carbonaware.eu: Latest News

CATCH conference presentations online

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:34:00 +0100

The CATCH project is held its final conference on 13 December 2011 in the University of West of England in Bristol, UK.

The final conference presented research from the project, and presented the CATCH knowledge platform in the context of a variety of co-benefits that a low carbon transport will bring to health, safety, the economy and to planning. It was demonstrated how the CATCH knowledge platform links to these different areas by providing information and improving communication between the general public and transport professionals. Presentations from experts from different fields detailed the wider benefits of a low carbon transport future.

Downloads below:

Final programme
Opening welcome from Prof Graham Parkhurst, Director of Centre for Transport & Society, UWE

Conference report

Session 1: introduction

EU policy overview, Ioana-Olga Adamescu, European Commission
Beyond Europe: Low carbon transport as part of low carbon cities in China, Dr Shaun Topham, E-Forum
Climate Change and Transport: the need for action on an international level, Heather Allen & Anne Binsted, TRL
Introduction to CATCH & its uses, Dr Steve Cassidy, MRCMH
FUPOL project, Gary Simpson, e@SY Connects
Enabling Behaviour Change, Dr Erel Avineri & Dr Owen Waygood, UWE

Session 2: Low carbon transport makes us healthier

How our health benefits from a low carbon society, Prof Hugh Barton, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments, UWE
Using Health Messaging to Promote Sustainable Transport, Mark Frost, London Borough of Hounslow
The CATCH "My City" tool, Mario Castangia, Systematica

Session 3: An holistic approach to low carbon transport within the context of sustainable mobility planning

The need for long-term planning & how sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMPs) can play a role, Sylvain Haon, Polis
A strategy for sustainable urban mobility in Lisbon, Renata Lajas, Municipality of Lisbon

Session 4: Why low carbon transport is good for the economy and your pocket

Investing in low carbon transport is the only sensible option, Derek Palmer, TRL
The economic benefits from public transport, Andreas Egense Jørgensen, Metroselskabet
Cycling & Walking as a cost effective solution for all, Dorthe Gyldenlund Råby, City of Odense

Closing session: The future for CATCH

CATCH: what next?, Umberto Pernice, MRCMH
Sunset project: Sustainable Social Networking Services for Transport, Marcel Meeuwissen, City of Enschede
Results from TOSCA project: Technology Opportunities and Strategies toward Climate-Friendly Transport, Dr Lynette Dray, University of Cambridge
DEMOCRITOS: Mobility Credits enabling travellers to improve urban transport sustainability, Marco Troglia, Quaeryon
Results from REACT project: Supporting Research on Climate Friendly Transport, Vladislav Maras, University of Belgrade

New programme online: new confirmed speakers

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:04:00 +0100

A new version of the programme has been published online for the CATCH final conference. New speakers include representatives from other FP7 projects. These speakers will showcase their results and discuss possibilities of how the results from FP7 projects related to transport and climate change can be used in the future.

The new programme is available here.

For more information on the conference, and to register, click here.

Low carbon transport event in Yantai, China

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:34:00 +0100

The Municipality of Handan together with the E-Forum and the Municipality of Yantai will hold an event on 7 December 2011 to discuss the shift to a low carbon cities, with a focus on low carbon transport.

The event will present results from European-Chinese cooperation projects, including with a strong focus on CATCH and will be held in Chinese and English. Local stakeholders will discuss about the transferability of the CATCH project results to the Chinese context.

The draft agenda is available here.

For more information in English, contact: shaun.topham@eu-forum.org

Latest project e-update online

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:55:00 +0200

Read about the latest developments in the CATCH project, including articles on:

Data to support Motivation for Sustainable Transport Change
Visualisation tools: focus on the CATCH 'co-benefit tool'
The CATCH final conference
CATCH event in Brazil
and details of CATCH publications & conference papers

Download it here.

Programme for CATCH Final Event Online

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:49:00 +0200

Click here to access the draft programme.

For more details of the event, view the event page.

DEMOCRITOS final event

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:44:00 +0200

A representative from CATCH coordinator MRC spoke at the final conference of the FP7 project DEMOCRITOS, held in Genoa Italy, on 23 Sept 2011, presenting results so far achieved on the FP7 project CATCH.

