Southampton's carbon footprint to be calculated in ground breaking research

The £55,000 project, paid for by Southampton City Council, aims to create the most accurate snapshot of a city’s carbon emissions anywhere in the world.

Climate change experts at the University of Southampton’s School for Engineering and Environment have been commissioned by the city council to conduct the three-year study.

It’s hoped the scientific model on which the carbon footprint is calculated can be applied to any town or city and sold as a software package to other councils and governments.

The intellectual property rights for the package will be shared between the council and university,meaning both could be in line for a cash windfall.

However, the ultimate aim is to identify how Southampton can dramatically slash its own carbon emissions.

Councillor Matt Dean, Cabinet member for environment, said that as a city faced with the threat of rising sea levels, Southampton must lead the fight against climate change.

“We are a coastal city with a huge number of homes in low-lying areas. We need to show leadership because we going to be affected more than most,” Cllr Dean said.

He said the Government had set the city ambitious carbon reduction targets, such as cutting emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, but there was currently no accurate way of measuring success or failure.

Ian Williams, deputy head of the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, said the groundbreaking carbon footprint study had never been conducted in such detail by any city in the world.

“The city council must be commended for demonstrating real vision,” he said.

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The new carbon calculator will eventually be used to determine the environmental impact of future developments and policy decisions, from the creation of a new bicycle path to more dramatic schemes such as congestion charging.

Work to determine how the emissions are calculated and who is responsible for the output has begun, while data collection is due to start by the end of the year.

Postgraduate researcher Laurie Wright will analyse the city’s entire housing stock, traffic flow and the impact of industries such as retail and the docks.

University of Southampton lecturer Simon Kemp said: “With our help we should be able to pinpoint those areas where the city can reduce its carbon emissions.

“It’s not just about working with the city council, we also need to work with key players in the city such as Ford, WestQuay, the universities, hospitals and the docks.”