impacting effectiveness. That’s when you start to see it happen.’
Big Apple residents are making money by reporting commercial vehicles parked up with engines on.
Considering weaker powers to combat the same problem in Britain, Martin Guttridge-Hewitt asks if a similar scheme might help in the fight to improve air quality.
airqualitynews.com International
Forced shut down: Could New York’s anti-idling laws work in UK cities?
‘The citizen programme allows you to record a commercial vehicle that is idling, which means stationary with engine on for more than three minutes, or one minute in a school zone,’ Welde says, explaining video recordings are captured using a mobile phone, with discretion advised due to the unsurprisingly angry responses from drivers caught in the act. We ask about the financial renumeration, when it finally arrives. ‘My average take per ticket is about $95, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get that. ‘On any given day, you’re going to report license plates that have repeat violations, which are charged more. Then some don’t pay, and go into default, which increases fees to $1,000 as a starting point. Then it’s $1,500, and finally $2000 – from that I would get $500,’ he continues. ‘Realistically, if you spent two or three hours you could easily produce between 20 and 40 reports… then you have to go back and spend time on the admin, there’s quite a lot on the admin side. But still, you could be looking at filing reports with a potential earning of $2,700 in a five hour day. Taking into account some reports will be rejected, it’s safe to assume you can walk away with $1,200, and the potential for more.’ As our conversation continues, Welde breaks off to check his emails, and coincidentally there’s confirmation that the some of his report payments have at last been processed. He tells us they were submitted in November, which places the time between recording idling incidence and cash being made available at around six months. Hardly a reliable revenue stream, we’re told that reports submitted more recently are unlikely to see even that kind of turnaround as hearings deciding on the validity of reports are now being
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It’s been around four years since Logan Welde first submitted a report to New York’s Citizens Air Complaint Program, informing the authorities that a commercial vehicle had been found parked up with engine still running. Over the following 12 months, he’d file evidence for around 20 more cases, providing written statements and video footage of infractions with the understanding he’d be paid a percentage of the fine issued to guilty drivers. To date, he’s still not received any money from these efforts to expose offenders. But tellingly, this has done nothing to discourage his participation in an initiative that has significant implications for air quality and public health in America’s biggest metropolis, not to mention the balance sheets of businesses whose drivers use unnecessary fuel, resulting in fines those companies could be liable for.
With just a small change in behaviour people can help save lives and protect the environment,’ declares a spokesperson from Idling Action London. ‘[Our] Engines Off, Every Stop campaign gives drivers a clear call to action to safeguard personal and public health.’ All of which leaves one question – is that enough?
difficult it is to gauge real numbers.
A similar issue prevails in Britain. Idling Action London began as a City of London Corporation action day in 2015 and has expanded since. This year the project saw 32 authorities from across the capital working together to increase awareness of idling, and its impact. Clear evidence of how commonplace idling is remains scarce, but research conducted on Idling Action’s behalf by TRL, the UK government’s road research body, suggests twice as much carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides are produced in 30 seconds of idling compared with switching off and restarting the engine.Further similarities with New York are found in legalities, with idling a fineable offence in all parts of the UK. However, there are significant shortcomings when it comes to existing powers to enforce this law. In London, this is down to the individual borough, which can issue a Fixed Penalty Notice up to £20, but only after drivers have first been cautioned. As such, most cases do not get to a stage where charges can be imposed, increasing the likelihood people will repeat the Accordingoffence.toone London council worker, who asked not to be named, the Department for Transport is yet to airqualitynews.com International booked in for April 2023. But the slow speed of processing is really a reflection on the scheme’s success. Public participation has grown year-on-year since the initiative launched, hence authorities now having such an administrative backlog. Welde estimates that in 2021 there were around 12,000 reports filed but based on his own observations in online groups and official databases that need to be checked to see when payments can be claimed, the number is likely to exceed 30,000 for the 12 months to December 2022. By all accounts, the uptick is entirely necessary. Welde quips that he once said deaths from New York’s air pollution outnumber the murder rate and labels the US idling problem as ‘absurd’, citing historically cheap fuel prices as at least one reason for the reckless behaviour. AirQuality News contacted both New York’s local government and Environmental Protection Agency for comment on just how rife idling is, but neither responded – most likely a result of how
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clarify if idling can be penalised with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN), like a parking fine, potentially increasing the amount people would pay when caught idling, and therefore also the incentive to switch off every time. Adding to the complications, though, PCNs require relevant signage to warn would-be offenders about fines, but no such sign officially exists, although Westminster Council now has approval to introduce its own.Clear as mud, what seems patently obvious is the need for a more efficient, effective, and accountable approach to reducing idling in the UK. Whether systems like New York’s could and would work is less easy to determine, but at a time when every town and city faces mounting pressure to reduce emissions and improve air quality, the lack of targeted action to combat idling seems short-sighted, if not‘Switchingnegligent. off engines when parked is the easiest way to minimise air pollution and carbon emissions.
