Transcript GILDED overview

Overview of GILDED and the Scottish
case study
Nick Gotts
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GILDED Basics - Reminder
 Governance, Infrastructure, Lifestyle Dynamics and
Energy Demand
 European FP7 project, December 2008 – November
2011 April 2012 , funded under the topic: SocioEconomic Factors and Actor Shaping the “PostCarbon” Society
 Five case study areas across Europe, each a city and
its rural hinterland; in Scotland: Aberdeen and
Aberdeenshire.
 Mixed methods: Desk study, qualitative and
quantitative fieldwork (interviews, survey, minor
intervention), agent-based modelling.
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GILDED Case Study Areas
A. Scotland: Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire
B. The Netherlands: Assen and Assen
Municipality
C. Germany: Potsdam and Brandenburg
A
B
D. The Czech Republic: České Budějovice and
C
D
E
Budějoviceshire
E. Hungary: Debrecen and Hajdú-Bihar County
Map of EU from Wikimedia Commons
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Survey of governance and infrastructure,
in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire
 Good environmental awareness in departments in both
local authorities, with committed staff.
 However:
 countervailing pressures for economic development and
from oil industry;
 limited funds and powers.
 Implementation processes need to make better use of
collaboration (e.g. between communities and local
authorities).
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Analysis of stakeholder interviews (1)
 45 interviews in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Edinburgh,
with both relevant professionals, and members of the
public chosen to provide a wide range of viewpoints.
 Many people have an inaccurate understanding of climate
change, confusing it with other phenomena such as the
hole in the ozone layer.
 “More information” is unlikely to be an adequate strategy.
 There is fairly broad acceptance that climate change is
real.
 However scepticism and feelings of powerlessness are
also widespread, as is the belief that it is a problem
someone else should deal with.
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Analysis of stakeholder interviews (2)
 People in Scotland are broadly accepting of government
regulation
 But: it needs to be perceived as fair and not favouring one
section of society over another.
 Focus on the importance of avoiding waste and generally
unsustainable lifestyles may be more effective than one
on climate change.
 Overall, environmental NGOs are seen as the most
effective intermediaries in implementing effective GHG
and energy consumption reduction policies.
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Other Activities Before The Last Meeting
 Designing, for use with a stratified random sample of
households in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, and the other
four case study areas:
 A questionnaire
 A carbon calculator
 An experiment on the effects of an energy-reduction
intervention
 Designing, building and experimenting with a prototype
agent-based model of household direct energy use,
ABMED.
 Producing two policy briefs (a third has since followed).
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Main Activities Since Last Meeting
 Field work and subsequent analysis
 Analysis of the results of the first survey
 Demand reduction initiatives with a subsample of those
surveyed
 Planning, implementation and analysis of the second survey of
the same households
 The CEDSS model
 Design and implementation
 Data collection for the inputs to CEDSS, and for comparison
with its outputs
 Refinement of the model
 Development of policy recommendations
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Looking Forward
 GILDED itself is ending, but its results are already feeding
into work on the Scottish Government’s RESAS Research
Programme
 Two products of our GILDED work have a significant role
in RESAS work on the “Low Carbon Rural Economy”:
 The GILDED Scottish dataset
 The CEDSS model
 In addition the GILDED Carbon Calculator is the first
devised for use across such a range of European states
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