Dundee ClimateView

Designing Dundee’s path to net zero

26 November 2021

Cities around the world are facing increasing pressure to develop strategies that reduce their emissions. Whether it’s a 2030, 2040 or 2050 net zero target – doing nothing is simply no longer an option.

When looking where to start, the choices can be daunting, but as the climate crisis intensifies, long-term planning must not obscure the need for urgent action.

While developing its Climate Action Plan in December 2019, the Scottish city of Dundee faced an uphill battle to reach net zero goals.

“We had the plan, and the actions, but we didn’t understand specifically how far these actions would take us to our net zero target,” said Naomi Clarke, Senior Sustainability and Climate Change Officer, Dundee City Council.

Naomi Clarke, Senior Sustainability and Climate Change Officer, Dundee City Council

The city had already demonstrated a commitment to improving its climate credentials when in March 2018 the Lord Provost, Cllr Ian Borthwick, and the Leader of the Council signed Dundee up to the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy – a global initiative that brings together local governments in a voluntary commitment to reduce emissions and develop an action plan that adopts a joint approach to tackling climate change mitigation and adaptation.

This was followed by the council declaring a climate emergency in June 2019.

Like most cities, Dundee had the desire, but found the vast swathes of metrics and data on emissions and pollution difficult to navigate. “We looked at various types of consultancies and software, but there were issues around affordability, and some were overly complicated compared to what we really needed, which was something very visual.”

At the same time, ClimateView got in touch with the city, inviting Dundee to join in a local pilot of its technology platform ClimateOS with UK cities.

The platform brings together data, modelling and visualisation, to manage the complexity of each city’s climate challenge

It models the impact of dozens of low carbon transitions across a range of sectors – including transport, buildings, industry, energy and waste – and tells cities what kind of behavioural changes are needed and to what extent.

This could include how many people need to stop driving petrol cars and make the switch to EVs, or how many buildings need to be retrofitted and how much will investment is needed.

“We reached out to Dundee from nowhere as a completely unknown Swedish startup, said Tomer Shalit, Founder and CPO, ClimateView.

“They believed in our thoughts, in our logic, and in our model, and saw the opportunity to co-develop. We are in awe that they were so innovative and forward-thinking.”

Collaboration is key

The firm worked closely with the city to localise and further develop an interactive, dynamic dashboard where different metrics could be analysed and assessed according to the city’s needs.

The dashboard draws on city data and the experience of other cities, as well as national and international statistics, and uses mathematical models to create a digital twin of a municipality, modelling its current emissions to represent interdependencies and “recreate the complexity of real life”.

Deliver an easy to understand data-driven plan

“Upon seeing the tool, we quickly realised this was something we could use as a team,” Clarke said.

By creating ‘a living climate action plan’ which is dynamically updated as new data comes in, cities can monitor the impact of their activities, share progress and refine strategy in a cycle of continuous improvement.

For Dundee, one of the primary concerns it had was surrounding energy efficiency, and the amount being wasted through poorly insulated homes.

“Heating is one of the biggest areas where we need to reduce emissions, and I think there was a challenge around understanding how much retrofitting actually contributes to a carbon reduction,” added Clarke.

“Trying to get our heads around that and realising that what we needed to do is start measuring metrics was crucial, and the good thing about the ClimateOS platform is that the data is constantly evolving and gets more accurate and more useful over time.”

With the platform in place, the city has strengthened its outlook, and is now looking to roll it out across the council. “We’re now in a position where we have our first transition visualisation which showcases all the actions, policies and strategies that we’re confident are going to happen.

“Now we can take this platform to [the city’s] Climate Leadership Group.”

The group – a mixture of academics, business leaders, community leaders, the creative industry and healthcare providers – works with the city to respond to climate issues, come up with their own climate plans and collaborate on the city’s goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2045.

Every senior manager within the council is currently undergoing training in climate literacy, with the ultimate aim of having each department produce its own climate action plan.

Dundee City Council Leader John Alexander said: “Despite the many challenges that the pandemic has presented, we are absolutely committed to these ambitious targets as sustainability becomes even more important for the city’s future.

“But we realise that significant investment is required and we need to raise this nationally to ensure the city can take more decisive action.

The city also established the ‘Sustainable Dundee Partnership’, which has taken on a new significance following COP26.

“We want an evidence-based approach, so we’re not just plucking things out of thin air,” Clarke added.

“We have the collaboration, now we need some idea creation to make it all fit together.”

What’s the plan?

To respond to these challenges, a Climate Action Plan was established, which represents the first set of activities in a long-term pathway to exceed the Covenant of Mayors target of a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, or sooner.

The Plan set out four themes that guided policy: Energy, Transport, Waste and Resilience.

Each theme included an initial set of actions to reduce emissions or adapt to a changing climate, taking into account existing projects, stakeholder priorities and national initiatives. In total, 64 actions have been identified in the plan, including measures to:

  • Reduce the consumption of energy, promote energy efficiency and increase the proportion of power and heat from low and zero-carbon technologies;
  • Encourage active travel through walking, cycling and public transport and deploy sustainable alternatives to decarbonise transport;
  • Manage waste sustainably by reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering waste to improve resource efficiency whilst working towards a circular economy
  • Ensure communities, green networks and infrastructure are adaptable to a changing climate and reduce the risks and vulnerability to unavoidable impacts.

 

Understand connections and create what-if scenarios

With so many variable factors, such as the pace of return to the office post-pandemic, modelling and planning such a diffuse range of priorities requires a dynamic approach.

To plan effective action on climate change, cities must understand emissions from thousands of sources in different sectors and how those activities interact and influence each other, something Clarke said the ClimateOS has been instrumental in delivering.

Incorporating a platform with the mechanics to adapt to real world conditions has enabled the city to take a streamlined approach in its thinking and delivery.

Next Steps

With COP26 over, the time for talking has finished, and action is now required from cities if their climate plans are to materialise. Increasing numbers of residents are demanding change, a trend which is only set to continue.

This will mean tangible changes to transport and environmental policy – which need to be mapped and visualised dynamically – are no longer aims, they are requirements.

For ClimateView, the Dundee project has served as an example of how technology can be utilised to solve one of the most pressing issues cities are facing today, and how new solutions can keep policy on track.

“Dundee were part of the first pilot group in the UK. True pioneers. Their needs and insights were part of informing how the platform evolved from a visualization tool to an end-to-end transition platform, added Shalit.

“They have been valuable, constructive, inspiring partners to develop the ClimateOS platform with.”