We would like to invite you to contribute a written online comment in our Comment:Visions discussion on ‘Progress towards sustainability’.

To pre-submit a comment, click here to register or e-mail me at robert@commentvisions.com.

Comment:Visions was born out of a partnership between the global channel euronews, and the Economist-owned newspaper, European Voice, in association with Shell. This project explores the views of thinkers, innovators, decision-makers, and scientists about possible solutions to global warming, overpopulation and dwindling resources.

In addition to the online community, Comment:Visions produces and broadcasts a series of programmes, and hosts face-to-face debates in Brussels, which usually take place in the European Parliament. All of this activity is also hosted on www.commentvisions.com.

Coming up on the website, we are discussing the following question: What role does society have in delivering a sustainable energy future?

Moreover, contributing is a positive way to share your message amongst an influential online community in the industry, policy, and research of energy and environment.

Let me know if you are interested in participating in this opinion-leader discussion and I’ll contact you with further information.

Yours Sincerely,

Robert Zlokower
Community Manager, Comment:Visions

+44 20 3355 8060 ext. 101

robert@commentvisions.com

Economical Economics: Sustainability in Practice is the result of 10 years of Shmelev’s work in the field of sustainability research.

“It took almost three years to complete it, and I am very grateful to the Oxford University library for being such a friendly environment to complete this project,” Shmelev said.

Shmelev is an ecological economist, a photographer, a lecturer and a consultant, who has dedicated most of his life, with his ecology expertise, to contribute in somehow to improve environment and sustainability. Shmelev explains the book was designed to provide a deep insight into a new interdisciplinary field of ecological economics, stimulate new thinking in academia and government, and help to reform education programmes at the departments of economics.

“The current economic crisis shows in part the inadequacy of conceptual models and approaches applied at various levels, with this book I propose to use a ‘bigger picture’ view of economy-environment interactions, pioneered by the Nobel Prize winning economist W. Leontief in 1970; new ways of measuring progress based on multicriteria vision for sustainability inspired by the United Nations framework, and new tools for decision support based on multiple criteria,” Shmelev said.

Furthermore, the book was written to provide the interested student, policy maker or a member of an NGO with the necessary methodological tools to conduct sustainability analysis at the local, national, or international levels. The book offers a range of cutting-edge methods used in sustainability research including multicriteria decision aid (MCDA), input-output analysis, and life cycle analysis. Also, it is packed with references for students with some background in economics, environmental science or mathematics who aim to develop the analytical skills required for redirecting the development path towards sustainability in government, international organisations, academia, non-profit sector and business.

“The current trend of monetising everything (estimating the effects of economic activities on the environment in monetary terms) is worrying because we live in a multidimensional world and it is important to take social, environmental and economic dimensions of decisions into account without necessarily converting everything into money. It is such multidimensional vision that is proposed in this book,” he added.

– Paulina Breschi

Dr. Shmelev is starting a programme of invited lectures, and he can be booked to speak via his website www.environmenteurope.org

The book, published by Springer by an ex- Oxford University Senior Researcher, can be accessed via this link http://www.springer.com/978-94-007-1971-2 . And it can be purchased on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ecological-Economics-Sustainability-Stanislav-Shmelev/dp/940071971X or in bookstores such as:

Waterstones: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/stanislav+e-+shmelev/ecological+economics/8595951/
Blackwells http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/id/Ecological_Economics/9789400719712
Foyles http://www.foyles.co.uk/Public/Shop/Detail.aspx?rowNum=1&itemId=6746810&searchBy=1&term=Shmelev&quick=true
Germany:
Weltbild: http://www.weltbild.de/3/16893185-1/buch/ecological-economics.html

Jennifer Jacquemart / © European Voice.

Steiger, who is director of future technologies at VW and charman of European technology platform ERTRAC made the key point that we should decouple transport from mobility, and optimise transport infrastructure.

He certainly did not sound the death knell of the private car, but instead imagined constantly connected cars that warned their drivers of congestion and suggested alternative routes, cars which used a combination of renewably produced electricity and oil-alternatives like biogas, and cars that were much more efficient than those we have now. 

Steiger argues that current cars are often not suited to the task they perform. For example a large family estates is often overkill for the school run,  but can feel small on a 700km trip to see the relatives, and that’s because they’re designed as a compromise.

His focus was on city mobility, and there he saw a great move towards that most traditional of transport methods – two feet. In the future he believes we’ll walk a lot more, use electric scooters and electrically-assisted bikes, and adopt a new class of what he called ‘micro-vehicles’, often electric, to complete the last few kilometres of our journey.

The idea is that we switch, swap and match our transport modes to our mobility needs, much the same argument that we heard from Portuguese Professor Tiago Farias on Comment Visions earlier this year.

