Collection

Powering our lives

Foresight project looking at how the built environment could change to help manage the move to sustainable, low carbon energy systems.

Energy-consuming activities in the built environment account for around half of the UK’s carbon emissions.

This project explored how the UK built environment could change to help manage the move to secure, sustainable, low carbon energy systems over the next 50 years.

The project used the best available scientific evidence to develop 4 scenarios around the future of sustainable energy management and the built environment, setting out some major areas of future uncertainty as well as potential future challenges and opportunities.

60 state of science reviews were commissioned to inform the analysis.

The project was overseen by a high level stakeholder group and lead expert group to make sure it included the most relevant evidence and its findings were of a high scientific standard.

The project was sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

Project report

Review

Mini energy project

The Horizon Scanning Centre undertook a 6-month project to consider how science and technology might help us to better manage energy in the future.

Published 26 November 2008