The performance of road transport infrastructure and its links to policies

Posted on: 5 February 2013
By: mackene
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Despite the economic importance of the road transport sector, there is no systematic cross-country evidence on the sector’s efficiency. This paper develops a conceptual framework for analysing the social efficiency of the road transport sector, including non-market inputs, such as travel time, and negative outputs, such as accidents and emissions. This framework is then used to analyse efficiency in 32 OECD countries.

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Measuring the potential of local green growth: An analysis of Greater Copenhagen

Posted on: 5 February 2013
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As the need to address the impacts of climate change becomes more urgent and the subsequent green momentum continues to gather pace, individual governments and companies are transitioning to a low-carbon economy. This transition to a low-carbon economic and industrial future is taking place in a highly uncertain and competitive marketplace. With many countries and cities seeking to give their own domestic companies a head start as closer attention is paid to this low carbon transition, indicators are becoming increasingly important as a mechanism to inform the development of programmes designed to generate green economic growth. This paper presents, for the first time a local ‘green growth’ indicator framework. This indicator framework was developed from the OECD ‘green growth’ strategy at the national level, but modified to highlight issues of transition that are most relevant for local areas. This working paper is the first trialling of this approach, along with an indicator visualisation tool – or dashboard. The dashboard allows easy assessment of the progress of a particular local area in a number of indicator variables. The paper discussed results for the analysis of Copenhagen and its cleantech cluster.

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Technology4change

Posted on: 5 February 2013
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Technology4change examines the most important environment research, emerging technologies and innovative products from around the world, selected from over 50 news sources every week.

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Retrofit Briefing

Posted on: 5 February 2013
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Retrofit Briefing is a new regular e-publication from BRE providing news, analysis and data on building retrofit and refurbishment. The e-publication is published 10 times a year, with each issue comprising at least 8 pages. It is available on annual subscription (10 issues) of £120 in PDF format only. A free copy of the first issue, January 2013, can be viewed online.

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The limits of wind power

Posted on: 5 February 2013
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The Adam Smith Institute, a free market think-tank, has called on the government to end over-investment in both onshore and offshore wind energy facilities.

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New times, new businesses: Addressing the challenges of housing provision in times of austerity

Posted on: 4 February 2013
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Radical thinking is needed to shape a new, entrepreneurial and thriving rental housing sector, according to research by St Andrews University and a group of international practitioners. Practitioners and academics both argue for new models to continue the important work of providing affordable, decent homes for low income households and in supporting better, more inclusive communities.

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Building Fabric: Why engineers should be involved

Posted on: 4 February 2013
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This article looks at some key Passivhaus principles that can help bridge the gap between design and reality.

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Energy efficiency and the private rented sector

Posted on: 4 February 2013
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This guide from the British Property Federation seeks to provide a starting point for landlords when developing energy efficiency improvement plans for their properties. It does this by explaining the direction of policy on energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector, how energy efficiency is calculated through the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) methodology, and how landlords can plan and fund improvements that increase EPC ratings.

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Draft Water Bill

Posted on: 4 February 2013
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The House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee has published the outcomes of an inquiry into Government plans for more competition in water market. The MPs highlight the importance of managing our water resources sustainably and efficiently. They recommend that encouraging sustainable development be elevated to a primary duty of the regulator and that the Government brings forward legislation to enable the abstraction regime to be reformed by 2022. The Committee adds that successive governments have ‘lacked the tenacity and resolution’ to implement recommendations outstanding from Sir Michael Pitt’s review of the 2007 summer floods and provisions in the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. It recommends that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs sets out a timetable for their full implementation.

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Housing guarantee scheme rules: private rented sector

Posted on: 4 February 2013
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This document outlines the scheme rules for the private rented sector debt guarantee. The housing guarantees will support the building of new homes for the private rented sector. They will enable housing providers to raise debt with a government guarantee, where they commit to purchasing additional new homes for private rent. This will help to reduce their borrowing costs, increasing the number of new homes they can afford to provide.

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