DEMOCRITOS has developed a Mobility Credits Model as a transport specific platform enabling travellers, mobility providers, technology providers and transport planners to understand the implications of climate policy and increasing prices for greenhouse gas emissions. Umberto liaised with partners of DEMOCRITOS to investigate potential synergies between the two FP7 projects and collaboration for future research projects in the Intelligent Transport and Smart cities research area.

You can view presentations from the event on the DEMOCRITOS website.

Think you know how much is sustainable?

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:04:00 +0200

We're looking at further developing the CATCH tools, and want to understand how we should best present data about low carbon mobility. Complete this very short survey to help us understand how best to do this. It will take less than five minutes!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/scenario-tool

CATCH event in Brazil

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:42:00 +0200

The XXV ANPET - Congress Research and Education in Transportation will be held in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, from 7 to 11 November 2011 at the Convention Center of the School of Engineering of UFMG.

The themes of the congress include, among others:

Transport Policy, Transportation Planning, Analysis of Transport Systems, Transport and Environment, Transport Economics, Management and Organization of Transportation, Operation of Transport, Engineering and Traffic Safety, Transport infrastructure, Logistics, New Technologies and Human Resources Training in Transport.

On 08 November the conference "Sustainable Mobility" will be held, organized by Transport Engineering Programme/COPPE/UFRJ to present initiatives and experiences on this topic, including a major part on CATCH - Carbon Aware Travel Choice.

For more information: http://www.xxvanpet.com.br/

CATCH Final Conference - 13 December 2011

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:56:00 +0200

The transition to a low carbon transport system requires a radical shift in how we move. This shift requires new technology, but importantly requires a change in the way we behave as individuals and how we plan and measure transport interventions. The required transition in transport behaviours requires an holistic approach since transport is intrinsically linked to many other areas of society and the economy.

The CATCH project is holding its final conference on 13 December 2011 in the University of West of England in Bristol, UK. This EU FP7 project conducted ground-breaking research into how information about climate change and transport should be communicated, and has developed an online knowledge platform designed to facilitate an holistic view of transport in order to better communicate the need for low carbon transport systems, and plan for the low carbon transport future.

The final conference will present research from the project, and present the CATCH knowledge platform in the context of a variety of co-benefits that a low carbon transport will bring to health, safety, the economy and to planning. It will be demonstrated how the CATCH knowledge platform links to these different areas by providing information and improving communication between the general public and transport professionals. Presentations from experts from different fields will also detail the wider benefits of a low carbon transport future.

Who will attend?:

Transport professionals interested in low carbon transport systems: city representatives, public transport operators, consultants, and others.
Climate change experts with an interest in transport.
Professionals from other disciplines which can benefit from low carbon transport systems: for example from health or civil society.

Contact

For more information, contact aclark@polisnetwork.eu More details will be made on the Final Conference website page soon.

CATCH publications online

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:07:00 +0200

Three publications from research carried out within the CATCH project can be found here.

These three publications are the following:

Waygood E. O. D. and Avineri, E. Visual Formats, Reference Points, and Anchoring Effects on Perceptions of the Sustainability of Travel Choices. The 1st Workshop on Traffic Behavior, Modeling and Optimization TBMO 2010, 19 Sept. 2010, Maderia, Portugal. 2010.

Waygood E. O. D. and Avineri, E. The effect of loss framing on the perceived difference of CO2 amounts: implications for advanced travel information systems. Universities' Transport Study Group (UTSG) 43rd Annual Conference, Jan. 5-7, 2011, Milton Keynes. 2011.

Waygood E. O. D. and Avineri, E. Does "500g of CO2 for a 5 mile trip" mean anything? Towards more effective presentation of CO2 information. Transportation Research Board (TRB) 90th Annual Meeting, January 24-27, 2011, Washington, DC.

These publications build on the work by project partners UWE that is available in the first two deliverables of the project which look at how people perceive and react to information regarding CO₂ in mobility.

CATCH Fact Sheets: Benefits of Transport CO2 Reduction

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:54:00 +0100

A key point in communicating the need for climate-friendly travel is to focus on the benefits of low carbon travel in areas other than climate change mitigation (the "co- benefits" of low carbon travel). Within the CATCH platform, benefits and links to other areas are highlighted, and as part of its research, the CATCH consortium have written short fact sheets to introduce the possible benefits of low carbon mobility to a number of other "co-benefit" areas.

