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Energy efficiency governance in the UK is a crucial component of tackling climate change as around 27% of UK carbon dioxide emissions come from homes (DEFRA, 2006). However, the UK has approximately 30,000 excess winter deaths every year (Help The Aged, 2007) and over 5 million UK households were in fuel poverty in 2008 (NEA, 2008) as a result of interactions between high energy costs, poor energy efficiency practices, problematic materialities and low incomes. These hugely important issues are made difficult to resolve as a result of the powerful and far reaching social, technical and economic relationships, flows and fixities that constitute energy networks. The thesis focuses on the challenges faced by householders in their everyday use of energy and how, in different ways, they engage with and disengage from governing agencies, and the issues of fuel poverty and climate change. It analyses how attempts to address the issues are coordinated locally, in three areas of the North of England, and in national policy arenas. In particular, attention is paid to the sometimes synergistic yet sometimes problematic outcomes that result when attempts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from homes become entangled with efforts to make energy more affordable for those vulnerable to fuel poverty.

The expansion in the cultivated area since the mid-1970s, and the eventual high demand for water, have taxed the groundwater resources of the Emirates to the limit. The annual groundwater abstraction by agriculture, based on average discharge measurements for the present study, is put at 2556 MCM/a. while the overall groundwater volume abstracted by all sectors is 3359 MCM/a; the total output from all the desalination plants at 300 MCM/a, and that from the wastewater recycling plants at 80 MCM/a. With the population for 1989 standing at .1.8 million, the per capita consumption is 2116 m( 3)/a, which is close to that for the United States of America (2300 m( 3)/a ).The water resource problem is common to all the Gulf Cooperation Council states. In the Emirates, as in all the neighbouring countries, the problem is embodied in the paradox of expansion in extensive agriculture despite the depleting groundwater resources. There is also the absence of a water policy, a plan or coherent water resource management. For the last aspect, there is a lack of indigenous expertise with the necessary knowledge to monitor water resources and guide their development. The 8-fold increase in the cultivated acreage from 12,894 ha. in 1973 to 96,704 ha. in 1988, the 10-fold increase in population from 179,100 in 1968 to 1,748,804 in 1988, the continuously stable high cost of food imports during the past decade of above 3.0 billion dirhams ($ US 0.8 billion) a year and the 22-fold increase in water consumption from 172 MCM/a in 1968 to 3659 MCM/a. in 1989, sum up the water resource problem of the Emirates. As a result, water-tables have been receding continuously, groundwater salinity rising both in inland and coastal aquifers, and the shallow fresh water aquifer in the Quaternary deposits has been depleted in many parts of the piedmont (gravel) plains. Given this critical state of the groundwater resources, the preclusive cost of desalinated water to its application to agriculture and the ill-advised outlets to which every possible water resource developed is put, an urgent rethinking of water policies and development is vital. Such rethinking should set water-related priorities right, should resist all temptations, for reasons of national security, to imports of foreign water, and should be within the context of well-intentioned efforts towards achieving food security, through specialized agriculture, as much as is naturally possible.

Security of supply to customers is a major concern for electricity distribution network operators. This research concentrates in particular on the UK distribution system, and on sub-transmission and extra high voltage networks within that system. It seeks first to understand the principal causes of network risk and consequent loss of supply to customers as a result of faults at these voltage levels. It then develops a suite of methodologies to evaluate that risk, in terms of expected annual cost to the network operator, under a range of different scenarios and for both simple and complex network topologies. The scenarios considered include asset ageing, network automation and increasing utilisation as a consequence of electric vehicles and heat pumps. The methodologies also evaluate possible mitigation options, including active network management, and capital expenditure for both asset replacement and network reinforcement. A composite methodology is also developed, to consider combinations of scenarios and combinations of mitigation strategies. The thesis concludes by considering issues likely to affect the extent and possible increase of network risk over the period 2010-2030.

