Environment and Sustainability

A film-coating that allows windows to harvest the sun’s energy in the winter to warm a house and reflect it in the summer to keep it cool is under development in an Anglo-US project.

Undersea turbines could generate a tenth of Britain’s power in the future, according to a government-backed sustainable energy research company.

The cost of batteries for electric vehicles is set to rise in 2022 as supplies of raw materials fail to keep up with rising demand.

Researchers from the University of Glasgow are leading a new project to develop new approaches to sustainable mining in the Philippines.

The three-year PAMANA project, worth £1.5m, is co-funded by the UK Natural Environmental Research Council and the Philippines Department of Science and Technology.

A Finnish consortium with ambitions to replace combustion processes with electricity-based solutions claims it can significantly reduce carbon emissions in cement and quicklime production.

Biomass and waste could be a valuable source of hydrogen, the government has said, as it launched a programme to maximise that potential.

Convened by the Energy Institute’s sector experts, International Energy Week is the global conference for a new energy era.

The £25M inward investment – by Danish family-owned multinational Danfoss – will be home to Danfoss Editron, which will advance electric and hybrid powertrain systems for heavy-duty vehicles to reduce energy consumption in hydraulic machines radically.

The British Science Association (BSA) has launched its latest funding programme – The Highlands and Islands Climate Change Community Grant

Historic Environment Scotland has launched its new climate adaptation plan. ‘Climate ready HES’ sets out a series of actions that HES will undertake in order to prepare for, and review the risks and impacts associated with climate change, as Scotland experiences more extremities in weather and continues to move towards net zero.

The plan is a flagship deliverable of HES’s ambitious Climate Action Plan (2020-2025) and operates alongside other key climate action commitments, such as HES’ ambitions to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045.

Accelerating climate change is already posing a threat to Scotland’s historic environment and cultural heritage sites. Changes to the climate are increasing the frequency and intensity of physical climate risks, illustrated by the flash-flooding across Edinburgh in July 2021, which was the result of unprecedented heavy rainfall and directly impacted Edinburgh Castle.

In developing the plan, HES established a cross-organisational group to carry out a strategic level climate risk assessment which identified key climate risks where the organisation believes further action is required. The approach taken to carry out this assessment was informed by tools and guidance developed by Adaptation Scotland and its partners.

This new adaptation plan details HES’s primary adaptation response to the climate risks of concern identified. This is a series of priority actions including committing appropriate resources to climate change adaptation, mainstreaming ‘adaptation’ action into HES plans and policies, and integrating climate risk assessments into all relevant decisions the organisation takes.

These priority actions are crucial to reduce the impact of physical climate risks where possible, like extreme weather events and spread of invasive species, and to address additional risks that the organisation will be exposed to as society responds to the climate crisis and transitions towards a low-carbon economy.

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A major project to develop wind turbine blade recycling in Britain for the first time has been given the go-ahead after winning a UK Government grant.

Aker Offshore Wind will lead a £2m project to develop wind turbine blade recycling in Britain for the first time, an effort supported by Innovate UK.