[font face=Serif][font size=5]Cutting energy-related carbon emissions by 34 per cent will cost nothing, report finds[/font]

Press release issued: 1 December 2014

[font size=4]Cities could make a significant contribution to cutting greenhouse gas emissions at zero net cost, according to a report published today by the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy at the University of Leeds and London School of Economics and Political Science.[/font]

[font size=3]The study of the cities of Leeds, Kolkata (India), Lima (Peru), Johor Bahru (Malaysia) and Palembang (Indonesia) found that a number of cost-effective, low-carbon developments could cut global energy-related emissions by more than a third.

The authors of the report find that these developments have a payback period of just two years, on average. After this payback period, the developments would continue to deliver savings and the returns could be reinvested in other low-carbon developments in the city.

Lead author Professor Andrew Gouldson of the University of Bristol said: “A low-carbon economy is a no-brainer from an economic point of view, as well as an environmental one.

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