43. 17-02-21 Climate Change And The UK Water Sector

It was a great pleasure to host the 9^th in our series of Water Conservators webinars titled “Climate Change And What It Could Mean For The UK Water Sector”. Sir Brian Hoskins, Chair of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College gave an excellent and engaging presentation about the changes that have occurred in global climate due to human activity and how it may change in decades to come.

He began by showing how measured carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had risen by 33% since the 1960s and pointed out that for every 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted now, around 15 to 40 tones would remain in the atmosphere for a 1000 years. He then demonstrated how the average temperature rise over the last 100 years varied across the globe with the highest changes occurring over land masses in the northern hemisphere and the lowest occurring over the oceans. These temperature changes had resulted in a number of recent record weather events including temperature, rainfall and storms. Future projections again indicate that the largest temperature rises will occur over land mass with up to an 11 degree rise in places.

Looking at the implications for the UK, Sir Brian showed projections for high and low scenarios with up to 40% more precipitation in winter up to 2080 and up to 46% less rainfall in the summer. In summary he concluded that further climate change is inevitable until net CO2 emissions go to zero, and that the UK is expected to be warmer and wetter in winter and drier (mostly) in summer with heavy rainfall events likely to increase in both summer and winter.

Sir Brian’s presentation was then followed by a fascinating question and answer session where possible mitigation actions for the UK water sector were discussed. 143 participants attended the webinar, a record so far. On behalf of everyone I would again like to thank Sir Brian for a brilliant presentation and also give my thanks to everyone who attended making the webinar a great success.

42. 10-02-21 A Systems Perspective on Net-Zero Infrastructure

Tonight, I attended a webinar hosted by the Worshipful Company of Engineers. Professor Gordon Masterton, Master of the Engineers Company introduced the event, then Dr Ana Mijic, a senior lecturer in Water Systems Integration at Imperial College, London gave a short presentation titled “A Systems Perspective on Net-Zero Infrastructure”. She is leading the development of novel systems tools focused on quantifying the interaction between water systems and sustainable development. The work aims to inform regulatory bodies and water industry if and how we can support economic growth whilst ensuring sustainable water use and flood and water quality management under future uncertainties. Through NERC Innovation Fellowship funding she worked with the UK Environment Agency to apply systems thinking and systemic approaches to develop principles of systems water management at a catchment scale.

Ana began her talk highlighting that heating in homes, offices and industry create around 32% of all UK emissions. She outlined the importance of moving to heat pumps, energy efficient buildings and the use of hydrogen. Then spoke about a systems level solutions including alternative cement binders with lower CO2 emissions for construction, changing flying altitude to reduce emissions from planes, and reducing abstraction during high precipitation events to improve water quality management.

The film displayed the architectural features of many of the splendid water fountains within the City, gave details of their history and the architects responsible for the structures. The film included fountains from medieval London right up to those recently installed by the City of London Corporation as part of the Plastic Free City Campaign. This was followed by a lively question and answer session. My thanks to Chris and the Charter Architects for an entertaining and interesting webinar.

Ana was then joined by a panel of distinguished experts chaired by Professor Jennifer Whyte, CSEI Co-Director, Laing O'Rourke to discuss her paper. The panel consisted of Daniel Johns FCIWEM, Head of Public Affairs, Anglian Water Services Limited, David Pinder, Executive Chairman, Mixergy; Lead for the Net Zero Carbon Industry Initiative, Construction Leadership Council,  Professor Mary Ryan, Professor of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Vice-Dean for Research, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College and Dr Nick Starkey, Director of Policy, Royal Academy of Engineering.