There are six areas looked at within the CATCH platform. These six areas look at the benefits of transport CO₂ reduction for health, planning, time, safety, community and cost. Each of these areas is explored with an individual fact sheet. The fact sheets look at the possible benefits for each of these areas, as well as link to resources to find out more information.

Download the fact sheets below:

Introduction to fact sheets (download)

Benefits of CO₂ Reduction in Transport for Health
Benefits of CO₂ Reduction in Transport for Planning
Benefits of CO₂ Reduction in Transport for Time
Benefits of CO₂ Reduction in Transport for Cost
Benefits of CO₂ Reduction in Transport in the Community
Benefits of CO₂ Reduction in Transport for Safety

CATCH partner Handan in low carbon city network (China)

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:33:00 +0100

Handan recently joined the low carbon city network and is now in cooperation with 10 other cities in working out detailed low carbon action plans. To join the low carbon city network, the cities have to commit to develop their own low carbon city action plan, sign the mayor's memorandum, and set up low carbon city office. Handan, along with Dezhou, Meishan, Kunming, Yinchuan and other Chinese cites, is now engaging with the China Low Carbon Cities Network to develop their low carbon action plans.

Major areas of the city action plan are to develop activities on low carbon industry, low carbon building and low carbon transport. Currently Handan is working to develop its first GHG emission inventory at the city level.

Actions in transport to reduce the carbon emissions include setting up a non-motorised transport system, planning new urban areas with transit-oriented development guidelines, and further improving the public transport system by introducing railways and building a BRT system. The objective is to meet the national standard to lower GHG emission levels by 45% compared with the emissions of 2005 by the end of 2020.

The transport actions are part of a wider plan, and the city is also designing other tools and guidelines including a facility management system and low carbon building standards. Handan also participates in the low carbon index assessment practice to draft low carbon action plans in the city level.

If you would like further information on this, please email wangboyong@gmail.com

CATCHing Students

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:54:00 +0100

Students from the University of the West of England's (UWE) Art Media course have begun working with CATCH partners to develop innovative visual presentations of information. In parallel with work being conducted by professionals working for project partner Systematica in Italy, the UWE students will come with their own ideas and visions of how the information might be presented to motivate more sustainable transport behaviour. This is part of a project that the students are required to undertake in their third year of study, where they are required to work on a multi-media project with limited supervision.

Their project will look at presenting information in an engaging way, as project partner Systematica is doing. The students will liaise with the Systematica team to ensure that the work of the students is complementary to the work done as part of the project, and does not overlap.

Systematica continue their work on developing visual tools, with a first prototype ready for testing in June.

Disclaimer: please note that the picture is for reference, and not based on real data.

Key role of Local Government in tackling Climate Change

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:50:00 +0100

The UNFCCC process focuses on the role of international and national governments in relation to climate change but with the majority of GHG emissions coming from cities local governments must play a vital role in their mitigation.

In a press conference held in the middle of the second week of Cancun UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres and COP16/CMP6 President Patricia Espinosa explicitly supported the work of cities on the implementation of local climate action on mitigation and adaptation. They also highlighted their support for the carbon Cities Climate Registry (cCCR) (see http://citiesclimateregistry.org/), which is a key component of the Mexico City Pact that was signed by 138 cities at the World Mayor?s Summit on Climate that took place in Mexico City a week before COP16.

The cCCR aims to be the global response of cities and local governments to the need for measurable, reportable, verifiable climate actions, one of the most challenging issues being discussed by the UNFCCC. By being included in the cCCR cities agree to enter their climate actions in the Registry and to submit details of their GHG emissions and mitigation and adaptation actions as a part of a regular reporting system. This Registry will support the global credibility of local climate action by allowing transparency, accountability and comparability of climate actions, performance and commitments. It will also serve as a platform for donors that seek MRVed local actions to support. Among the Mexico City Pact signatories, five cities of five continents have already provided climate data in the registry: Calgary, Copenhagen, Cape Town, Mexico City and Nagpur.