airqualitynews.com38
Some key considerations and learnings can be taken from the successful roll-out of Birmingham City Council’s CAZ – as part of the Brum Breathes programme. Birmingham's local authority had a clear and well-planned communication strategy in place to navigate the challenging path it faced in 2021.
However, local authorities don’t need to go it alone.
The former analysis allows you to determine whether external help might be needed in the operational delivery of the scheme. Local councils may not typically have access to the right technology or the expertise to deploy it, they might also need access to large-scale print management facilities, particularly if a large volume of penalty charge notices or charge certificates is expected. Working with a transformational partner
Five key considerations for the successful rollout of your CAZ scheme.
n a bid to clean up city-wide pollution, local authorities are following London’s suit by implementing Clean Air Zones (CAZ). By deterring those driving older, less efficient vehicles with daily charges, councils hope to limit emissions and reduce harmful pollutants. The Environment Act 1995 also requires councils to meet targets for air quality.
The first two things councils need to do is carry out thorough research to understand the resources it has available to meet the operational requirements of the scheme, and to properly understand the needs of the wider community who will primarily be affected by it.
I
❶ Conduct behavioural and experience insight research.
Whilst tackling climate change is high on the CAZ agenda, pollution also contributes to health inequity. For residents and visitors, areas of low air quality can have a direct impact on health status, especially in children, the elderly, and people living with pre-existing health conditions.
Adrian Odds, marketing and innovation Director, CDS, identifies key elements of a well-planned Clean Air Zone communication strategy.
The need for change is clear.
Adrian Director,marketingOdds,&innovationCDS
Significant changes ahead Bristol, Manchester, and Newcastle are among those planning imminent schemes, and it’s been reported that a CAZ can be a ‘logistical nightmare’ – especially for businesses and elderly people – if not communicated in the rightIt’s,way.therefore, important that councils get it right from the start. From helping the public to understand why the CAZ is needed, and how funds raised through penalties and fines will be reinvested in the community, to the prompt printing and mailing of penalty charge notices (PCNs) and clear signage, there is a lot to consider.
How to roll out a successful Clean Air Zone scheme communication strategy in 2022 and beyond.
airqualitynews.com 39 Local Government - as Birmingham City Council did – outsourcing these non-core processes can help avoid delays and additional, unforeseen Behaviouralcosts.andexperience
One of the most overlooked areas of implementing a CAZ is communication with residents and businesses well in advance of the CAZ going live.
Local authorities need to remember that for much of the public, receiving a CAZ Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) will be their first ‘brush with the law’ and can be quite distressing. So clear and helpful communication about why this is necessary is key.
Communication includes everything from direct contact with the public to digital coms, signage and road markings – it’s the route to the success of the scheme and to the funds that will support it and other climatefriendly initiatives. This makes communications the most important consideration of all.
