Moving towards low-carbon buildings and cities: experiences from Oxford, UK

This paper reviews two key initiatives undertaken in the historical city of Oxford to bring about reductions in energy-related CO 2 emissions on a dwelling-level as well as city-wide scale, using both bottom-up and top-down carbon-counting approaches. The development and application of a bottom-up carbon-counting approach called DECoRuM is described. DECoRuM is a Geographical Information System-based software model which estimates and maps baseline energy use and CO 2 emissions on a house-by-house level, identifies 'pollution' hotspots, predicts the potential for reductions in CO 2 emissions and monitors reductions achieved as a result of deploying energy efficiency measures and renewable energy systems. The application of DECoRuM model to a case study in Oxford shows that CO 2 emission reductions above 60% are possible, at a cost of between £6 and £77 per tonne of CO 2 emissions saved, depending upon the package of measures used and the scenario of capital costs (low or high) employed. Alongside DECoRuM, the author has led the development of an action-oriented Oxford Climate Change Action Plan (OCCAP) which uses top-down approaches to construct an accurate CO 2 emissions inventory for Oxford city for a baseline year, establish CO 2 reduction targets and propose action for each of the energy-related sectors to meet those targets. These two different, but complimentary, approaches provide a useful example for other cities in their endeavour for emission reductions. Copyright The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.