International acknowledgement of the role of local government in addressing challenges posed by climate change is viewed as a necessary step to give legitimacy to local authorities in their negotiations with national governments. To gain this acknowledgement, the cities? networks have made numerous political declarations during various summits of mayors and interventions in COP and MOP plenary sessions. They have organized informal meetings with the different chairs and co-chairs of the AWG-LCA and AWG-KP, and with almost each national delegation. The outputs of the COP16/MOP6 reflect these efforts with local and sub-national governments explicitly mentioned in several chapters of the Cancun Agreement and other UNFCCC adopted text.

CATCH project update online

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:49:00 +0100

The second CATCH project update is now available online. To find out the latest news from the project, click here.

The update looks at:

some of the latest dissemination activities;
the progress on the visual tool design;
the report from the interest group meeting;
CATCH co-benefit fact sheets; and
how the project is meeting user needs.

Second Interest Group - presentations online!

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:14:00 +0100

The second CATCH interest group took place on 15-16 November in The Hague, The Netherlands. Experts in transport and carbon management attended the event which provided a valuable forum for exchange and feedback on the development of the CATCH platform.

The meeting was entitled "Exploring the wider benefits of transport in the urban transport sector", and looked at a wide variety of different topics, from the co-benefit of air quality in China to the economic benefits of carbon reduction in public transport. Interactive sessions also took place to get feedback on the current design of the CATCH platform.

Please find below the agenda and presentations delivered at the event.

Agenda

Monday, 15th November

International policy perspective and good practices - Holger Dalkmann, TRL
Low carbon transport in the Handan Municipality, China - Boyong Wang, Handan Municipality
View from Brazil - Andréa Santos, Brazilian Panel on Climate Change
Information on Transport Alternatives - How to make it effective through 'choice architecture' - Dr Erel Avineri & Dr Owen Waygood, UWE
Knowledge Managment - Dr Steve Cassidy, MRC & Milan Novkovic, Q-Sphere
Engaging Users - Mario Castangia, Systematica

Tuesday, 16th November

The Hague - Overview - Toine Molenschot, City of The Hague
Sustainable Financing in Public Transport - Heather Allen, UITP
How to reduce carbon when you've got no $ - Mark Frost, London Borough of Hounslow
Capitalising on CATCH and co-benefits - James Bonner, MRC

CATCH dissemination in China

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 10:30:00 +0100

TRL, a CATCH partner with a key role in the dissemination of the project, attended some dissemination events in China in October 2010. The objectives of the meetings were to increase awareness of the CATCH project amongst stakeholders in China, obtain feedback on the initial design prototypes developed by the project, and to gain an insight into how CATCH can be used by stakeholders in China and how the project can be better tailored to their needs.

The China dissemination activity had three core components:

A seminar in Handan where TRL gave a presentation on the CATCH project and also lead a workshop style session to obtain feedback on the initial project outputs
A presentation to increase awareness of the CATCH project at the Shanghai Expo
Meetings with relevant stakeholders in Beijing.

A report was written that contains an overview of each of these activities, and can be viewed here.

CATCH talks to UNFCCC Executive Secretary

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:36:00 +0200

CATCH partner TRL recently got the opportunity to ask the new UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres about how the transport sector could best proactively contribute to the climate process. In her response she emphasised that the transport sector is a "very key sector for the entire world" with respect to climate change but that it is a sector where investments "cannot be justified purely" from a climate perspective. She stated that "for the modernisation of transportation, particularly in developing countries, you have to? put together a basket of arguments and clearly health is one, fuel efficiency and savings on fuel is another, the comfort of citizens in cities because that?s where most of the transportation problems are? and the reduction of local particulates." She elaborated on the need for local level action by advocating "particularly working with cities" as she feels that the wide range of co-benefits that transport interventions can realise coincide at a city level. This reinforces the value of the approach that CATCH is taking and validates core aspects of the CATCH Knowledge Platform design, which is currently in development. For related information and a full transcript of her response see http://www.transport2012.org.

Meeting user needs

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:04:00 +0200

With the visits to the four pilot cities which took place between June and July, the CATCH work package 2 (principally conducted by Systematica and MRCMH) came to its conclusion. The aim of the visits was to collect feedback on, and finalise user requirements for, the open knowledge platform functionalities and architecture. This activity has been carried out in collaboration with practitioners and city stakeholders from Lisbon, London Borough of Hounslow, Odense and Rotterdam. A preliminary range of interactive options was presented to the audience during visits, then a discussion was held among stakeholders in order to gather precious observations and comments that will be used to finalise the platform design. In particular a video describing the platform architecture and its design guiding principles was shown during visits, together with preliminary use cases on two main interactive functionalities.