Local authorities need to be upfront and proactive about offering and communicating these benefits, as this will aid adoption. There will no doubt be questions and concerns from citizens, so internal processes need to be in place to help people efficiently, and the process of engagement should be continuous once the CAZ is live as residents and visitors will continue to encounter it ‘for the first time’, for some time to come.
Giving at least a one-to-two-year period will give enough time for citizens and businesses to become familiar with the proposal and plenty of time for communities to ask questions or give feedback. It will also give local authorities enough time to plan each stage of the roll-out, taking this feedback into account.
It’s important that the intended outcomes are clear from the outset, as this will aid adoption and support the change in commuting behaviours which is required for the success of the scheme.
This research will act as the foundation for everything that happens before, during, and after the launch of the scheme.
❷ Start the conversation in advance
Failing to convey the message as early as possible can lead to a lack of awareness, which then leads to confusion and frustration for both motorists and local authority organisations. This should be avoided at all costs.
❹ Consider key communication devices
Communication in the form of emails and social media campaigns is critical for ensuring constant engagement with citizens, but councils need to consider those who may have accessibility needs or may not have access to the internet, so physical information points and letters are also paramount.
This approach identifies, for example, how many noncompliant vehicles are in the area, and importantly, why people are driving rather than using public transport, cycling, or walking. This can highlight both simple changes in information and experience that may not be costly to deliver, as well as some of the more systemic behaviours and patterns around which more focus can be brought.Thisdata will also aid decision-making about the stakeholders who need to be involved and communicated with, which type of zone should be implemented, whether charges should be applied, and what else needs to be done to ensure the success of the scheme, such as additional public transport services or more cycle lanes.
The accessibility of your communications is key to reaching everyone, and therefore key to the success of your scheme, so consider baking accessibility into your campaign strategy from the start. And get creative – the more your comms stand out, the more engagement and attention they’ll receive.
❺ Be prepared to overcome challenges Perhaps obvious to say, but there will be challenges along the way, and although it's hard to foresee potential issues before they arise, it's important to remember that this is a long-term process and one that has the best intentions at its heart, so it’s worth doing it right. From the initial set–up to the launch, if local authorities have kept clear and constant lines of communication with the public, the CAZ will be set up for success.
❸ Engage and incentivise the community Many consider a CAZ to be an annoyance and an unnecessary change to their daily routine, so councils must focus on the advantages of the scheme and incentivise communities to take the leap to greener travel.
In some cities, councils may choose to offer loans or grants for people to be able to upgrade their vehicles, to electric or hybrid. Or, if this isn’t possible, then a Clean Air Fund might be put in place to offer local travel discounts for public transport, or for cycle-to-work schemes – funded through the charge notices awarded for non-compliance.
Obvious signage is of the utmost importance to let drivers know where and when the CAZ starts or ends. If this isn’t clear, it’s only going to add to the frustration of the public and cause more issues down the line.
insight research helps councils to get to know the people the CAZ will affectsomething no local authority can overlook.
airqualitynews.com40 Legal
Following the recent deaths of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira in the Amazon, Charlie Jaay investigates the dangers that activists raising the alarm against environmental atrocities across the world face and learns of attempts to silence them.
Francisca Stuardo, from International NGO Global Witness says: ‘Over the years, we’ve recorded increases in attacks against Land and Environmental Defenders –fuelled by a combination of lack of corporate accountability, the worsening climate crisis, shrinking civic space, institutional corruption,
Dom Phillips, a British Journalist and author of the unfinished book, How can we save the Amazon?, and Bruno Pereira, an Indigenous expert who devoted his life to helping protect Brazil’s Indigenous people and their land, were murdered recently in the Amazon’s Javari Valley, home to the highest concentration of uncontacted tribes in the world.
