Happy new year from everybody at the Low Carbon Hub! Climate action in Oxfordshire Three years ago, in January 2019, the Oxford City Council officially declared a climate emergency in Oxford. In April, they announced the UK’s first citizens assembly to address the climate crisis within Oxford. This citizens assembly was held over two weekends…

Low Carbon Hub’s Smart Energy Systems Director Mairi Brookes recently appeared on the Smarter Grid Solutions podcast “Smart Grid Energy Transition”. Not only do we discover what launched Mairi’s career in energy and working towards climate solutions (for which we at the Hub are very grateful), we also hear her views on our extensive innovation…

One week ago, the finishing touches were being made on the final COP26 agreement. The frantic final hours of COP26 were a distinct contrast to the carefully choreographed first days. A series of tense huddles that took place more than 24 hours into overtime finally produced the Glasgow Climate Pact that all countries were happy…

The most significant climate conference in the world may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t catch up with the many events that took place over the two weeks. If you missed it, our CEO Barbara Hammond took part in a panel event: ‘How communities can coordinate and collaborate to play a more active…

Word of the day: Local After Wednesday away from the Blue Zone, I was ready to get back to the hustle and bustle of the pavilions. Thursday’s theme was Cities, Regions and Built Environment. Around COP26, the day was also referred to as local authority/local government day, emphasising how local governments can work with communities…

Word of the day: Communities Today was a little different for me. After a couple of long days in the Blue Zone, I was keen to get out in Glasgow and attend one of the many fringe events. There are a huge number of fringe events taking place over the two weeks of COP26, and,…

Word of the day: Accountability  Momentum has been building throughout the first week with a flurry of press releases, announcements, and commitments made from multiple countries on deforestation, methane and coal. All of this has been very positive. However, a new report out today from Climate Action Tracker (CAT), the world’s most respected climate analysis…

Word of the day: Resilience  The second week of COP26 started under grey Glasgow skies on Monday. The weather didn’t improve, unfortunately, but the day did! After starting with a couple of hours queueing to get in and then registering, just getting into the coveted Blue Zone felt like an achievement. It is a vast…

Last month, Low Carbon Hub Operations Manager, Harry Orchard, carried out several Minimum Viable System (MVS) trials at Sandford Hydro as part of Project LEO. What is a Minimum Viable System trial? A Minimum Viable System is the minimum set of participants, technologies and practices required to test a new process, service, or asset. Referred…

Cosy Homes Oxfordshire‘s whole house retrofit service launched almost two years ago, with the Low Carbon Hub as lead project partner. During that time, we’ve made many learnings about working in the home retrofit sector, but our biggest barrier has always been finding enough trusted and high-quality contractors to deliver home retrofit projects in Oxfordshire…

We’ve been running a series of webinars, discussing the future of energy and our work at the Low Carbon Hub to create an energy system which is good for people and for the planet, in Oxfordshire and beyond. Running large volumes of renewable generation creates new challenges for the energy system. The sun and wind…

We’ve been running a series of webinars, discussing the future of energy and our work at the Low Carbon Hub to create an energy system which is good for people and for the planet, in Oxfordshire and beyond. Project LEO (Local Energy Oxfordshire) is developing and testing new energy services and business models from a…