This research critically examines the Iranian petroleum contractual system from its birth to the present, and considers its future evolution. Initially, it reviews the development of oil contracts, from the early concessions until the annulment of all obligations as the result of two major events; the Nationalisation Movement and the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The constant policy struggle between the need for foreign funding and technology in the oil industry on one hand and the desire to avoid foreign exploitation on the other is analysed in terms of its impact on the current stance towards foreign investment and the formation of the present contractual model. The embodiment of this complex struggle is the buy-back contractual model that has found widespread use in Iranian petroleum transactions since 1989. This scheme is best described as a short term risk service agreement, whereby the foreign investor provides the funds for petroleum Exploration and Exploitation in exchange for a pre-defined, volume-based quantum of remuneration in case of successful production that serves to both compensate and reward the contractor. The adoption of this system is a compromise solution between the need for foreign capital, expertise and services on one hand and wariness of foreign involvement in natural resources on the other, as evident from the Constitutional limitations discussed later in this study. A crucial element of this arrangement is the transfer of the field's operation back to the National Iranian Oil Company following conclusion of the contract; a legal step which distinguishes buyback contracts from alternative systems that may be contrary to the Constitution. Both the structure and the comparative advantages of the buy-back have been discussed at length, with particular attention to the enabling laws and their flaws. Detailed analysis is devoted to the other major international contractual models, including a comparative evaluation of these alternative systems and their suitability for the Iranian oil industry, given the limitations of the Constitution. The buy-back system is scrutinised from both the foreign and the domestic perspective and the issue of whether revision of its terms or an alternative model would be more appropriate considering the grievances of all the participants. The extent to which the Iranian oil industry was and will be affected by increasing international pressure, particularly as the result of US Sanctions, was considered extensively. It appears that Iran is not yielding to such pressure but rather orienting itself towards alternative allies and continuing to sign contracts based on the buy-back. Particularly stringent examination of specific terms and conditions of buy-back has been conducted through a review of various oil fields so as to determine if the model's perceived flaws manifest themselves in reality. The finding of the analysis described above is that the buy-back contract as implemented in Iran is flawed on basis of the limiting nature of its provisions rather than by virtue of the model itself. A number of provisions, such as maximum contract length and method of remuneration, which are needlessly restrictive, are highlighted and the importance of modernising them in light of the current economic environment is noted. Based on the facts and findings throughout the study, the conclusion arises that evolutionary rather than revolutionary reforms are both required and viable, without undermining the current legal framework. Lastly, the study yields a practical recommendation as to the reforms most crucial to the preservation of Iran's attractiveness to investors, in light of the current economic, political and legal environment.

The thesis discusses the environmental impacts and developmental constraints of tidal current energy. Using an iterative approach and drawing upon a number of different methodologies the thesis attempts to evaluate the development potential of tidal current energy in terms of the resource and identify the potential environmental impacts. In addition, it attempts to identify the barriers to development that may be preventing the growth of the industry. The thesis also assesses further research requirements in terms of environmental and social barriers to development, focusing on an environmental impact methodology and its importance in tidal current energy development. Over recent years there has been a significant acceleration in tidal current energy research and development. The key challenge is for technologies to reach full commercialisation. The thesis investigates present market and industrial accessibility and due to institutional and environmental barriers, concludes that commerciality will be hard to achieve if such 'barriers' are not broken. However, the skills and capability base in the UK offshore industry and indeed the renewable energy sector is significant and this should be utilised accordingly. This vision of commercialisation needs to be sustained and a culture of forward thinking needs to be continuously cultivated. In essence, the UK cannot afford to miss this opportunity, both in terms of R&D status, economic stability, energy diversity and security of supply and in time export potential. The thesis identifies key environmental issues concerning tidal current energy development using a site-specific case study and highlights the misconception that renewable energies are without environmental impact. It is clear that some are well understood within the realm of other offshore industries, however, some are relatively unique to this type of development and the need for further research is evident in these areas, in order to dispel the environmental impact uncertainties that exist. The thesis also demonstrates that there are 'process gaps' within Environmental Impact Assessment and attempts to develop an environmental impact assessment framework to aid the tidal current energy development process.

