What's New

Future POST Work Programme

The Board have agreed the following subject areas for future POSTnotes and reports that will be started when resources permit: 

• Low Carbon Technologies for Energy-intensive Industries:  energy-intensive industries such as iron and steel, chemicals and cement are responsible for 45% of carbon emissions from the business and public sectors in the UK. This POSTnote will look at the prospects for low-carbon technologies and energy efficiency measures in these industries, and consider the impact of current and proposed UK policies on emissions reduction. 
• Land Sharing versus Land Sparing: a key area of debate in agricultural and conservation policy is over whether it is environmentally better to grow more food on less land, thereby freeing up other land for ecological habitats, or to try to combine conservation and food production on the same land. This POSTnote will set out knowledge gaps in the evidnece base and challenges for the land sparing approach.
• GM Crops in Developing Countries: the recent POSTnote on GM crops and food security did not consider the issues around GM crops in developing countries, due to space constraints.   
• Bioenergy: bioenergy is a broad term covering a range of renewable plant or animal 'biomass' resources that can be converted for electricity generation, heating and transport. The Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency has recently stated that the projected carbon savings from bioenergy are based on flawed carbon accounting and should be revised downwards. This note will give a broad overview of bioenergy technologies and the issues associated with their future deployment.
• Super Farms: recent years have seen proposals to build very large livestock facilities - so called "super farms" - in the UK. This POSTnote will examine the potential enviornmental, economic, animal welfare and cultural impacts of super farms in the UK. It could also look at consumer attitudes to such developments and explore alternative policy options for addressing UK food security and agricultural sustainability issues.
• Measuring Wellbeing: recent years have seen numberous projects to develop high quality facts-based information that can be used to form an overall view of societal wellbeing and its evolution over time. This POSTnote will examine projects for measuring quality of life and wellbeing, discuss the range of possible indicators and look at the potential uses and limitations of any such measures.
• Heat Pumps: this POSTnote will describe heat-pump technologies, their performance and potential for widespread use, as well as investigating the challenges and opportunities associated with their deployment.
• Energy Efficiency: this POSTnote will support parliamentary scrutiny of energy efficiency policy and legislation by providing clear terms of reference for debate. It will summarise measures of energy efficiency for different sectors of the economy and indicate the varying potentials for improvement. It will also refer to the ongoing debate on the ‘rebound effect’ and its implications for energy policy.
• ICT for the Disabled: this POSTnote will discuss accessibility and usability issues surrounding new ICT. It will describe public and private sector initiatives to improve accessibility, such as recent pilot schemes of text messaging for emergency services, review EU and UK legislation and discuss initiatives in the developing world.
• Open Source, Open Standards and Government Procurement: this two-page POSTnote will focus on the definitions of open source software and open standards and examine government procurement policy for software.