Brazil’s President Bolsonaro has reduced financing for FUNAI, the organisation tasked with defending Indigenous people and their lands, while promoting the development of the Amazon. As a result, illegal mining, logging, hunting, and fishing have increased in the area, and Pereira had received death threats for opposing these activities. A few weeks after Phillips and Pereira were killed, an Indigenous man named Virgilio Trujillo Arana was assassinated in broad daylight while defending his community and the Venezuelan Amazon from criminal gangs and illegal mining. He requested protection a year earlier, after receiving death threats, but received none. Between 2013 and 2021, more than 30 Indigenous and environmental leaders were killed in Venezuela alone.
Environmental defenders: The activists risking their lives to protect the planet
Sheila Berry, Director of Global Environmental Trust (GET) and Coordinator of Save Our Wilderness says: ‘MCEJO members are mostly rural farmers whose ancestors are buried in the ground the mine wants to rip apart. The land is also our livelihood.‘Themine failed to consult us properly, as rightful owners of the land. Instead, it has bought the traditional leadership, who try to intimidate and oppress us and force us to agree to the expansion of Tendele mine, which MCEJO members do not want. It has been a long and difficult struggle.’‘When the traditional leaders sent people to our homes recently to tell us about a public meeting, we were threatened if we did not support the mine at the meeting. Many of the homesteads are headed by women who felt scared. At night, gunmen drive around firing shots at houses belonging to MCEJO leaders. The police do nothing to stop them. We also hear about hit lists and hit men who are promised money to shoot us. These are attempts to silence us but they are failing. People came to the meeting and made it clear we do not want the mine. It brings no benefits to the residents, only destruction, ill-health, division and poverty,’ Berry explains.‘Mama Fikile’s death scared us but made us more determined to continue
airqualitynews.com 41 Legal lack of political will and high impunity levels.’Fighting against threats to community land and natural resources resulted in at least 1540 deaths between 2012 and 2020. Global Witness’ most recent annual report of these deadly attacks from 2020, shows 227 deaths - or an average of four per week - but the organisation says the numbers are "just the tip of the iceberg," since many murders continue to go unrecorded. Countless more people are silenced through death threats, harassment, dismissal from employment, surveillance, criminalisation, sexual violence, and enforcedPerpetratorsdisappearances.ofdeadly attacks are rarely brought to justice, as is the case with 63 year old Fikile Ntshangase, shot dead in her living room more than 20 months ago, by three unknown men. The Deputy Chairperson of Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation (MCEJO), she campaigned against Tendele’s Somkhele coal mine extension in SouthSinceAfrica.thehuge mine opened, in 2007, her village has suffered from pollution. Rainwater cannot be collected anymore because the gutters are clogged with coal ash. Livestock have fallen ill, land is contaminated, respiratory problems exist, and blasting results in homes shaking, cracking, and even collapsing.
Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips
Daisy Macapanpan, 69, one of those detained, is fighting against a multi-billion hydropower project that threatens the distinctive biodiversity of the Sierra Madre mountain range. 40 members of the Special Action Force dragged her from her home.
In May, the court ruled in favour of GET and MCEJO, so Tendele can no longer expand into Ntshangase’s village without proper consultations with the rightful landowners.
According to Leon Dulce, National Coordinator of Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), nothing has changed under Ferdinand Marcos JR, the country's new president.
The world’s forests support Indigenous communities and the richest areas of biodiversity on earth. They are essential in fighting climate change, each year absorbing a third of
‘The Marcos presidency commences with a 1,733% spike in the number of environmental defenders under attack. From a single postelection case in May, we monitored at least six incidents affecting 119 defenders in June leading up to Mr. Marcos’ first months as president.’
Legal airqualitynews.com42 our struggle for what is right, lawful and just,’ she adds.
The Philippines is the most dangerous country in Asia for environmental defenders, according to Global Witness, with 29 murdered in 2020. The country has an abysmal human rights record, and opposition to damaging industries is often met with violent crackdowns from police and military.Activists are also often ‘redtagged’- labelled as members of the Communist New People’s Army, a charge which equates to terrorism and can carry the death sentence. At the end of 2020, nine Indigenous leaders were killed, campaigning against the destruction of their ancestral lands by two nearby dam projects- they had beenGloriared-tagged.Capitan, an active member in the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, was assassinated six years ago, on the day former president Rodrigo Duterte took office, by two unidentified gunmen. She campaigned fiercely against air pollution, coalfired power plants, and the open coal stockpile that was located barely 200 metres from her home and caused skin conditions and respiratory problems.
