GEMINOA: recap and reflections

Two years on from the launch of GEMINOA and nearing its conclusion, now is as good a time as ever to reflect on the part the Fraser of Allander Institute has played in it.

This blog offers a short recap of our main activities and considers how the evidence developed through GEMINOA can help shape future decision-making in Glasgow.

Project Overview

GEMINOA, the Glasgow Monitoring of Indoor and Outdoor Air project, brought together the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Science Centre, SmartSTEMs, and other partners.

Funded by the ICLEI Europe Action Fund 2.0, this multidisciplinary project, in partnership with Glasgow City Council, combines novel outdoor air quality and emissions sensors, indoor air quality data, and economic analysis to support public engagement and aid policy makers in evaluating environmental policies.

At its core, the project builds on an existing partnership with UC Berkeley, through the deployment of a network of air quality sensors to measure levels of CO2, CO, NOx, PM2.5 and PM10 throughout the city.

You can view the data from these sensors at the Berkely Environmental Air Quality and CO₂ Network (BEACO₂N) website. Alongside outdoor air quality measurement, the project explores indoor air quality and the interactions between indoor and outdoor air quality.

Project Partners

• Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Led Professor Dr Craig Michie
• Department of Architecture
  • Led by Professor Tim Sharpe
• Department of Economics/ Fraser of Allander Institute
  • Led by Professor Grant Allan
• Glasgow City Council
  • Led by Dom Callaghan
• Glasgow Science Centre
• SmartSTEMs

FAI GEMINOA team

• Dr Grant Allan
  • Professor, Department of Economics
• Jack Williamson
  • Knowledge Exchange Associate
• Allison Catalano
  • Knowledge Exchange Fellow
• Aidan Rooney
  • Knowledge Exchange Assistant
• Chrissie Blair
  • Work placement MSc student
• Milja Keskinen
  • Work placement MSc student

What have we done? (policy and stakeholder focus)

A large part of the FAI’s work on GEMINOA has been on producing reports which aim to support policy evaluation. We have listed these publications below:

Quantifying Glasgow’s Emissions Reductions

This report reviews Glasgow’s territorial CO₂ emissions as the city works towards its 2030 net-zero target. Glasgow serves as an excellent case study to show how methodological decisions in disaggregating the UK emissions inventory, such as end-user electricity allocation or applying devolved vehicle fleet data across all areas, shape interpretations of policy actions. These choices can mask the true drivers of emissions reductions and affect how local action is evaluated.

Link: Quantifying Glasgow’s Emissions Reductions. You can also listen to the FAI’s Jack Williamson discuss the findings on the FAI’s own podcast. Link: Podcast: Quantifying Glasgow’s Emissions Reductions

Socioeconomic inequalities in air pollutant exposure in Glasgow

This report explores environmental inequalities in Glasgow City, focusing on two traffic-related pollutants (NOX and PM2.5) both linked to significant health impacts. Glasgow’s large population and marked socioeconomic inequalities make it a particularly relevant case.

Our report compares income inequality and ethnic composition across data zones with annual mean pollutant levels and examines air quality around state-funded schools by the share of pupils from ethnic minorities or deprived areas.

Link: Socioeconomic inequalities in air pollutant exposure in Glasgow

Glasgow Data Catalogue 2025

This publication compiles publicly available data across environmental, energy, transport, economic, and health and inequality indicators for Glasgow, aiming to improve access to key datasets for policy analysis.

Entries summarise each dataset’s geographical – i.e. how local is the area covered in the data – and temporal coverage, timeliness, and release lag. Timely indicators – those which are updated more regularly and closer to real-time – offer the potential to support more responsive decision -making, though often come with higher uncertainty. Where possible, we include notes on data limitations to aid public understanding of these data.

This publication was co-written by Milja Keskinen and Chrissie Blair, who joined the GEMINOA team for eight weeks through their MSc work placement with the FAI.

Link: Glasgow Data Catalogue 2025

The Role of Solar Energy in Glasgow’s Decarbonisation Strategy

GEMINOA work placement student Milja Keskinen wrote about how solar energy forms part of Glasgow’s decarbonisation strategy by deploying rooftop solar panels across council estates and supporting community renewable initiatives.

Link: The Role of Solar Energy in Glasgow’s Decarbonisation Strategy

Glasgow Economic and Climate Review 2025

This Review provides a timely overview of Glasgow’s economic, environmental, and social indicators to support policy decisions. It summarises short- and long-term trends, compares Glasgow with other Scottish authorities, and sets a baseline for future monitoring. The findings highlight contrasts in Glasgow: notable progress in emissions and renewable energy, alongside ongoing challenges in transport, public satisfaction, and health inequalities. The Review is intended to support not only local decision-makers but also other cities looking to learn from Glasgow’s experience.

Chrissie Blair co-authored the Glasgow Economic and Climate Review 2025, contributing to both its analysis and production.

Link: Glasgow Economic and Climate Review 2025

A Spark of Science: Episode 226, Air Economists

In this episode of the Glasgow Science Centre’s A Spark of Science podcast, titled “Air Economists”, Jack Williamson discusses the challenges of measuring emissions and assessing local air quality and climate policies. The episode was broadcast on community radio stations for a week before its release on Spotify.

Link: A Spark of Science: Episode 226, Air Economists

What have we done? (academic focus)

Through the project, we have also sought to engage with academic audiences, both through engagement – detailed later – as well as through academic publications. We have two academic papers currently under review at academic journals.

