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Over half of global warming is thought to be attributable to the burning of fossil fuelsand slightly less than half of this is due to conditioning the environment withinbuildings. Since the UK government is committed to reducing carbon dioxideemissions by 20% between the years1990 and 2010, the pressure to improve theenergy efficiency of our building stock is likely to increase in the coming years.Field studies have identified that, on average, fuel costs for air conditioned buildingsare twice that of naturally ventilated buildings and result in twice the CO2 emissions1.Air conditioning is therefore often thought of as an environmental evil byenvironmentalists with calls to ban it. Air conditioning protagonists argue that airconditioning provides for a better environment within buildings and only accounts for6% of CO2 emissions in commercial and public buildings (i.e. 1% of total UK CO2emissions).This chapter explores some of the issues that can impact on the design of energyefficient air-conditioned buildings. The arguments presented in this chapter are basedon research carried out at the Bartlett, University College London (UCL) and on theauthors? experience of running the Department of Trade and Industry funded EnergyDesign Advice Scheme (EDAS) office based at UCL. EDAS provides free advice toany building professional involved in the design and/or commissioning of a newbuilding or refurbishment of an existing building. The office based at the Bartlett hasbeen involved in providing advice on over 700 projects with predicted cumulativeenergy savings for the scheme as a whole of £15 million per annum.

Energy demand models are central to the efforts of many governments to reduce carbon emissions from buildings. The lack of empirical research to ensure the appropriate use of predictions from the models has implications for building regulations and evaluating policy initiatives. We present three recent examples from the UK that highlight challenges: the discovery of a heat by-pass in party walls, trends in household gas consumption and the impact of condensing boilers, and inter-model variation in the non-domestic sector. We emphasise and contrast the approach of health sciences to support policy, and suggest that a far more systematic and integrated approach between empirical research, model development, and policy evaluation is needed.

This paper presents a novel method to analyse policy performance, using the example of legislation in the UK to require domestic boilers fitted since 1 April 2005 to be condensing. A technological uptake model based on the logistic equation is combined with four physical and economic models; Bayesian techniques are used for data analysis. Projections of energy savings are presented and the impact of different policy implementation dates investigated.

The last 40 years have seen major changes in the sources and concentrations of urban pollution (nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and particulates). During this time, research has advanced our understanding of the impact of pollutants on objects in urban museums. As a consequence, pollutant control has become an important aspect of preventive conservation. There is also increased awareness of the need for pollution control strategies that are sustainable at an organizational and global level. This report, prepared by a chemist, a conservator, and two building scientists, reviews strategies for minimizing the impact of urban pollution on museum collections. The results of new research funded by the UK government identify current (1999) internal pollution levels in both naturally ventilated and air-conditioned museums with particle and gaseous filtration, in relation to external concentrations, ventilation strategies, and the characteristics of the internal fabric and finishes of these buildings. The last 40 years have seen major changes in the sources and concentrations of urban pollution (nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and particulates). During this time, research has advanced our understanding of the impact of pollutants on objects in urban museums. As a consequence, pollutant control has become an important aspect of preventive conservation. There is also increased awareness of the need for pollution control strategies that are sustainable at an organizational and global level. This report, prepared by a chemist, a conservator, and two building scientists, reviews strategies for minimizing the impact of urban pollution on museum collections. The results of new research funded by the UK government identify current (1999) internal pollution levels in both naturally ventilated and air-conditioned museums with particle and gaseous filtration, in relation to external concentrations, ventilation strategies, and the characteristics of the internal fabric and finishes of these buildings.

To reach UK objectives for reducing carbon emissions, it is argued that joined-up research on energy use in buildings is essential to develop and support government policy initiatives. The performance based approach introduced in Part-L of the 2006 Building Regulations has further underlined the role of coordinated research to monitor their effectiveness and provide feedback for subsequent revisions. Unfortunately, differences in dwelling classifications systems used in major household surveys currently hinder much of the supporting analysis that might improve SAP and other energy models. The Carbon Reduction in Buildings project has begun a process of integrating or organising existing building energy datasets into a coherent structure for the domestic sector. In addition, it is proposed to archive these for researchers via a building data repository that would facilitate joined-up research more widely.

Little detailed evidence has previously been available regarding the uptake rate or prevalence of energy efficiency interventions among specific household groups. This study uses the Home Energy Efficiency Database (HEED) to investigate both the combination of measures that have been installed, and in which dwellings, according to key neighbourhood socio-demographic variables, including income and tenure. Analysis of 2000–07 data indicates that approximately 40% (9.3 million) dwellings in England had approximately 23.7 million efficiency measures installed, with an average of 2.5 measures per dwelling. Building fabric-related measures were the most frequent (e.g. cavity wall insulation, loft insulation and glazing) with an average of 2.1 million installed each year. Dwellings with the highest number of fabric interventions (the top 20%) were more likely to be found in areas with low income, with more owner-occupied dwellings, experiencing lower winter temperatures, having a lower proportion of flats, and having a slightly higher proportion of older adults and children. Energy efficiency installations have tended to occur among specific types of households or parts of the building stock. These findings have implications for the design of future government programmes for targeting energy efficiency measures to specific household groups or dwelling types.