One functionality focuses on the positive links between reduced carbon transport systems and a range of wider benefits (specifically co-benefits on health, safety, time, budget, and other main challenges currently faced by cities). The other functionality focuses on core transportation performance indicators, upon which a self-assessment of one?s own city can be drawn. The final purpose of both functionalities is to engage cities and citizens in confronting their challenges and solutions with other similar contexts and individuals, to trigger motivation to change carbon emission patterns and to promote a low carbon culture in cities. All the activities conducted in WP2 will drive the definition of design guidelines that will outline the platform architecture, specify its functionalities and the relationship between them. The guidelines will also contain specification on the platform content management and integration protocols.

2nd CATCH Interest Group Meeting

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:44:00 +0200

The next CATCH interest group meeting will take place in The Hague on the 15-16 November 2010. This is the second in a series of 4 interest group meetings which are designed to bring together core interest group city representatives, other interest group members, and other interested parties to provide a platform to discuss the development of the CATCH platform.

The audience for the meeting is:

City representatives working in transport and mobility departments
Experts in the field of transport and carbon management from research, NGOs, consultancy and business sectors.

The focus of the meeting will be in exploring the wider benefits of carbon reduction in the urban transport sector, such as benefits in health, safety, urban planning, etc. The CATCH team will present ongoing work from the project in exploring these wider benefits, and there will be presentations from stakeholders exploring these wider benefits in different areas.

To view the draft agenda, click here.

Deliverable: research and design report online

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:01:00 +0200

This report is the second deliverable of the first work package, "grounding", following the behavioural inception report. This report builds on findings from that report by investigating some research gaps, presenting the findings and giving some examples of how the concepts could be applied. This information will then be used in the following work package to guide the design of the project outputs from later work packages.

The theory of planned behaviour suggests that an important part of creating change is not just improving awareness and understanding, but motivating change among individual travellers (and stakeholders). To this end, research was conducted on what format of CO₂ information is more associated with motivation to change and discussions around what is desirable in a neighbourhood. Knowing what format improves motivation might not only help the CATCH project, but also Internet tools such as carbon calculator, journey planners, and travel plan measures.

Improving understanding and motivation for citizens can create positive change within the current built environment, but the ease and extent to which changes are possible will be heavily influenced by transport options. Practitioners must work with decision makers and the public to implement changes to the built environment and it is necessary for the CATCH project to understand what might help them. As a result, a number of interviews were carried out with, business and government transport practitioners. Questions looked at their current situation, barriers and tools, and important people in the process.

This report provides a summary of findings and analysis based on research to improve understanding CO₂information, creating more motivation to change car use, how framing can influence the perception of differences, what people desire in their neighbourhoods, and an investigation into what could help practitioners. Practical recommendations for application are given with respect to the CATCH knowledge platform as well.

Read the full report here.

CATCH at Shanghai Expo

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:22:00 +0200

The Municipality of Handan in China is one of the partners in the CATCH project. They are interested in creating low carbon mobility in their municipality, and have presented the CATCH project at several local events including a Handan Science and Technology IT Promotion Event, where low carbon transport and IT were major topics, and a seminar on the low carbon economy in Handan Engineering school.

A major chance to present the CATCH project to an international audience will be at the Shanghai Expo. Handan will hold a 'Handan Day' at the Shanghai Expo on October 25th 2010 to promote Handan eGovernment construction, and particularly its endeavor to introduce low carbon technology and best practice in building up a sustainable local economy. Handan-EU Cooperation, including Handan's participation in EU-China Information Society Project and FP7 framework project, will be highlighted. Other partners from the CATCH project will also be in attendance.

