The DEMScot model was developed by Cambridge Architectural Research, working with Cambridge Econometrics, Alembic Research, and Roger Talbot and Associates.

It was created for the Scottish Government to answer policy questions about housing and climate change, and in particular to see what needs to happen to Scottish housing in order to meet its targets for cutting CO2 emissions by 2020 and 2050.

It allows policy-makers to examine the effect of 18 technological improvements to existing housing: how much energy and CO2 is saved by each, and at what cost?

The model is large and complex. It is described in our report: Modelling Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Scottish Housing: Final Report. Download (PDF, 1Mb) »]

As a summary, the model includes:

• yearly CO2 emissions from electricity, gas and solid fuel use in Scotland's 2.3 million homes
• new house building in Scotland through to 2050
• the embodied CO2 from new homes and technological upgrades
• the CO2 impacts of changing factors under user control (behavioural effects)
• current best estimates for changing CO2 intensity of electricity
• current best estimates for changing energy costs to 2050.

[Contact: Jason Palmer]

[Contact: Andy Brown]

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