The new ventilation regulations in England and Wales have introduced performance criteria for the control of mould. The UK Government\'s Building Regulations Research Programme has funded University College London (UCL) to investigate the extent to which these are the most appropriate criteria for thecontrol of mould in UK dwellings. This paper reports on the plans for this study which involve both field and laboratory related work. Some initial early work has already been undertaken and the paper summarises the progress to date. This initial work is based on analysis of data from a national study of England\'s Home Energy Efficiency scheme (Warm Front). Surveys were undertaken of dwellings and households participating in the scheme in five urban areas. Half-hourly living room and main bedroom temperatures and relative humidity measurements were recorded for two to four weeks (in the heating season) in approximately 1600 dwellings. This data is being analysed to investigate the typical relativehumidities that exist in UK dwellings and also any relationship that exists between these levels and the mould growth that was recorded.

The UK Government estimates that approximately 22 TWh of energy can be saved from English dwellings by 2020 from a range of fabric and heating energy efficiency retrofits. Yet the rate of retrofit uptake has been less than is needed to meet government targets and the retrofits impact on energy demand has been less than predicted. Two questions that must be addressed are: who have (and have not) taken up retrofits and what household factors affect this; and, what impact have these retrofits had on energy use and how does this differ among households. The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of the uptake of energy efficiency retrofits and the resulting change in energy demand. A cohort of 168,998 dwellings gas-heated English dwellings was used to examine retrofit uptake from 2002 to 2007 and the change in gas use from 2005 to 2007. The findings show that retrofits do have an attributable impact on reducing energy demand and that combining retrofits displays a dose-response like effect, after controlling for household and dwelling factors. Energy savings play a central role in meeting UK climate change mitigation targets and therefore understanding the take up of energy efficiency retrofits and their impact on energy demand and variations in these retrofits across the population is vital to understand their potential.

The Lancet Countdown: tracking progress on health and climate change is an international, multidisciplinary research collaboration between academic institutions and practitioners across the world. It follows on from the work of the 2015 Lancet Commission, which concluded that the response to climate change could be "the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century". The Lancet Countdown aims to track the health impacts of climate hazards; health resilience and adaptation; health co-benefits of climate change mitigation; economics and finance; and political and broader engagement. These focus areas form the five thematic working groups of the Lancet Countdown and represent different aspects of the complex association between health and climate change. These thematic groups will provide indicators for a global overview of health and climate change; national case studies highlighting countries leading the way or going against the trend; and engagement with a range of stakeholders. The Lancet Countdown ultimately aims to report annually on a series of indicators across these five working groups. This paper outlines the potential indicators and indicator domains to be tracked by the collaboration, with suggestions on the methodologies and datasets available to achieve this end. The proposed indicator domains require further refinement, and mark the beginning of an ongoing consultation process—from November, 2016 to early 2017—to develop these domains, identify key areas not currently covered, and change indicators where necessary. This collaboration will actively seek to engage with existing monitoring processes, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and WHO's climate and health country profiles. The indicators will also evolve over time through ongoing collaboration with experts and a range of stakeholders, and be dependent on the emergence of new evidence and knowledge. During the course of its work, the Lancet Countdown will adopt a collaborative and iterative process, which aims to complement existing initiatives, welcome engagement with new partners, and be open to developing new research projects on health and climate change.

The Lancet Countdown tracks progress on health and climate change and provides an independent assessment of the health effects of climate change, the implementation of the Paris Agreement,1 and the health implications of these actions. It follows on from the work of the 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change,2 which concluded that anthropogenic climate change threatens to undermine the past 50 years of gains in public health, and conversely, that a comprehensive response to climate change could be "the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century". The Lancet Countdown is a collaboration between 24 academic institutions and intergovernmental organisations based in every continent and with representation from a wide range of disciplines. The collaboration includes climate scientists, ecologists, economists, engineers, experts in energy, food, and transport systems, geographers, mathematicians, social and political scientists, public health professionals, and doctors. It reports annual indicators across five sections: climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerability; adaptation planning and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement.

The Lancet Countdown is an international collaboration established to provide an independent, global monitoring system dedicated to tracking the emerging health profile of the changing climate. The 2020 report presents 43 indicators across five sections: climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerabilities; adaptation, planning, and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement. This report represents the findings and consensus of the 35 leading academic institutions and UN agencies that make up The Lancet Countdown, and draws on the expertise of climate scientists, geographers, engineers, experts in energy, food, and transport, economists, social, and political scientists, data scientists, public health professionals, and doctors.