The Hebei provincial government, in which Handan lies, is discussing with eForum and British embassy to jointly organize an international seminar on low carbon economy, environment friendly transportation and setting up links between Hebei and EU enterprises.
More information here soon, and on www.catch2010.com

Watch the CATCH video

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:46:00 +0200

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5eBppGwsOM

The latest from UNFCCC climate change negotiations

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:08:00 +0200

The COP15 in Copenhagen in December 2009 did not deliver the comprehensive post 2012 climate agreement that had been anticipated by many. Negotiations are therefore continuing with aim of reaching an international legally binding agreement either at COP16 at the end of 2010, or at COP17 in South Africa. There is increasing feeling that it will be the latter that delivers an international treaty, particularly after positions on fundamental issues remained divided after a further two weeks of negotiations in Bonn from 31 May to 11 June. This is reflected in the fact that the text drafted by the Chair of the LCA at the end of the fortnight was not adopted.

The draft LCA text, which will be reworked before negotiations continue in August, made reference (albeit very limited) to the need for local level action in relation to both climate change mitigation and adaptation. It stated, for example, that stakeholders at the local level need to be engaged and that local knowledge, experiences and best practice needs to be 'developed and/or strengthened' in developing countries. The text also made reference to the need for 'strengthening climate change communication, education, training and public awareness at all levels, including at the local and community levels.' Capacity building is one of the four pillars of the Bali Action Plan and as such is prominent in this text. CATCH can be considered as a form of capacity building for the local level and therefore has the potential to contribute towards the highlighted need for 'enhancing the capacity to plan, prepare and implement climate change action.'

TRL and UITP represented the CATCH project team at the negotiations, taking advantage of all opportunities to raise awareness of the need for the land transport sector to be accommodated in an international agreement. Individuals from numerous delegations approached the team members during the course of the two weeks with many stating their desire to undertake more mitigation actions in the transport sector but expressing the need for guidance on how this could be done. Conversations highlighted the pressing need for a tool such as CATCH to provide policy makers, particularly those in developing countries where knowledge on sustainable transport interventions is less developed, with evidence of the impact that transport projects can have on both GHG emissions and other co-benefits and details of the full range of interventions that can be implemented. Presentations given at a workshop organised by the Bridging the Gap initiative highlighted that many diverse projects are being implemented globally to reduce GHG emissions from the transport sector, so we have the knowledge - now there's the need to ensure that it's shared.

Project update

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:56:00 +0200

An update of the work being done in the CATCH project can be found here. This update contains updates from:

WP1 - The Grounding Work Package, for which more information can also be found here
WP2 - The design work package
WP3 - development of the greenhouse gas database
WP4 - scenario development

Additionally, the date and venue for the next CATCH interest group meeting has been announced, and will be held in The Hague on 15-16 November 2010.

CATCH in Dunkerque

Tue, 11 May 2010 12:42:00 +0200

CATCH project partner Polis attended the 6th European Sustainable Cities and Towns Conference held in Dunkerque on the 19-21 May 2010. This conference is the largest European event dedicated to local sustainable development, and a CATCH representative from Polis had the chance to discuss the project at this event.

The organisers and attendees recognise the importance of local initiatives in creating a sustainable future, and many local initiatives were presented, along with high level panels. Find out more about the conference here

A key theme in the conference was climate change: and relevant to the CATCH project, specific sessions relevant to mobility and to behavioural change. These are key areas that need to be tackled in order to tackle climate change, and to create sustainable communities.

Report from the first Interest Group Meeting

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:43:00 +0200

The First CATCH Interest Group took place 17-18 February, and brought together representatives from local authorities, consultancy, research and networks from the fields of transport and carbon management.

The purpose of the Interest Group is to provide an arena in which to involve stakeholders in the design and dissemination of the CATCH knowledge platform. Findings from this first interest group will feed directly into ongoing work in the design of the CATCH knowledge platform (work package 2) and the scenario development (work package 4).

The report is available here.

Dr Steve Cassidy explains the vision behind CATCH

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0100

Steve Cassidy from MRC Europe the coordinator for the CATCH project explains the idea behind CATCH.

First Interest Group Meeting - presentations online!

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:07:00 +0100

The first CATCH Interest Group meeting took place on the 17-18 February 2010 in Brussels. The meeting brought together representatives from local government, research, consultancy and European and International networks to discuss the international, European and national dimensions of GHG reduction strategies, and what the CATCH platform can offer to help move towards sustainable mobility. Additionally, the Covenant of Mayors initiative was introduced, and the thorny issue of evaluation methods for CO₂for transport in cities was addressed.

The agenda for the meeting can be found here. Some of the meeting was filmed, and can be viewed on the CATCH youtube channel.

