ECI Annual Review 2006/2007 - Environmental Change Institute ...

Prof Maria carmen-lemos
Maria Carmen Lemos is an Associate
Professor at the University of Michigan’s
School of Natural Resources and Environment
where the overall focus of her
research is the intersection of technoscientific
knowledge and governance of
environmental issues. During her sabbatical
at ECI she investigated the role
of governance institutions in building
adaptive capacity to climate variability
and change in water management in
Brazil. Using survey data from eighteen
river basin committees and consortia
across different regions, she explores
the implications of the use of technoscientific
knowledge, including climate
information, to foster adaptation and
democracy in the management of vulnerable
water resources.
Eakin, H. and M.C. Lemos (2006).
Adaptation and the state: Latin America and
the challenge of capacity-building under
globalization. Global Environmental Change,
vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 7-18.
Dr Dave frame
Dave is looking at how uncertainties in
predictions of global climate change
models can affect climate policy, and
the role of ‘ensemble’ climate forecasts
and what they might imply. He is
interested in how understanding recent
and future global warming rates might
improve the questions policy makers
ask, as well as working on ways of
understanding the uncertainties in the
answers to those questions. He is also
interested in philosophical aspects of
climate research, especially questions
regarding foundational issues in climate
modelling. Formerly Dave was the coordinator
of climateprediction.net,
the world’s largest participatory
computer climate model, with 1/4million
contributors from over 150 countries.
Frame D. J., Stone D. A., Stott P. A., Allen
M. R. (2006) Alternatives to stabilisation
scenarios, Geophysical Letters 33 L14707.
Dr Cameron hepburn
Cameron is an environmental economist
specialising in climate policy and longterm
decision-making. He has recently
been working on the functioning of the
European emissions trading scheme,
instrument choice, adaptation finance,
and the absence of a clear carbon
price signal for business post-Kyoto
2012. He assisted the UK Government’s
Stern Review on the Economics of
Climate Change and is advising OECD
governments on their discounting
frameworks, which determine how a
balance is struck between short-term
and long-term public objectives. He is
a member of the Academic Panel for
the UK Government’s Department of
Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
(DEFRA).
Hepburn, C., Neuhoff, K., Grubb, M.,
Matthes, F. and Tse, M. (2006) Auctioning of
EU ETS Phase II allowances: why and how?
Climate Policy 6:1, 137-160.
Dr samuel randalls
Sam’s research analyzes the nascent
weather derivatives market in relation
to contemporary themes in climate
policy. Can weather derivatives be
used to adapt to the costs of climate
change? How might weather derivatives
interact with the EU emissions trading
scheme and renewable energy
financing? These questions are
explored through empirical research
on weather derivatives examining
both the financial and meteorological
networks underpinning the market. This
work is informed through theoretical
approaches developed in human
geography and the sociology of
science.
Prof Timmons Roberts
While on sabbatical at the ECI, Timmons
is researching foreign aid and climate
change mitigation and adaptation in developing
nations. With special funds now
for adaptation and huge carbon trading
activities, the role of aid has been
under-studied. His project will consider
past aid and its impact on carbon emissions;
effectiveness of 1,600 specific
climate change aid projects; and case
studies of China, Brazil, and India. This
work builds on his book Greening Aid?
Understanding Foreign Assistance for
the Environment, analysing 430,000
aid projects between 1970 and 2001.
Timmons uses political economy theory
to explain unequal suffering by poor
nations of climate change impacts, unequal
responsibility for the problem, and
unequal participation in treaties such as
the Kyoto Protocol.
Roberts, J.T. and Hite, A., 2006. The Globalization
and Development Reader: Perspectives
on Development and Social Change (Second
Edition). Blackwell Publishers.
prof john schellnhuber
John is Founding Director of the
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts
Research and a Distinguished Science
Adviser and former Research Director
of the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research. He has recently been
appointed as the ‘Chief Sustainability
Scientist’ for the German Government
in the 2007 G8/EU twin presidency
and the overall post-Kyoto process.
His research has advanced crossdisciplinary
understanding of the crucial
processes involved in climate change.
He has contributed more than 230
pertinent articles and books and was,
for instance, Coordinating Lead Author
of the WG II synthesis chapter in the
Third Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) Assessment Report. He
received an honorary CBE in recognition
of his accomplishments in climate
change science and diplomacy, and
he is an elected member of a number
of learned societies (including the US
National Academy of Sciences and the
German Max Planck Society). Oxford
now provides his UK base when not in
Germany.
Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, 2006.
Edited by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Wolfgang
Cramer, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Tom Wigley,
Gary Yohe. Foreword by Rt Hon Tony Blair
MP, Introduction by Dr Rajendra Pachauri.
Dr Emma Tompkins
Emma researches how societies can
and should adapt to climate change.
Her current projects include societal
responses to natural hazards as an
analogy for preparing for climate
change; processes of institutional
learning and the role of international
conventions; drivers of private sector
responses to weather hazards; and
motivators of individual change. She
is focusing on 4 themes: knowledge
transfer across social groups and
cultural contexts; tools to support
climate change decision making; the
role of governance in enabling and
constraining climate change responses;
and identifying the psychological and
economic limits to adaptation. With
colleagues from the Caribbean she
recently wrote a manual on ‘Surviving
climate change in small islands; a
guidebook‘.
Tompkins, E. L. 2005. Planning for climate
change in small islands: Insights from
national hurricane preparedness in the
Cayman Islands. Global Environmental
Change 15 (2):139-143.
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