The City of Shanghai was veiled in a murky warm cloak this morning – which didn’t really change all day. The temperature remained at a constant 29 degrees. It was sticky!

The London Zed House - zero carbon!

This was the first day of the Conference hosted by The University of Nottingham and Nottingham City Council. And the venue was the London Zed House in the Expo site. After a brief queue we were in the site and I started to realise the enormity of the place. It was suggested by one of the delegates that 500,000 people had visited on Friday – the highest number yet for a single day!

Prof. Saffa Riffat opened the conference with a theme. Mass Urbanisation is the greatest challenge the human race faces. In context 900 million Chinese people will live in Cities by 2020 – the shift is away from the countryside. This has a massive impact on society – particularly in relation to CO2 emissions.

The former MP for Nottingham, Alan Simpson then asked if we really could redesign the future. The UK have introduced a Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) and people who overspend will be fined. Then there is the issue of new builds – and how we ensure that these comply with Zero Carbon emissions in the future. The technology is already in place, but we build around 250,000 houses each year. There are 25 million other houses.

In a nod to the Opium Wars in Shanghai, Alan likened our buildings to being ‘drug dependent’. Each needing a daily fix of air-conditioning or heat or power.

The final question was that we have the technology now, but we need to change behaviour. In other words – can we redesign ourselves?

Julian Marsh then took to the podium and shared experience so the Meadows in Nottingham – where he has a house and where he is building some new houses for Blueprint, one of my clients. The Meadows has had its fair share of troubles – not least of which there is high fuel poverty (where at least 10% of income is spent on energy). There have been a number of projects which are trying to introduce green technologies – including retro-fitting Photo-Voltaic Cells. The interesteing note was that with some Grant Aid and Feed In Tariff’s the money gained back from the energy companies is used for the local community – and spent on local projects.

Kevin Kendall from The Birmingham University shared some astonishing statistics – 96% of the Worlds electric bikes are in China. In 2006 there were 10m. Today there are 100m… His point was that there is a move away from the combustion engine toward electricity – but the the battery technology is still in its infancy. Typically electric battery cars can only do journeys of c.55-80 miles. But hydrogen fuel cells are being tested and these have a better return – up to 300 miles. But we also have to resolve the charging time – which can be 5 hours or more.

Abu Bakr Bahaj from Southampton showed us some interesting tips about PV’s – notably about solar shading – a particular problem in Shanghai – where buildings are next to each other.

There were some speakers from Ningbo too – but more of that in a later blog!

Tonight there is a Banquet, so more food. And I fancy a pizza – but have a feeling that may not be on the menu.