The presentations can be viewed below:

Wednesday, 17th February 2010

Introduction - Steve Cassidy, MRC McLean Hazel
Post Copenhagen: What are the implications for transport strategies in cities? - Holger Dalkmann, TRL
The move to low carbon transport - Ian Hodgson, European Commission
Information Provision & Behavioural Change - Dr Erel Avineri & Dr Owen Waygood, Centre for Transport & Society, UWE
10 Proposals for CO₂ reductions measures in transport - Dorthe Gyldenlund Råby & Carsten Løndal, City of Odense
Climate Strategy for the Municipality of Örebro - Per Elvingson, Municipality of Örebro

Thursday, 18th February 2010

Enabling Change - Steve Cassidy, MRC McLean Hazel
Covenant of Mayors - Dion Wierts, Covenant of Mayors Office
Evaluation Methods for CO₂ - Rosemary Bailey, UWE
Business Opportunities from Carbon Management - James Bonner, MRC McLean Hazel

First Interest Group Meeting 17-18 February!

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:30:00 +0100

The first CATCH interest group meeting will take place on 17-18 February. It is is being held in the Polis offices in Brussels, and being jointly organised with the Polis Working Group on Environment & Health.

The meeting will look at how travel behaviour changes can be encouraged, how cities are addressing the complex task of climate protection, what the European Commission is doing to reduce GHG emissions from transport, and how the outcomes of the Copenhagen Climate Summit might impact on transport strategies in cities. Besides this, the Covenant of Mayors initiative for climate protection will be presented.

Discussion will be lead on the formulation of the CATCH knowledge platform, exploring some of the institutional barriers to behavioural change, and possible business opportunities available to manage carbon.

To view an agenda of the meeting, please click here. Outcomes of the meeting will be reported on this website: check back for more news!

The CATCH cities are announced!

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:29:00 +0100

There are four cities involved in the CATCH project: these cities were chosen through an open Call, and are interested in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector, and becoming recognised in urban transport carbon reduction strategies. After careful consideration by the Consortium, the four cities chosen are: Baia Mare (Romania), Lisbon (Portugal), the London Borough of Hounslow (UK) and Odense (Denmark). You can read more about the cities here.

CATCH First Stages: an update from UWE

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:29:00 +0100

The CATCH project is about carbon awareness and changing people's travel behaviour to be more sustainable. People may be aware of the link between transport, carbon dioxide (CO₂), and climate change, but research suggests that few people act to change their behaviour. A small part of the population may be concerned and motivated enough to check Internet tools such as travel/journey planners or carbon calculators, but even they seldom understand the results when presented in weight of carbon dioxide emitted.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is a new and abstract concept. Like concepts such as calories, it may be necessary to give people the information on the environmental impacts as equivalents (such as trees to sequester the CO₂ produced, or the number of Earths to support) or a carbon budget (an amount of CO₂ that would be "free" to produce). In the next stage of Work Package 1, researchers from the Centre for Transport & Society (CTS) at the University of the West of England, Bristol, will examine the most effective ways to present the information to improve understanding and motivation to change.

The potential for information on CO₂ to change people's behaviour is also affected by the nature of the problem of climate change on a number of levels. One of the problems is that behaviour choices are in the present, but impacts are in the future. People discount future costs and often think of the impacts in abstract terms. The health field deals with the problem in a number of areas including smoking. Individuals must put aside perceived gains now to avoid potential future negative costs. Unfortunately, the scale of climate change and the behavioural decisions associated are on a different scale. It is not the choice to smoke or the choice to purchase a pack of cigarettes, but the choice of home locations and whether to purchase a vehicle. What type of vehicle and how it is used is also important, but once a vehicle is purchased there is little incentive not to use it. Through the use of future scenarios, CATCH could better link choices now with the resultant changes to the city.

Presenting people with CO₂ information may be useful to influence behaviour change in some people, but not all people value such information. In discussion with a representative sample of the population, different influences such as future scenarios could be analyzed for their ability to affect choices in the present.

