Launched in April last year, NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution satellite instrument (TEMPO), set out to change the way scientists observe North American air quality from space. Yesterday, the Atmospheric Science Data Center at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia announced that they would be making this near real-time data available to any organisations who might benefit from it. NASA scientists have been collecting local air pollution measurements for more than 20 years from low earth orbit but from TEMPO’s geo-stationary position, 22,000 miles above North ..read more

As part of their drive to tackle traffic-related air pollution, Thanet District Council are considering allowing enforcement officers to issue fixed penalty notices to motorists who allow their engines to idle unnecessarily. The proposals will be considered by the Cabinet and, if approved, would be introduced around local schools and within Air Quality Management Areas. It seems, however, that motorists will be warned in the first instance and have the consequences of their actions explained to them, with enforcement following for repeat offenders.  The new powers would mean officers cou ..read more

In a radical clamp-down on the advertising of fossil-fuel products, Edinburgh Council has banned advertising on high carbon products on council infrastructure, in a move described as ‘world-leading climate policy’. Included in the ban will be all cars, expect those electric vehicles that are not SUVs, airlines and airports, cruise holidays and any company with an involvement in fossil fuels, such as petrol stations. Hitherto, Amsterdam was only major city in the world with such a wide-ranging prohibition on such advertising. The city’s advertising and sponsorship policy was developed in 2019 ..read more

In March, Watford Borough Council and Enterprise Car Club launched an environmentally friendly car club for the area. Just two months later, they have announced its expansion. The car club offers fully electric car hire by the hour or day, allowing individuals and organisations access to a vehicle when required, without the need for ownership. The scheme originally opened in two locations in the town but the council have now announced the addition of two more. Mayor of Watford, Peter Taylor, said: ‘The steady growth of the car club and the addition of new bays highlight our commitment to impr ..read more

MyAir is a powerful data visualisation and analytics platform from Earthsense, designed to make air quality management effortless. It offers an intuitive, interactive map for seamless data viewing and advanced analytical tools as well as access to past, present and future air quality insights to help users make informed, actionable decisions to help improve air quality. The platform is powered by Earthsense’s air quality data model MappAir, including an array of existing air quality data sources such as their own Zephyr network as well as third party sensor data. This provides accurate insigh ..read more

There are still plenty of motorists who believe electric vehicles are the spawn of the devil, so who would not want to be there when the AA turn up to fix such a person’s stricken ICE car in a spanking new, all-electric truck? This week the AA become the first UK-based roadside assistance firm to introduce full electric recovery vehicles to its fleet, launching them at a fleet decarbonisation event held at their Oldbury Operations Centre. Three new recovery vehicles have been added to the 3,000-strong fleet in what the company describe as a ‘test and scale’ approach, which has been adopted be ..read more

A team from  the University of Bristol have examined the effect of prenatal exposure to air pollution on the impact to the mental health of the children as they grow. The Bristol team examined the association between air and noise pollution exposure in pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence with psychotic experiences, depression, and anxiety in children from ages 13 to 24 years. They used data from over 9,000 women who were recruited to a birth cohort study between 1991 and 1992 and for whom mental health records existed. The lives of these women and their children has been monitored ..read more

Last Friday, Horsham District Council hosted a free to attend electric vehicle event, for residents and businesses of the area, at their Parkside premises. The event was attended by hundreds of people keen to learn more about how zero emission transport could both benefit them and help address climate change challenges. Among their number was rugby league legend Martin ‘Chariots’ Offiah MBE (above), brand Ambassador for Connected Kerb, who talked about he has found making the switch to and electric vehicle. Connected Kerb are one of the UK’s largest EV charge network, and are responsible for ..read more

Taking advantage of the disparity in heat consumption between Summer and Winter, a huge facility capable of holding over a million cubic meters of water at 140°C, is being built in the Finnish city of Vantaa. To borrow from Wikipedia: Thermal energy storage is the storage of thermal energy for later reuse. Employing widely different technologies, it allows surplus thermal energy to be stored for hours, days, or months. Scale both of storage and use vary from small to large – from individual processes to district, town, or region. The seasonal thermal energy storage facility will be built in V ..read more

In 2022, campaign group Possible persuaded drivers in Bristol, Birmingham, London and Leeds to live without their cars for three weeks. The experiment was a success, with participants including Liberal Democrat member of the London Assembly, Hina Bokhari, who said that the challenge had encouraged her to learn how to cycle and had taught her the value of cycle training across London. Soon after, Possible were invited to run a trial in Oxford, a city that aims to have 25% less cars on the road by 2030. They teamed up with Low Carbon Oxford North (LCON) and ESRC Centre for Climate Change and So ..read more