Environmental Change Institute

Are you interested in a PhD examining the regional resilience of UK water supplies and environmental resilience? Or know someone who is? Check out this funded collaborative EPSRC CASE PhD research project between the University of Oxford and Thames Water: Deadline for applications is 11 December 2020. Please share 😀https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/doctoral/about.html ://lnkd.in/egyBUXw

Environmental Change Institute - University of Oxford Environmental Change Institute - University of Oxford

What are green energy tariffs, power purchase agreements, offsetting and insetting? Do they have meaningful impact, or is it just a load of greenwash?

Find out in this free webinar that Helen Gavin is hosting on 25 September at 12, noon: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/epg-power-hour-green-tariffs-ppas-offsetting-and-insetting-tickets-118737532155

EPG Power Hour | Green tariffs, PPAs, Offsetting and Insetting What are green energy tariffs, power purchase agreements, offsetting and insetting? Do they have meaningful impact, or is it greenwash?

Helen Gavin's webinar on Wednesday examined energy access v reliability, focusing on Sierra Leone, and was fascinating! Many thanks to Kelcise Sesay, Hindolo George-Williams and John Rhys.

If you’d like to find out about this topic you can check out the outputs:

Video: https://lnkd.in/gumQK3e
Slides: https://bit.ly/2XA2jhY
Q&A: https://bit.ly/3gxVoxi

More webinars are forthcoming from the Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy! They cover what’s happening with renewable energy integration in China; exploring net zero; learning from the past to roll out effective energy efficiency programmes; and putting a carbon tax on transportation.

More info: https://lnkd.in/grXE7gS
The page also has links to the recording of past webinars.

Oxford Martin School University of Oxford

Explore clean, and renewable, energy issues and solutions in our summer webinar series! – Integrate Helen Gavin 31 July, 2020 access Behaviour Challenges China Distributed energy resources Economics fuel poverty Government & policy Literature Net Zero reliability Sierra Leone Smart systems Taxation Vehicles All Categories Associates Blog Events Leaders Newsletters People Publications Researchers V...

Come join us!

The Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy Systems wishes to appoint a Research Assistant to examine the emerging legal and regulatory issues associated with renewable energy systems.

The successful candidate will explore aspects of regulatory, legal and business risk in energy transactions, developing projects or business operations. You will analyse such issues and work towards making policy recommendations with others in the Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy. The main duties include carrying out research on the regulatory reform needed to enable further integration of renewable energy technologies.

This deadline is noon on 7 September 2020.

Here’s the link for more info and to apply:
https://bit.ly/2BUpn3c

Good luck if you decide to apply!

If resources are limited, is it better to roll out access to people who do not have any electricity, or improve the reliability of the existing electricity supply?

What are the factors that influence these issues?

Join Helen Gavin, John Rhys, Hindolo George-Martin and Kelcise Sesay to hear about this issue for Sierra Leone on Wednesday 5 August, 11am UTC+1.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/manage/events/109550392172/online-event

Want to know more about electric vehicles, their impact on the electricity grid, and broadening access to them?
Then tune in to our webinar, tomorrow, 15th July, 11am UTC+1 which is all about "Electric vehicles: broadening access and supporting electricity networks".
I’ll be talking to Sivapriya Mothilal Bhagavathy from the University of Oxford and Esther Dudek from EA Technology about what is happening.
Register to be sent the joining details!

Electric Vehicles: broadening access and supporting electricity networks Electric Vehicles: broadening access and supporting electricity networks

Oxford recently held a Citizens Assembly on Climate Change, and the ECI's Nick Eyre gave an overview of energy issues:. Find out the 3 key aspects he wants you to know and understand. 🌎
https://youtu.be/jJrQB3LFam0

Prof Nick Eyre speaks about Energy at the Oxford Citizens Assembly Oxford City Council declared a Climate Emergency in Jan 2019, and held a Citizens Assembly at two weekends over September and October 2019. Professor Nick Ey...

"A year ago we finished the Report & I’m picking my way through demonstrators to an meeting with UK govt which probably wouldn’t have happened without & " Prof Myles Allen reflects on the difference a year makes

Did you know that Bitcoin uses more electricity than Switzerland? Or that London has more electric buses than anywhere outside China? Find out more in the monthly Renewable Energy newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/76725cfe8fe7/integrate-august-2019-recording-breaking-and-disruptive

Integrate - August 2019: Recording Breaking and Disruptive!

The Environmental Change Institute energy network was buzzing at last week's Ecreee - Ecowas Centre for Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency gathering. 12 Energy Programme staff and students attended – all presenting papers or running ‘informal’ sessions. They were joined by former ECI colleagues and students, visiting scholars and close associates, and were captured in this lovely group photo by Fabian Voswinkel.

During the summer study week researchers asked 'Is energy efficiency sufficient?' This question was partly inspired by foundational work done by Sarah Darby on energy sufficiency some years ago. This work has been carried forward by Sarah and Tina Fawcett in a new European-wide ‘energy sufficiency’ project. Discover more at www.energysufficiency.org.