Legal airqualitynews.com 43 the carbon dioxide released worldwide from burning fossil fuels. Trees also clean our air and improve its quality, vitally important as nine out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air, which is associated with 7 million premature deaths annually. Leaves also trap air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulphur dioxide and ammonia.However, at the last count, almost three quarters of murdered land and environmental defenders were fighting against deforestation and industrial development in forests. Forests are vital for the majority of Cambodia’s population, but the country lost almost 65 percent of its tree cover between 2011 and 2020, much of it primary forest. The two protected regions of Prey Lang and Prey Preah Roka, home to many endangered species and the Indigenous Kuy people, are also affected by industrial scale illegal logging, which is facilitated by widespread state corruption.Thereare consistent reports of Ministry of Environment and police providing loggers with protection, and access to protected areas, in exchange for money. At the same time, environmental authorities have increased their repression of forest defenders and banned independent patrols of protected areas by environmentalists, since early 2020, leading to allegations of increased deforestation.LengOuch, 2016 Goldman prize winner and Founder of Cambodian Human Rights Task Force, fights against illegal logging and advocates for land rights. He has exposed criminal collusion between powerful timber companies and government officials, and a multi-million dollar timber smuggling network. Although fellow forest defender, Chut Wutty, was murdered by a military police officer in 2012, Leng has no personal or family protection.
‘The land of poor Cambodians is illegally grabbed and sold to the highest bidder. The ancient forests are felled, and the great Mekong left polluted and barren. The subservient judiciary ensures there is no remedy for abuse; the obedient security forces help evict inhabitants who stand in the way. Land defenders, environmentalists, and trade unionists are gunned down in cold blood.’
‘Ultimately, Cambodia’s natural resources are destroyed for a quick and filthy profit. And whilst a tiny minority become obscenely wealthy, the vast majority face an uncertain future.’ Corruption is one of the main causes of lethal attacks on individuals who speak out against the exploitation of our world, so government and corporate accountability is vital to hold perpetrators to account and prevent further human rights and environmental abuses.
He also receives no financial support from outside donors, and local NGOs are afraid of being shut down, so do not criticise the government. He also mentions a lack of cooperation with many of the major international conservation organisations, who provide inaccurate information on the state of the Cambodian environment. Leng has previously been the target of death threats and has gone into hiding several times in the past. ‘I got arrested and detained twice, during the investigation of illegal logging by Think Biotech in Prey Lang in 2020 and 2021, and stopped many times by rangers and armed forces inside the jungle,’ he explains. Describing the climate of impunity existing in Cambodia, Richard Rogers, International Human Rights Lawyer and Founding Partner of Global Diligence, says: ‘The ruling elite have maintained control for decades, using fear, violence and corruption. They have persecuted opposition figures, murdered activists, and stolen successive elections.’
A rapid response mechanism was recently established, to safeguard people defending the environment, with Mr. Michel Forst being appointed as the world’s first Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders. His job is to safeguard and stand up for environmental activists who might endure punishment, persecution, or harassment for attempting to exercise their rights under the Aarhus Convention.‘Iamextremely worried and appalled by the growing number of attacks and murders of environmental defenders, but also by the continuous resistance of states to act in front of egregious human rights violations,’ Forst says. ‘It is the responsibility of States and the international community to empower and protect these defenders. We should listen to those raising the alarm against environmental disasters, climate change and irresponsible resource exploitation, not repress them.’‘Recently, the world has taken concrete steps to protect our planet, now it is time to protect the heroes who, day by day, are at the forefront of the fight for our future. I urge the international community to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to the violence against environmental human rights defenders,’ he adds.