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

Climate Mitigation Research
The attribution of current climate
change to increased greenhouse
gases, particularly carbon dioxide,
from anthropogenic sources has
centred policy attention on the
reduction of these emissions.
Exploring potential avenues for
reducing emissions is necessary
to preventing dangerous climate
change and is a central part of
research on developing a low carbon
society. Current policy debates focus
on reducing emissions at personal
and corporate level; the potential
of markets to efficiently reduce
emissions; and the mechanisms that
link lower carbon economies with
developmental aid. Informing these
policies post-2012, the end of the
Kyoto Protocol’s ‘first commitment
period’, is a critical arena for
contemporary work.
MitigationProjects
Informing international climate policy
This Tyndall research question led
by ECI’s Professor Diana Liverman
examines how international action
on climate change can be effectively
developed after 2012
Lower Carbon Futures
ECI’s energy research theme
undertakes projects to understand
the links between consumer
behaviour, new technologies, policy
formulation and the markets, with
the goal of lowering future carbon
emissions.
Climate Adaptation Research
Managing and adapting to future
climate changes will be critical
for the welfare of humans and
non-humans in various parts
of the world. This adaptation
may be in advising businesses of
future impacts, or exploring the
adaptation of societies or ecological
communities at present with
questions about how and why some
societies or communities adapt to
changes more readily than others.
Critical issues focus on questions
of water, food, and energy at local,
national, and international scales.
Successful adaptation will depend
on the climate scientists and the
social scientists working together to
implement wide-ranging solutions
that build our capacity to adapt to
future climate change.
AdaptationProjects
Foreign assistance and low carbon
economies
Can foreign aid help drive positive
change at the level of national
economies, moving countries toward
lower-carbon/higher value pathways
of development?
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, this project
explores the implications of the
use of technoscientific knowledge,
including climate information, to
foster adaptation and democracy in
the management of vulnerable water
resources.
Adaptation of societies for sustainable
development
This project aims to improve
our understanding of why some
societies, groups, or individuals
adapt to risks and hazards better
than others.
Weather derivatives and climate
policy
Examining the relationships between
weather derivatives, emissions
trading, and climate change policy,
particularly focusing upon the
energy industry.
Global Environmental Change and
Food Systems (GECAFS)
GECAFS is a comprehensive
programme of interdisciplinary
research focused on understanding
the links between food security and
global environmental change.
Climate Communication Research
Climate change communications
have been increasingly recognized
as key contributors – among a
number of factors – that affect
climate change science and policy
discourse as well as shape actions.
Translation has taken shape through
many media, from news publishers,
editors, and journalists who
disseminate information, largely
through newspapers, magazines,
television, radio and the internet,
to graphic designers, architects,
painters, and sculptors.
The intersection of mass media and
climate change science and policy is
a dynamic and “high-stakes” arena
of communications.
CommunicationProjects
Mass media influences on climate
science, policy, and the public
Comparative analyses of public
discourse between the United States
and the United Kingdom on climate
change at the triple interface of
science, policy, and mass media.
Celebrity involvement in climate
change science, media, and policy
Examining the role of climate
change-related celebrity endeavours
and initiatives, and interrogating
how these activities influence
discourse and actions at the climate
science and policy interface.
Key Publications
West, C. C. and Gawith, M.
J. (Eds) (2005) Measuring
Progress: preparing for climate
change through the UK Climate
Impacts Programme.
Frame D., Stone D., Stott P.
and Allen M. 2006. “Alternatives
to stabilization scenarios.”
Geophysical Research Letters
33(14).L14707.
Liverman D.M. 2006. Survival
into the Future in the Face of
Climate Change. Survival: The
Survival of the Human Race
(2006 Darwin Lectures).
E. Shuckburgh (Ed) Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press:
187-205.