Where Steiger went a few steps further, however, is in explaining how urban areas would be transformed by new mobility systems. At the moment if you look at your average city street, whether it’s in the suburbs or downtown, and you’ll see at least one line of cars. These are parked, motionless, and as far as everyone apart from their owner is concerned, they are uselessly cluttering the road.

What Steiger proposes is to create purpose-built compact high-rise carparks where residents would be obliged to leave their vehicles. And there are many benefits to his plan, prinicpally that all that space currently occupied by motionless private vehicles could be used for bus lanes, bike lanes and pedestrian pavements. The car parks could host a new suite of services for the owners, and excess heat from the vehicle engines could be captured and used too.

It was a fascinating presentation, and an interesting insight into how a company like VW may see mobility developing. To hear such a radical, multi-modal vision of sustainable mobility from someone high-up within one of the world’s largest car-makers was also, in my opinion, a pleasant surprise.

The next step is to find a city with the courage, conviction and budget to implement those kinds of plans, because I’m pretty sure that once we’re able to see the ideas in action then most of us will be convinced of the benefits.

Which energy sources will we be using in 2050? How does that compare to the current situation? Which clean energy source is forecast to see the greatest growth by mid-century, and which current energy source is forecast to see a downturn by 2050?

I spoke to the Solar Impulse team earlier this week and the excitement was infectious – I can’t wait to see the pictures tonight when the plane touches down at BRU – a big international airport visited by a weird, futuristic solar-powered plane.

Solar Impulse itself is due to be on display in Brussels next week, and then it will fly down to Le Bourget for the air-show, weather permitting of course. It’s a triumph of ingenuity, and I hope paves the way for new and innovative solar-powered adventures in the future.

A little update one day later: Yes, the plane made it, read about it here!

And it wasn’t just any old car either, but that rather special Aston Martin DB6 Volante given to Prince Charles by the Queen for his 21st birthday. 

The Duke of Cambridge’s father asked Aston Martin to convert the car to run on E85 in 2008. The fuel is made from waste from the English wine industry – it apparently comes from a wine firm in Wiltshire which produces more than its EU quota, and so sells the excess on to Glucestershire firm Green Fuels, who in turn process it into ethanol for vehicles.

The decision to change the Aston over to greener energy is apparently part of the Prince of Wales’ drive to cut his carbon emissions, and although the convertible only covers a couple of hundred miles a year it does only make about 10 miles per gallon, so the conversion has probably saved quite a few kilos of CO2!

Let’s hope that the newlywed Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge follow Charles’ example and bring some more bright, green ideas into the public gaze.

This is a video summary of the talks we had with experts at the SDUK 2011 conference at the Queen Elisabeth II Conference Centre on March 17.

Monika Thomasberger & Jérémie Jordan

Technological advances are making it possible to derive energy from greener sources. But wind turbines, solar panels, biofuels, biomass plants and carbon capture and storage (CCS) are not free of controversy. Should the governments develop a specific strategy to win public support for new technological infrastructure projects? How should industry get involved? Is public awareness sufficient?

Last year, we hosted a live debate on these issues, and now we’re looking for your input online. To contribute, please contact Irina Gaspar (irina@commentvisions.com +44 207 420 0625) or click here to register.

Over 150 academics, policy-makers, and stakeholders met 9 December at the Wellcome Collection Conference Centre, London, for what may be the “last” annual conference, organisers said.

SDRN, funded by Defra and coordinated by the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) in London, offered speakers from different sectors to share their views on government changes and its effects on research.

The topics covered a wide range and included:

• The Sustainable development Policy under the new Government
• Skills for a Green and Sustainable Economy
• Environmental Behaviour and Pro-environmental Behaviour
• Digital Technologies in Research and Practice
• Trade and Sustainable Development

Jonathan Tillson, Head of Sustainable Development at Defra, regretted the British government’s approach to withdraw funding from the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC). On the other hand, according to Tillson, the UK strategy on sustainable development which is now five years old shows some success stories. Commitments like the Climate Change Act were largely delivered and the high level of engagement in the SD policy as well as the strengthening relationships between research and policy are good examples. The coalition committed of being the “greenest government ever,” aiming to place sustainable development at the very heart of decision making, he said.

Will Day, chair of the SDC, also opposed the funding cuts, underlining the SDC’s important role as a watchdog in climate change policy. “There seems to be a problem with politics. SDC lost funding because the government claims it is not transparent enough,” Day said. “When the Government has to safe money unfortunately it cuts back to narrow things.”

Prof. Andrew Stirling from the University of Sussex stressed that sustainability is a challenge for the government. He said: “The society sets commitments and when the time is right, changes can be made fast, but strong leadership and action is needed to get these changes working.”

The conference concluded with an evening wine reception and the launch of the SDRN Sustainable Procurement Review “Successful business and procurement: what lessons for sustainable public procurement can be drawn from successful businesses?” by Dr. Helen Walker, Associate Professor in Operations Management at the Warwick Business School.

– Monika Thomasberger