Chris Dore was seconded for most of 2009 to the Air Quality Science and Evidence team in Defra.  Chris provided technical support on the revisions to the National Emissions Ceilings Directive, the Gothenburg Protocol. This included assessing the different calculation methods that could be used for national commitments, and providing input on emission projections to support policy colleagues.
Chris also assessed a range of potential measures designed to reduce NO2 emissions - both at the national scale and by, liaising with Local Authorities, at specific geographical locations. The results from this work were then used to develop a strategy for tackling NO2 hot spots in the UK, and formed part of the UK’s Time Extension Notification.

Community carbon management is a considerable challenge for all Local Authorities and performance varies widely due to a complex combination of factors. Aether worked with Centre for Sustainable Energy for Energy Saving Trust to develop a new tool to analyse these variations.  A prototype PACE tool (Performance Analysis of Carbon Emissions) has been designed to bring together data from the new TrACE tool and other socio-economic and emissions related data sets.  This would allow Local Authorities to analyse carbon reduction performance within Nearest Neighbour groups with similar socio-economic characteristics.  Furthermore the tool could enable analysis of the effectiveness of the various measures taken and encourage the sharing of best practice.

Defra commissioned a panel of experts to review the current state of transboundary air pollution in the UK and write a national report which is to be distributed in the public domain. Chris was on the panel as an expert in emissions to air and lead the Emissions chapter.