An Interview with Ben Murray

It’s #ScotClimateWeek which is an annual event to raise awareness of the global climate emergency and encourage climate action across the country.?

To mark this event, we’ve interviewed Ben Murray who is the Principal Sustainability Consultant for 艾奕康 ?

If you oversaw the country for the day, how would you encourage climate action??

I’d carry out a gap analysis to identify the key sources of past, current, and future emissions – not just where emissions are today, but how they’ve changed over the past couple of decades and how this change is projected to continue under existing policies. This will highlight where the gaps are – where are the residual, hard to treat emissions going to come from in the years up to 2045, and what powers does the Scottish Government have to address them? It’s important that we follow the data.?

We need to do everything possible to reduce energy consumption, whether this is in homes, businesses, or transport. It’s great that we’re seeing a shift from fossil fuels towards more sustainable energy sources, but we’re still wasting far too much. And this of course would not only help to reduce emissions, but also to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and the growing menace of fuel poverty. ?

We have to try to understand better how the climate behaviours of individuals and organisations affect each other. It’s well known that the concept of the personal carbon footprint was developed by large emitters to shift the burden of responsibility onto individuals and households and distract attention away from the corporations who have the power to bring about change. The fundamental shift to a more sustainable system must happen at the governmental and corporate level, but this is much more likely if these decision makers know that there’s a real appetite at the grass roots for system change to take place. It’s a little bit chicken and egg; at the end of the day, nobody is off the hook.?

What do you do in your personal life to tackle climate change??

As per my answer to the question above, I’ve done as much as possible to reduce energy consumption within my own home.?I’ve installed loft and cavity wall insulation, a modern boiler and heating controls. A recent loft conversion allowed me to improve the thermal performance of our home even further. I’ve also got solar PV and solar hot water systems on my roof, and anyone who knows me will not be surprised to hear that I monitor and record all my home energy data on a weekly basis. You can’t beat a spreadsheet!?

On the transport side, I’ve always cycled to work. We do have a car but we are now in a position to operate a modern EV rather than a worn out petrol car. I don’t fly for holidays, and only very occasionally for work purposes. We just got back from a trip to Berlin and Amsterdam, and I did the entire trip by rail and ferry. You just need to make the travelling part of the holiday, rather than something to endure at either end.?

Diet-wise, at home I’m overwhelmingly vegetarian, but recognise that there is more that I could do to move to a plant-based diet.

What’s hot on the net-zero agenda now in...

Scotland

Here in Scotland, we’ve got a target date for net zero of 2045, five years ahead of the rest of the UK. This largely reflects the additional opportunities that we’ve got to decarbonise our energy supply. The current devolution settlement means that the Scottish Government has got influence over many key policy areas, but the UK Government has many of the economic powers required to decarbonise. A key feature of climate policy here in Scotland is the recognition that there must be a Just Transition; the move to a low-carbon future must not repeat past mistakes that resulted in blighted post-industrial communities with few economic opportunities. Instead, we need to make sure that the economic and social benefits of decarbonisation are distributed equally.???????????????????????????????????????????????????

UK?

It’s important to remember that the UK has a legally binding target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050; their statutory advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, is doing a great job in publishing sectoral advice on decarbonisation strategies and on providing regular reports on progress against targets. ?

Rest of the World

Globally, action is coordinated by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with its annual Conference of the Parties (COPs). You’ll recall that the most recent COP took place in Glasgow last autumn, and the next one is due to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt this November. In terms of climate science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) continues to do a great job of summarising the latest science on climate change, impacts and mitigation.

The Inflation Control Act recently passed by the US Congress is very significant. Climate change doesn’t appear in the Act’s title (for sound political reasons) but there’s a lot within the legislation that will improve energy efficiency and incentivise the shift to lower carbon technology.

And of course, all national and global action to tackle climate change takes place against a backdrop of increasingly alarming extreme weather events. Devastating floods in Pakistan, droughts and wildfires in the US, and record-breaking heatwaves across much of the world – all of these are more likely to occur because of man-made climate change.?

Thanks Ben for your valuable insight.