From psychological research there are a number of relevant issues. One is how people will react to the climate change issue and information on CO₂. The three basic reactions are denial, token behaviour change, and proper behaviour change. Deniers may either ignore information to avoid opposing their choice or may even act in opposition to the information by using more energy. If they perceive no negative impacts to themselves as a result of that behaviour, it may reinforce their denial. Token behaviour change may be small changes that result in little decrease in CO2 output or may be unrelated behaviour such as recycling because that action falls under the "environmental behaviour" umbrella. Proper behaviour change would result in measurable reductions in CO₂ output and motivation to improve.

It may not be necessary to convince all people that they must change. Choice architecture is an area of research where techniques exist that promote behaviour change without requiring a person to make a concerted effort. One example of these techniques is default behaviour. Stores use this when they either automatically provide a bag or not. If one is provided, it takes an effort on the individual?s part to not take one. If one is not provided, an individual must make some effort to acquire one. In both cases, there may not be a cost associated, but merely a small effort.

With respect to transport, one example would be work-place parking. The default in many places is to have free parking. If companies gave an equivalent subsidy for taking transit and required that employees make the choice to sacrifice that subsidy for the construction and maintenance of a parking space, commuting behaviour towards more transit use would likely result.

The CATCH project is not aiming to solve all of the problems of behaviour with respect to climate change, but it will be a knowledge source for many city stakeholders such as planners to learn of effective techniques, to share ideas, and help cities reduce the amount of CO₂ produced through transport.

CATCH at COP 15

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:24:00 +0100

The CATCH consortium was represented at the COP15 in Copenhagen by TRL, which was an intensive fortnight of negotiations characterised by fundamental divisions in positions and opinions which on numerous occasions resulted in deadlock and made for sometimes volatile negotiations. From the outset it was clear that Parties came to the COP with very different visions of the type of document that should result, and consensus remains equally divided about the Copenhagen Accord that emerged.

Whatever your opinion about the Copenhagen Accord, its informal status and the process by which it was developed it is clear that the COP15 served to increase awareness of climate change and the need for an urgent upscaling of both mitigation and adaptation. No less than 110 world leaders attended to discuss one issue - climate change - and in the process served to increase awareness of both governments and the public alike of the need to respond to this global threat.

There were a considerable and varied number of campaigns organised to capture the attention and imagination of governments, NGOs, corporations and the public alike both at and in the run-up to COP15. Media coverage of these campaigns and the negotiations themselves was also intense, helping to mainstream climate change and raise its prominence in the public consciousness.

The need for action on a local level and the need for individuals to respond to the challenge is something that was reiterated throughout the COP15. In the opening ceremony the Prime Minister of Denmark, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, stated that in order to realise a low carbon future ultimately 'our citizens must? make it happen.' The opening ceremony was also addressed by the Mayor of Copenhagen, Ms. Ritt Bjerregard, who left no doubt of the significance of local action: 'today cities are responsible for more than 75% of global CO₂ emissions. We also represent more than 50% of the world's population and some of the world?s largest economies. So, we may be part of the problem but we are definitely part of the solution. Cities are ready to act. Together.' This sentiment was echoed at the opening of the AWG-LCA, with the Vice-President of Nantes Metropole, Ronan Dantec, stating that 'no country will ever meet its own targets? without the commitment of the local level.'

Direct references at the COP to the need for action on a local level and the power of the individual to instigate change are too numerous to mention. One of the most prominent voices supporting the role of local government was perhaps ICLEI ? Local Governments for Sustainability who had a permanent meeting space at the Bella Center for the fortnight. At COP15 ICLEI, an international association of over 1,107 cities, towns and counties, were active in demonstrating the political will and practical ability that exists to mitigate climate change at the local level. The role of local governments and their citizens was lauded by a wide number of organisations, however. Indeed the need for local leadership and for more guidance for cities and their citizens was directly expressed at events organised by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

So what about the Copenhagen Accord? The Accord does not make reference to action on the local level. Since Bali Party submissions to the UNFCCC have requested that the partnership between all levels of governance be recognised and reflected in text, but amendments that were subsequently made are not recognised in the Copenhagen Accord. There is therefore the need to actively seek to ensure that the role of local governments is fully recognised in both the UNFCCC process over the coming year of negotiations and beyond. It will also be necessary to support the ability of local governments to implement meaningful and effective climate change mitigation actions in both developed and developing countries. Local stakeholders need to be facilitated to help realise their potential role in climate change - CATCH will be one of many tools that support their ability to do so.