Research paper on emissions metrics at the city level (in review)

The paper compares four urban emissions accounting methods – using Glasgow as a case study -highlighting the sensitivity to each of the metrics to local policy priorities in areas such as energy and transport.

Our findings suggest a critical pathway forward for development of city-scale emissions data, and that our comparison provides lessons for policymakers on the use of metrics and demonstrating the impact of policies.

This paper was written by GEMINOA members from the Departments of Economics and Electrical and Electronic Engineering, together with colleagues from the University of Leeds and the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University.

Research paper on the effectiveness of urban air quality interventions (in review)

This systematic review examines the growing use of statistical techniques for analysing the consequences of air quality interventions, and what these publications tell us about the impacts of these policies. By applying strict inclusion criteria, we identify both what is known, where air quality interventions have been found to have impacts across air quality, health, behavoiural and economic outcomes, and where key evidence gaps remain. The findings aim to support the development of more effective future air quality interventions, and the rigourous evaluation of such policies.

Public Engagement

One of the most rewarding and interesting parts of the project was the public engagement opportunities provided through our GEMINOA partners at the Glasgow Science Centre.

Meet the Experts

The GEMINOA team spent a day in June 2024 at Glasgow Science Centre, engaging with school children from across the city. It was a completely new setting for our researchers, who had to think carefully about how to communicate their work to such a young and energetic audience.

Air Quality Family Event

In November 2024, the team spent a weekend back at Glasgow Science Centre, engaging with families from across the city. They discussed the science behind emissions and air quality, while also listening to attendees’ own thoughts and experiences.

Public engagement training

Prior to these events, the team took part in a day-long workshop organised by the Glasgow Science Centre focussed on engaging young audiences and presenting research in interesting and relatable ways.

Academic engagement

 50^th Regional Science Association International – British and Irish Section conference 2024 (Bristol)

The Fraser of Allander Institute represented GEMINOA at the 2024 RSAI-BIS conference in Bristol. Allison Catalano presented her work, Monitoring the relationship between income, health, and environmental inequalities in Glasgow. Jack Williamson presented on Drivers of emissions changes at local authority level in Scotland: measures and omissions.

51^st Regional Science Association International – British and Irish Section conference 2025 (Cork)

For a second year in a row, GEMINOA research was presented at RSAI-BIS. Jack Williamson presented early findings from the research paper on emissions metrics at the city level.

Policy engagement

Cities Mission Conference 2025 (Vilnius)

Jack was invited by ICLEI representatives to present at the Cities Mission 2025 conference in Vilnius, Lithuania. His presentation highlighted the range of work packages delivered across the GEMINOA project to date. He also took part in a roundtable discussion titled: How data-driven, AI, and smart city solutions can support climate-neutral cities.

Project events

Launch event – October 2023

Engage week – May 2024

End of Project event – April 2025

Output tracking and engagement

The table below lists the key project outputs involving contributions from the FAI team across research, engagement, and dissemination activities.

Table 1: Project outputs with engagement metrics

Output	Title	Engagements	Engagement metric
Project page	GEMINOA	256	Views
Blog	Introducing a Spark of Science	285	Views
Blog	Air Pollution, Health, and Inequality in Glasgow	1,800	Views
Blog	Inequalities in Air Pollution Exposure in Glasgow City	249	Views
Publication page	Quantifying Glasgow’s Emissions Reductions	179	Views
Publication page	Socioeconomic Inequalities in Air Pollutant Exposure in Glasgow	140	Views
Blog	Decomposing Glasgow’s CO₂ Emissions: Key Insights	470	Views
Blog	Improving Environmental Decision Making Through Data (GEMINOA)	429	Views
Blog	Quantifying Glasgow’s Emissions Reductions	124	Views
Blog	Glasgow Data Catalogue 2025	116	Views
Blog	Glasgow Economic and Climate Review 2025	68	Views
Blog	Glasgow City’s Solar Ambitions	83	Views
Podcast	Quantifying Glasgow’s Emissions Reductions	188	Downloads
Report	Quantifying Glasgow’s Emissions Reductions	82	Downloads
Report	Socioeconomic Inequalities in Air Pollutant Exposure in Glasgow	69	Downloads
Report	Glasgow Data Catalogue 2025	57	Downloads
Report	Glasgow Economic and Climate Review 2025	41	Downloads

 

Final thoughts

Policymakers at all levels of government, and across the world, are seeking to improve environmental quality for their citizens. Whether through low-emission zones to improve outdoor air quality, building standards to enhance indoor environments, or emissions reductions to tackle climate change, a wide range of policies are being pursued.

These challenges do not sit within a single academic discipline, which is why collaboration across subject areas is essential. We have been delighted to work with colleagues both those within the University of Strathclyde (the Architecture and Engineering departments) as well as the external partners on this ICLEI-funded project.

The common thread linking our contributions to GEMINOA is data – specifically, its central role in supporting effective decision-making. We believe that better decisions can follow when policymakers can measure, understand and communicate the consequences of their actions.

We’re very grateful to be part of this ICLEI project and hope that our insights bring new perspectives to this important area.

As we head into the new year, we will continue to share GEMINOA’s findings through policy-focused discussions with data providers and users, maximising the project’s impact.

If you are interested in our research and want to continue the conversation you can contact us at: jack.williamson@strath.ac.uk