It’s rather unfashionable to say this, but UK climate policy is a success story. Emissions have fallen 43% below 1990 levels thanks, in part, to energy efficiency in the household and industrial sectors. However this success has a downside because cost-effective “low lying fruit” measures such as condensing boilers and double glazing that contributed to these reductions are reaching market saturation.
CREDS Knowledge Exchange Manager, Kay Jenkinson, talks about how researchers can demonstrate impact. However, drawing the lines between research outputs and a policy decision or social innovation that is distant in time and sometimes (intellectual) space is, frankly, far from straightforward.
CREDS researcher Jenny Crawley interviews Professor John Barrett (who leads our materials and products work) on the focus of his research and his work with policy makers to ensure research findings are disseminated.
The Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS) is undertaking research that directly tackles the priorities identified by the recent CCC report, UK housing: Fit for the future?
Even in the face of catastrophic climate and health damage, as highlighted recently by the IPCC 1.5℃ report, why is it so hard for us to break our energy consumption ‘habits’?
Two home living exhibitions were recently visited by CREDS researchers. Energy was not featured explicitly in either exhibition – a challenge to CREDS and the wider research community to ensure that future exhibitions about buildings and people take energy and materials use more seriously.