Science and Engineering at The University of Edinburgh

Centre for the study of
Environmental Change
and Sustainability

Energy & Climate Policy Research Projects

Communicating the eScience of Climate Change

Fungible Carbon

Strategic Overview of Policies to meet 80% emission reduction target by 2050

The role of non-nation state actors in post-2012 international climate policy

Communicating the eScience of Climate Change

Main outputs:

• Specific outputs to support the development of the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, which will be published in 2009;
• High-impact papers on the interactions between the scientific use of enhanced computational power and contrasting use of this knowledge by stakeholders, in the context of climate change projection, mitigation and adaptation.
• Design specifications for models and tools to bridge the communication gap.

Related outputs:

Kerr, A. and McLeod, A. (2001) Potential adaptation strategies to climate change in Scotland Scottish Executive Central Research Unit, Edinburgh.

Adapting Our Ways: Managing Scotland’s Climate Risk - Consultation to inform Scottish Climate Adaptation Framework

Fungible Carbon

The overall objective of the three-year project is a detailed understanding of how different methods of mitigating climate change have been affected by, and affect, the process of creating a single fungible (i.e. standardised and interchangeable) international unit of carbon. Research questions focus on three principal spheres in which carbon is made fungible:

1. Greenhouse gas projects – How do uncertainties in scientific knowledge and measurement bear upon the feasibility of constructing fungible carbon, and hence affect the range of greenhouse gas mitigation projects and technologies that can be incorporated in carbon markets, and the precise terms of their incorporation?
2. Climate change policy and politics – How do market rules and regulations operating at different levels (international, national, regional; legally mandated vs. voluntary) affect the extent to which a single international tradeable carbon unit comes into existence?
3. Trading and accountancy – Do different classes of participants in carbon markets treat the carbon that is traded differently (e.g. as a profit opportunity, a means of achieving compliance, or a means of voluntarily achieving ‘carbon neutrality’), and with what consequences for their market behaviour? What is the bearing on the fungibility of carbon of the ‘micropolitics’ and ‘microsociology’ of carbon market practices (e.g. pressures for favourable accounting rules; the coming together of different occupational communities of traders)?

Funding:   The Nuffield Foundation

Duration:   October 2008- September 2011

Further information:   Heather Lovell

Strategic Overview of Policies to meet 80% emission reduction target by 2050

Main output:

Road map for Scotland to meet the 80% emission reduction target by 2050 to which the Government has committed in its Climate Change Bill.

Related outputs:

Kerr, A., Tipper, R., Rawlins, M. (2007), The Scottish Climate Change Programme: A Gap Analysis , Scottish Executive Environment & Rural Affairs Department, Edinburgh.

Kerr, A. et al. (2003), Policy Audit of UK Climate Change Policies and Programmes , UK Sustainable Development Commission, London.

The role of non-nation state actors in post-2012 international climate policy

There are two overall objectives of the Tyndall post-2012 project. On the theoretical front, we are trying to understand the ways in which the explosion in parallel initiatives seeking to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases – in cities, in key developing countries, at the regional level, through corporations, carbon offset organisations, and so on – challenge traditional concepts and approaches to international co-operation. On the empirical front, we are assessing the significant initiatives being undertaken by non-state actors in order to understand how they are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the institutional factors that might facilitate greater benefit to the atmosphere.

Heather Lovell has been working with Professor Diana Liverman on the carbon offset case study. We are exploring how influential offset organisations are engaging with post-2012 international policy, both directly and indirectly. For example, an offset organisation might be directly lobbying for certain changes post-2012, but also has indirect influence in terms of facilitating corporate action on climate change, developing new greenhouse gas reduction projects, and innovating with new technologies. We are ultimately seeking to establish what might allow offset organisations to take more carbon out of the atmosphere, whether that is through the international regime or independently.

Funding:   UK Tyndall Centre (Programme One) research undertaken in conjunction with colleagues at Oxford University, the University of East Anglia and Durham University.

Duration:   2006- 2009

Further information:   Heather Lovell

Lovell, H., Bulkeley, H.A. and Liverman, D. (in press) Carbon offsetting: sustaining consumption? Environment and Planning A

Lovell, H. (2008) Conceptualising climate governance beyond the international regime: the case of carbon offset organisations , 2008 Tyndall Programme One Workshop, 19th-20th May 2008, Oxford, UK

Lovell, H. (2008) The Ethics of Carbon Offsets , International Carbon and Communities in Tropical Woodlands Conference, 16th-18th June 2008, University of Edinburgh

Lovell, H. (2008) The international climate regime and voluntary carbon offsets: the case of Australia , American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Conference. 15th-19th April 2008, Boston, United States

Bulkeley, H., Lovell, H. and Livermann, D. (2007) Carbon offsetting: sustaining consumption? RGS-IBG International Annual Conference, London.

Lovell, H. (2007) More effective, efficient and faster? The role of non-state actors at UN climate negotiations. In Tyndall Centre Briefing Note no.24