MSc student Charles Emogor has begun research to assess the population dynamics of large mammal communities in the forest-savannah mosaic of Gabon's Lopé National Park - can you help? https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/news/2019/0528-wildgabon.html

In a new study published in the Journal of Climate, ECI researchers have confirmed that slow-acting ocean cycles do not explain the long-term changes in global temperature over the last century. 'We can now say with confidence that human factors like greenhouse gas emissions & particulate pollution, along with year-to-year changes brought on by natural phenomenon like volcanic eruptions or the El Niño, are sufficient to explain virtually all of the long-term changes in temperature,' says study lead author Dr Karsten Haustein. http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2019-05-22-global-temperature-change-attributable-external-factors-confirms-new-study

Dr Pam Berry & Alison Smith advised designers of a sustainable urban garden for this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The ‘The Savills and David Harber Garden’ designed by Andrew Duff reflects the importance of keeping green spaces & nature in urban areas. http://ow.ly/vgCE50ujSB4

Dr Pam Berry is one of six senior academic Fellows who will lead a new Systems Research Programme at looking at some of the UK's most pressing environmental issues to inform and shape future policy decisions. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/science-research-programme-launched-to-inform-defra-policy-making

Congratulations to Friederike Otto whose new book - about her work, searching for the culprit of heat waves, floods & storms - has made the top 10 best-seller list in Germany!
https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/spiegel-bestseller-paperback-a-1025444.html

Watch out for these faces in the future! has been training up a select group of students to be leaders of the future. Thanks to everyone who has made the course such a success!

The annual ECI Training Better Leaders course has just kicked off! We’re looking forward to working with 60 enthusiastic students from all across Oxford University, tackling the hot topic of climate change in food, energy & water security this week.

“The scientific community has an opportunity to instigate positive societal changes”

explores how emerging evidence of climate change’s impact on human health & mortality can feed into decisions around how we adapt in the future http://ow.ly/ejF330opuYN

Understanding the Impacts of Climate Change on Health to Better Manage Adaptation Action The atmospheric and climate research communities have made significant advances in recent decades in gathering and understanding the scientific evidence supporting the concept of anthropogenic climate change [...]

Scientists discover & describe the world’s - ECI Oxford Ecosystems scientists have undertaken a novel exploration of this remarkable new discovery to better understand how trees grow so tall. For videos, 3D models & more go to https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/news/2019/0408.html

It's the end of the March and time for our latest round-up of news, tweets and publications: https://mailchi.mp/2f65813cf428/eci-jan-2346553

In a of Regional Environmental Change Dr Pam Berry and her colleagues report on their work with stakeholders imagining how we might adapt to 4 degrees warming on a regional, national and continental scale https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10113-019-01477-9

Myles Allen named as one of the world's 100 most influential people in climate policy!
Drawing on hundreds of nominations from experts and leading organisations, Apolitical's 'Climate 100' list celebrates politicians, civil servants, academics and activists who are the driving force behind climate policy change.

The World's 100 Most Influential People In Climate Policy At a time when young people everywhere are marching to demand action on climate, it's more important than ever to celebrate the people driving policy change. This list celebrates inspirational government leaders, academics, youth activists and more.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS! Be part of the scientific response to & forge new thinking on emissions - submit your abstracts for the University of Oxford's 2019 International Conference on climate change & emissions pathways. Deadline: 8 April 2019
http://www.netzero.org.uk/abstract-submission
***
'Achieving Net Zero' is supported by Faculty of Science, Victoria University of Wellington, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford Martin School, & The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford.

Exploring bazaars, talking to street food traders & observing livestock vans food researcher Saher Hasnain considers these ‘non-urban’ spaces in as places where urban consumers might reconnect with their food and its producers. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17549175.2019.1576758

"When I lived in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and complained how warm I felt, a European acquaintance who had already been there for years suggested that ‘one adapts’ to the hot and humid climate. She then went on to be shocked when I mentioned that I didn’t have air conditioning inside my house. ‘It’s the first thing I turn on when I enter a room’, she said. So how did that make her adapted to the sticky climate?
Air conditioners are the type of quick fix that people seem to want in order to adapt to a changing climate. They offer a chance to continue in familiar lifestyles, which for most northern Europeans includes cooler and dryer weather. But air conditioners do not actually make people adapt. In fact, they might even make it more difficult to face the real climate outside because of the contrast between dry, air-conditioned air and warm, humid air.
This exchange prompted me to reflect on what actually constitutes human adaptation and what is just an action that people take to avoid adapting? It struck me that there is a missing dimension to current discussions of adaptation in science, policy and particularly practice – namely, ‘acceptance’."
***
The ECI's Environmental Social Science Research Fellow Dr Lisa Schipper reflects on the reality that life will change dramatically for many, as climate change increasingly impacts on lives. This has powerful implications for the path of development and human wellbeing she writes, in an article for GlobalDev.blog, and it is time for "true acceptance of what is happening".
For the full article go to: http://globaldev.blog/blog/adapting-climate-change-need-acceptance

Oxford schoolchildren are taking part in the international today and researchers will be there, running a info table & answering your questions. Send us your question online, using

Tomorrow Tina Fawcett will be setting up a Bonn Square stall with other researchers "to share information/have discussions with anyone interested in the science of , and the social, economic & technical policy responses to it.' https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/17493632.school-strike-oxford-pupils-get-green-light-for-fridays-demo/

'School strike': Pupils get green light for Oxford's round two YOUNGSTERS are once again gearing up to walk out of classes in Oxford’s latest ‘school strike’ this week.

In a new paper ’s Luke Harrington and explore how reframing scientific research on non-linear can better support decisions around losses due to and fossil fuel producers’ liability. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-019-02379-9

In a new paper Jesus Aguirre Jesus Aguirre Gutierrez et al share the discovery that drier tropical forests have increased deciduous species and show functional changes, adapting ecologically to a drying environment https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.13243

It's impossible to change anybody’s basic values but advisers can adapt their language, messages & approaches to speak to all. Find out more about SMEs & climate change - the communication challenge - on tomorrow's (28 Feb 13:00 GMT) http://ow.ly/dFCT50lOzUx