Every weekday morning, come rain or shine, climate scientist Dr Emily Shuckburgh bikes her daughters – Genevieve, seven, and Eloise, five – to school. It’s a 20-minute journey through the streets of Cambridge, but even if driving by car was an option, the girls would insist otherwise. “I’ve cycled them about in our cargo bike, whatever the weather, since they were babies,” says Shuckburgh. “Yes, it happens to be the most sustainable way of travelling, but we wouldn’t do it any other way because they prefer it. They love the fresh air and I get fit in the process. Luckily, this city is pretty flat – I’d want an electric bike if I lived anywhere hilly!”
Shuckburgh, who is director of Cambridge Zero, a climate change initiative that aims to channel the University of Cambridge’s research and policy expertise into building a zero-carbon future – explains that many of the individual changes that we can make to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions have other, self-serving, benefits too. Eating a more plant-based diet is healthier than eating meat every day. Buying less stuff saves you money – and so too does improving the energy efficiency of your property.
At home, insulating the draughty Victorian house she shares with her husband, daughters and two cats, Tiger and Stripe, has been a big challenge, and now Shuckburgh is keen to explore how to switch to renewables and decarbonise her central heating system, which currently runs on a gas boiler.
“There’s potential for really exciting solutions to quite difficult challenges,” she says. Inspired by the Heating Swaffham Prior project, which has just launched in a nearby Cambridgeshire village, Shuckburgh is investigating whether her community could do something similar. “I’m wondering whether we can install a water-source heat pumping station to connect to a district network and pump warm water into all the houses in this area,” she says. “Heat pumps work like a fridge backwards.”
For now, Shuckburgh is harnessing the power of more readily available technologies – namely smart valves and smart meters – to help make her home as energy efficient as possible.
“One of the best things we’ve done to reduce our energy use is replace the valves on our radiators with smart valves. Each room is set at a different temperature that I can control via an app on my phone – that’s made the biggest difference. We can just target the heat at the rooms we want it in, and set it remotely as well,” she says. Used in combination with smart meters, Shuckburgh believes they make a powerful package.
“We need the data that comes from smart meters on a national scale to upgrade our outdated energy system, in order to maximise the ways in which our renewable power is being used,” she says. “Smart meters can also enable future, green technology and that’s where I see the real opportunity.”
For more than a decade, Shuckburgh worked in the polar regions with the British Antarctic Survey – an experience that has, unsurprisingly, had a huge influence on the way she sees the world. “The Arctic and Antarctic are incredibly awe-inspiring environments in the first place – but the scale of the changes that are occurring there is frankly terrifying,” she says. Shuckburgh was particularly struck by the powerful testimonies of people in the Arctic, living through these potentially catastrophic shifts.
“What happens in those polar regions deeply affects us throughout the world. These vast ice sheets hold within them many metres of potential sea level rise that would completely devastate coastal communities around the world if they did indeed collapse,” she says. “Here in the UK, communities and livelihoods have already been repeatedly devastated by floods, and around the world wildfires and extreme heatwaves are happening so much more frequently.”
Shuckburgh’s current research includes exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can speed up the transition to a low-carbon future. By creating digital energy systems, AI can be used to create a more sophisticated grid that can store energy and manage it better to meet changing supply and demand.
“There are all sorts of ways that AI and digital technologies can be applied,” explains Shuckburgh, who began her career working on the problem side of the climate crisis as a mathematician. “Previously, I was using maths and climate science to quantify and predict the scale and the urgency of the challenge, but there came a point where we also needed to focus on solutions. Part of my job now is to energise and empower people to be part of that change at the community, national and international level. It’s all about galvanising that global movement to really help shape a more resilient, more sustainable and more inclusive zero-carbon future.”
Shuckburgh is passionate about giving people a sense of agency, and believes everyone needs to be involved in shaping solutions. To that end, she has been working with citizen juries, bringing together a representative spectrum of communities to discuss what sustainable options might be best for them.
“This is a global problem that can only be addressed by ambitious efforts from governments around the world, combined with individual actions like improving the energy-efficiency of our homes, which is where smart meters can help,” she says. “Who doesn’t want to be part of a better future?”
It’s also the reason she was so thrilled to collaborate with Prince Charles and environmental campaigner Tony Juniper on Climate Change (A Ladybird Expert Book), back in 2017.
“Trying to condense down the complete story of climate change into the size of a Ladybird book with suitable language was a huge challenge,” she admits. “But our key message is that we need to shift from a world where we are living in conflict with the planet to one in which we are living in greater harmony with the natural systems that help sustain us.”
Today, as she sits at her desk in her living room, Shuckburgh looks out at a carpet of wildflowers. Last year, during the first lockdown, she and her daughters transformed their front garden into a wildlife haven with just a few packets of seeds. First snowdrops, now bluebells, forget-me-nots and fritillaries have sprung up, and she often spots passers-by stopping to admire the scene.
“It’s lovely, and just a tiny example of positive change – going from that sterile lawn into something that is infinitely more beautiful and biodiverse.”
Join the energy revolution and contact your energy supplier to request a smart meter. For more information visit smartenergygb.org
This article was paid for by Smart Energy GB – the not-for-profit, government-backed campaign helping everyone in Britain to understand the importance of smart meters and their benefits to people and the environment.