This thesis explores the comparatively new philosophy of bioregionalism to see what it might have to offer the environmental management process. The foundations of bioregional philosophy stretch back into the early part of last century with roots in the thinking of the early 'anarchist geographers' such as Peter Kropotkin. Input also comes from contemporaneous regionalist planners such as Patrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford. However, it was not until the early 1970s that Alan van Newkirk coined the phrase 'Bioregion'. Since then there has been steady growth in bioregional literature that clearly aligns it to ecocentric philosophies that are embraced by social movements like "Deep Ecology". However, the most important part of bioregionalism is the bioregions construct. Whatever the philosophical inclinations of bioregionalist authors, the bioregion is presented as an identifiable entity, which is suited to be the basis for the formulation of strategy and planning and it is this that is of interest to this thesis. The basis for the study is the hypothesis that the need for a holistic approach to environmental management and planning requires more than the incremental approaches currently used, if tragedies like Easter Island are not to be repeated on a larger scale. The idea of future state visioning is taken from industry and commerce and given an environmental perspective to provide the visionary dimension required by such a holistic process. However, a visionary process is best served by a visualization tool, particularly where non-expert, community participation is deemed essential. The process of mapping bioregions is just such a tool. The proposal that bioregional mapping is suitable as a tool requires that bioregions, as a construct, are demonstrable entities, as claimed by the literature. Tberefore, a mapping exercise that allowed the testing of this principle was undertaken for Scotland as the test area. A methodology was developed, using a Geographical Information System to assist in the mapping and analysis. Statistical analysis of the resultant theoretical bioregional model showed that the bioregions had good agreement with other methods of dividing Scotland into regions. They also showed better agreement with these other regionalisations than politically defined regions. The notion that watersheds can be substituted for bioregions was rejected. Therefore, it was shown that bioregions are demonstrable entities,albeit sensitive to scale. The bioregions produced from first principles were compared to an independent qualitatively developed model, The results of this comparison reinforces a suggestion that a 'science of quantities' needs to be tempered by a 'science of qualities' when stakeholder participation and interpretation is important. The dramatic story of the social and environmental collapse of Easter Island is a metaphor for the situation facing the Earth, as a whole on the one hand, and to introduce the arguments of sustainability and regionality on the other. Easter Island is isolated, with almost no external inputs, like the Earth, but on a different scale. However, it is also a part of the Earth. From many sources, there is agreement that the natural environment of the Earth is under threat, not just on the local scale but on a global scale as well. Bioregions are proposed as a holistic way of mapping the environment to inform the future state visioning process, which is offered as a tool at the level of strategic management. Bioregional mapping and environmental future state visioning were proposed as vehicles for stakeholder participation and the recognition of cultural factors in environmental management and planning. Future work should include investigating future state visioning solutions to more localised and community focused environmental management problems. Scotland, as the subject for analysis, provides a manageable compromise between the extreme isolation and singularity of Easter Island and the multiplicity of the regions of the world. Scotland is an area that has good data on its various forms of regionality, including cultural and biogeographic regions.

Energy needs in the UK are currently met primarily through the use of finite resources, such as oil, coal and gas. The use of these fuels has led to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. There is a need for a more localised and sustainable energy source to meet the demands of our cities. Renewable energy is now being considered as a realistic contributor to both our energy and environmental problems. The contribution of small – scale distributed power generation from renewable sources to the Scottish energy mix is examined. The daily potential energy available from wind and solar resources will be modelled using spectral techniques such as Wavelets and Fourier analysis. From this, synthetic time series of the energy available will be created based on the characteristics of real life data. Along with this, a simple model for both the electricity and heating energy consumption of a typical domestic building is proposed. This allows for the approximation of daily domestic consumption values from monthly average energy values. The potential energy available is then compared with the estimated domestic energy consumption. The loads best suited for, and met by PV generating systems and wind systems will also be assessed, along with the proportion of time that the domestic demand is met or exceeded. This work will be backed up with realistic examples from building integrated renewable systems based on typical data for Aberdeen. All this would allow for a potential statistical relationship between energy supply and demand to be developed in the future. The results of the analysis allowed for the estimation of the potential wind and PV system sizes required to match either the typical summer or winter domestic demand. From these sizes, it was concluded that a combination of a 5m2 PV system and a 1.5kW wind turbine was required to match the typical domestic base load. Widespread implementation of these combined systems, on suitable dwellings, could provide a 16% contribution to the Scottish domestic electricity demand.

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