The City climate challenge and The Future starts here

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors published on 18 September 'The City climate challenge for 2050', a report commissioned from Brook Lyndhurst, which suggests that London would require the equivalent of 25 nuclear power stations, 17,037 wind turbines or 53m solar roofs by 2050, if energy demand trends continue.

The report recommends: tightening the Building Regulations; fiscal incentives for household energy efficiency measures; simplifying the planning regime for microgeneration technology; focusing new developments around transport hubs; and providing consumers with one-stop-shops on energy advice.

'The Future starts here: the route to a low carbon economy', is a Manchester University Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research report, commissioned by Friends of the Earth and the Cooperative Bank and was published on 15 September. It presents a framework showing how the UK could reduce its carbon dioxide emissions to 90% of the level that they were in 1990 by 2050 (compared to the current target of a 60% cut).

The scenario requires a "major programme" to be implemented by 2010, otherwise a 9% cut would be required each year up to 2050. It's available to download at www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/low_carbon_economy.pdf