Supporting carbon research and a low carbon future.

NPL, with the Thames Gateway Institute for Sustainability and the London Development Agency, present the need for a Centre for Carbon Measurement at Expo 2010 Shanghai (26 - 30 July 2010) supporting London's aspiration to be a global leader in the low carbon economy.

NPL's proposed Centre for Carbon Measurement aims to bring measurement science to one of the most challenging issues facing the world and scientists today - climate change and achieving a low carbon future.

NPL is currently working with London Development Agency and the Thames Gateway Institute for Sustainability at Expo 2010 Shanghai. The Expo will provide NPL with an opportunity to gain further insight into global sustainability and low carbon initiatives and to share its expertise and services with a wider audience.

"NPL's support of the Towards Sustainable Cities initiative at the Shanghai World Expo provides a unique opportunity to showcase the UK's world-leading expertise in applying measurement science and technology to deliver a low carbon future, including NPL's work supporting London - a Low Carbon Capital" - says Dr Martyn Sené, Deputy Director, National Physical Laboratory (NPL).

Global climate change is one of the most challenging issues facing scientists and policy makers today. Mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change will require coordination and collaboration between science, business and governments. The UK has an international reputation for its climate science and a growing low carbon industry sector. In particular, the City of London is identified as the international centre for carbon financing. The London Development Agency set out their aspiration to be the Low Carbon Capital: London as a Global Leader of the Low Carbon Future supporting the need for an underpinning measurement infrastructure.

NPL is seeking, with partners, to provide on-going vital support in this area through the establishment of a Centre for Carbon Measurement.

Robust and reliable measurement provides the infrastructure necessary to drive innovation, improve productivity and quality, enable fair trade, underpin regulation and provide consumer confidence in measurements that are critical for health, safety, security and our environment. NPL already has an international reputation in environmental monitoring and climate change research. NPL's Centre for Carbon Measurement will build on this capability, working with partners to address the following three areas:

• Low Carbon Technologies - Providing measurement support to accelerate development, along with independent performance assessment, calibration and validation of low-carbon technologies, (e.g. carbon capture and storage, photovoltaics, fuel cells, building materials, etc).
  
  
• Carbon Pricing/Trading - Establishing measurement and standards infrastructure to support existing and emerging national, regional, and global trading, tax and regulatory schemes for carbon pricing and reporting.
• Climate Data - Bringing measurement expertise to climate data, particularly where it is an input to modelling - reducing the uncertainly in climate projections and enabling policy for climate change mitigations and adaptation to be placed on an ever firmer footing.

Extending the national and international measurement infrastructure to cover these areas is a vital component of the move to a low carbon economy. We aim to play a leading role in the development of an internationally accepted framework for quantifying 'carbon', based on sound measurement science and technology, embodied in standards and protocols, and providing a firm foundation for legislation.

Read about some of NPL projects in these areas:

Energy efficiency: No longer a pipe dream? NPL's work in the thermal performance of materials and structures area has been responding to an ever-changing background of political and commercial drivers relating to energy use in buildings and process plant.

If you can't take the heat: NPL's Hotbox is key to meeting UK emissions targets.

Saving fuel: NPL has opened a new testing division to focus on fuel cell research, solve some of industry's most pressing problems and accelerate the development cycle. Fuel cell technologies have been hindered by an absence of specific measurement capability.

NPL's hothouse: NPL is playing an active role in supporting the UK government's policies to combat climate change and secure future energy supplies.

Cutting CO₂ emissions: IMPACT (Innovative Materials, Design and Monitoring of Power Plants to Accommodate Carbon Capture), a major carbon abatement project that aims to help carbon intensive industries reduce their CO₂ emissions, will call on NPL's expertise in Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and novel miniaturised testing capabilities to develop in-situ monitoring of plants for improved through-life plant monitoring to reduce emissions.

NPL in space: On 1 June 2010, NPL submitted a proposal to the European Space Agency (ESA) to establish NPL's first 'branch' in space.

Understanding the Earth: A team of scientists from NPL's applied radiometry group have developed an instrument that helps validate Earth observation (EO) data used in climate models, thus increasing our understanding of the planet.

Ashes to analysers: NPL has validated the first measurements of sulphur dioxide in Iceland's volcanic ash plume.

Breathe easy: The impact on human health of airborne nanoparticles is an area of growing concern. Nanoparticles are produced from both natural and man-made sources with a substantial fraction coming from combustion and traffic.

Efficient engines: One of the ways to make aircraft engines more efficient, and reduce fuel emissions, is to run them at higher temperatures.

Atmospheric Meauserment at new heights : Advanced Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) instrument developed in the UK for operation on board the NERC Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements capable of making range-resolved concentration measurements of water vapour and ozone.

Earth Observation reputation: NPL has a strong international reputation and track record in this area including leading roles in the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and the European Air Quality Reference Laboratories (AQUILA) and with agencies such as ESA and NASA. We are entrusted by Defra, the Environment Agency and NERC to lead UK monitoring networks as well as the provision of traceable measurements for climate change models.

For further information please contact: Dr Hilary Elliott

Published: 26 July 2010