(Article from Journal 2022/07 Vol140 Pt3)
VISION: A RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE COMMUNITY THAT INSTINCTIVELY DELIVERS A ZERO-CARBON SUSTAINABLE RAILWAY
MISSION: RECOGNISING CLIMATE CHANGE AND DECARBONISATION CHALLENGES IN RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE, SHARING SOLUTIONS AND BEST PRACTICE, AND FOSTERING THEIR ADOPTION THROUGH COLLABORATION TO ENABLE POSITIVE CHANGE.
Our successful Climate Emergency Technical seminar is now some months behind us and if you missed it, all the presentations are available in the PWI knowledge hub. Aside from the excellent speakers, we were particularly delighted to welcome a high number of younger people to the event, working in a variety of roles across the Rail industry.
At around about the same time as our seminar took place, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued the latest element of their Sixth Assessment Report. The IPCC prepares comprehensive assessment reports about the state of scientific, technical and socio-economic knowledge on climate change, it’s impacts and future risks and options for reducing the rate at which climate change is taking place. Their work has been ongoing for many years and there are multiple reports available on the IPCC website dating back to 1990 if you are interested in broadening your knowledge:
I have spent some time reading the latest report and understanding the context of how the assessments are carried out. Within the overall sixth assessment report there are series of documents which have been compiled by a number of working groups:
- AR6 Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis
- AR6 Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
- AR6 Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change
- AR6 Synthesis Report – due for publication in September this year.
The synthesis report will give an overall summary and co-ordinated view of the information contained within individual reports, so a very important piece of work. The Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability report was the one issued around the same time as our conference in March and I set some time aside to read this. The report identifies 127 key risk areas and considers these over different timescales; near term (2021-2040), midterm (2041 – 2060) and long term (2061-2100). Although the report is written at a global level, I could see linkage to a number of presentations that were discussed at our technical conference in March. For example, we received a presentation by colleagues from Mott McDonald on the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme and another on Improving Weather Warning Systems to better understand the impact on the Rail network and I can certainly see how they sit alongside global reporting initiatives. The report reinforced to me the importance of the work we are doing as an industry to combat and manage the risks we are facing.
As part of the recent conferences on the Climate Emergency and Electrification, I met Richard Hill, a PWI member who holds a real passion for the environment, climate change and decarbonisation. In his day job Richard is part of Network Rail’s Asset Protection team based in Derby looking after outside parties working alongside the rail corridor in the East Midlands area. His interest in environmental matters started in 2013 when he embarked on a part time Open University Degree in Natural Sciences. Richard’s interest and passion was further reinforced by COP 26 activity and the views presented by Sir David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg and even Her Majesty the Queen.
Richard loves the railway and the fact we have the chance to make a real difference on decarbonisation through electrification and other mechanisms is a value he holds dear. At the climate emergency conference in Manchester Richard set a challenge for the delegates, asking them if they understood their own personal carbon footprint and what steps they could take to reduce it. Richard also provided a number of links for individuals to access various carbon calculators (see below):
https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/
https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/carbon-calculator#the-mackay-carbon-calculator
https://zero.giki.earth/
At the electrification conference in Glasgow, Richard again spoke to the audience about understanding their own carbon footprint, so his message is spreading. Richard’s aspiration is to inspire people to make small changes, a method he calls “planetary gains”. As an engineering community we all appreciate the importance of understanding the baseline position as part of the process of improvement and innovation so on Richard’s behalf, I would encourage everyone who reads this article to take a few minutes to calculate their own carbon footprint and decide if they would like to take action to reduce it.