Negative Emission Technologies and the food-energy-water-neXus (NETX)
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Department Name: Mathematical Sciences
Abstract
If CO2 emissions continue to rise, climate change will adversely affect global food and water availability, ecosystems, cities, and coastal communities. While reduction of fossil fuels will be an essential step for reducing atmospheric CO2, Negative Emission Technologies (NETs) can help meet emission targets. During combustion, CO2 can be extracted, transported, and stored in geologic repositories - this is the process of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Combining bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) could result in negative emissions of CO2. BECCS is attractive since it results in a net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere while also providing a renewable source of energy. However, BECCS requires a large commitment of land and will have impacts on food and water availability. This work focuses on BECCS and addresses the challenges for planning a global and nationwide distribution of bioenergy crops.
The vast majority of IPCC scenarios that remain below 2 degrees C makes use of NET in the 21st century. Although bioenergy crops and BECCS are an essential component of the scenarios (produced by Integrated Assessment Models, or IAMs), the crops in even the most sophisticated IAMs only respond to mean changes in climate. This results in an inconsistency in the modelling framework: the IAMs can assume bioenergy crops are effective at drawing down CO2 and producing energy in a region where actually climate change will reduce their effectiveness. Earth System Models (ESMs) represent the dynamics of the atmosphere, oceans, sea ice, and land surface. They can account for biophysical (i.e. changes to albedo and latent heat fluxes) and biogeochemical (i.e. uptake or release of greenhouse gases) feedbacks due to land use change. They are the only tool available to investigate future impacts of spatial and temporal variability in climate on the food, energy, and water nexus. However, the ESMs used in the last IPCC report only accounted for a generic crop type at best, not differentiating between bioenergy and food crops. Without an explicit representation of bioenergy crops in ESMs, the effects of climate change do not feedback to affect the food, energy, and water resources assumed to be true in the IAMs. There is an urgent need for predicting the productivity of bioenergy crops in a coupled climate simulation, to see the impact of a range of climate change on the productivity, and associated impacts on food crop productivity, energy production, and water availability.
In this project, I will include representations of first and second generation bioenergy crops in the UK ESM, and investigate the impacts of climate change on the productivity at the global and regional (for the UK) level. This work will assess the viability of negative emissions of CO2 through bioenergy crops as an effective climate mitigation strategy under a changing climate, and provide data to support decisions that will minimize the impacts of both climate change and climate change mitigation on bioenergy production, food, and water availability. The outcomes of this project will enhance the resilience of the food/water/energy nexus to climate change and climate variability through better planning, and providing socially responsible recommendations for balancing the challenges of reducing climate change with feeding our growing global population.
The vast majority of IPCC scenarios that remain below 2 degrees C makes use of NET in the 21st century. Although bioenergy crops and BECCS are an essential component of the scenarios (produced by Integrated Assessment Models, or IAMs), the crops in even the most sophisticated IAMs only respond to mean changes in climate. This results in an inconsistency in the modelling framework: the IAMs can assume bioenergy crops are effective at drawing down CO2 and producing energy in a region where actually climate change will reduce their effectiveness. Earth System Models (ESMs) represent the dynamics of the atmosphere, oceans, sea ice, and land surface. They can account for biophysical (i.e. changes to albedo and latent heat fluxes) and biogeochemical (i.e. uptake or release of greenhouse gases) feedbacks due to land use change. They are the only tool available to investigate future impacts of spatial and temporal variability in climate on the food, energy, and water nexus. However, the ESMs used in the last IPCC report only accounted for a generic crop type at best, not differentiating between bioenergy and food crops. Without an explicit representation of bioenergy crops in ESMs, the effects of climate change do not feedback to affect the food, energy, and water resources assumed to be true in the IAMs. There is an urgent need for predicting the productivity of bioenergy crops in a coupled climate simulation, to see the impact of a range of climate change on the productivity, and associated impacts on food crop productivity, energy production, and water availability.
In this project, I will include representations of first and second generation bioenergy crops in the UK ESM, and investigate the impacts of climate change on the productivity at the global and regional (for the UK) level. This work will assess the viability of negative emissions of CO2 through bioenergy crops as an effective climate mitigation strategy under a changing climate, and provide data to support decisions that will minimize the impacts of both climate change and climate change mitigation on bioenergy production, food, and water availability. The outcomes of this project will enhance the resilience of the food/water/energy nexus to climate change and climate variability through better planning, and providing socially responsible recommendations for balancing the challenges of reducing climate change with feeding our growing global population.
Planned Impact
The UK has committed to producing 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. This project will provide essential information for determining the role of bioenergy and negative emissions in achieving these targets, therefore increasing the effectiveness of energy provision for the UK and its climate mitigation strategy. Outcomes from the work are also relevant for the planning of a global implementation of BECCS, which is essential for this technology to be effective at mitigating climate change and avoiding unintended consequences. It is essential for this work to happen now, as delayed action will make dangerous climate change unavoidable.
The research of this fellowship will benefit other researchers in the field of climate change impacts and bioenergy, policy makers and planners of UK energy investments, students, and the general public. The outcomes of the work will be disseminated through publications in scientific journals, presentations at academic and industry conferences, academic lectures, outreach events at secondary schools, and a mini-conference held at the end of the Fellowship. I will harness in full media opportunities, including television, radio, newspapers, alongside emerging methods such as blogs and social media.
A short conference will follow the CMIP6 science workshop aimed at communicating the science enabled by this fellowship to key stakeholders such as regional governments officials and infrastructure planners in the UK. The high-resolution simulations for the UK will particularly benefit UK policy makers. The global simulations can be used to identify the distribution of bioenergy crops that will optimise negative emission potential with the minimal impact on food and water availability. The maps of potential energy production will be useful for a variety of applications, such as: planning economically advantageous locations for bioenergy crops, planning conversion of dedicated coal firing plants to co-firing plants, planning future dedicated biomass power stations, calculating emissions associated with transporting biomass, and planning an infrastructure to support BECCS.
The work will contribute to the development of a world-leading Earth System Model (ESM) and complements other UK-funded research in the bioenergy sector. The UKESM is based off the HadGEM2 ESM, which has been widely used in the international research community. The developments included in this proposal will keep the UKESM at the cutting edge of climate science. Moreover, the proposed work will use the UKESM in an interdisciplinary manner, bringing a social and engineering dimension to the forefront of the climate change dilemma.
The work addresses the EPSRC research areas of the Water/Energy/Food nexus and Forecasting Environmental Change, and there are opportunities for synergy with other EPSRC funded research in the bioenergy theme (for example, WEFWEBs at the University of Glasgow, and MAGLUE at the University of Southampton, both of which are funded through EPSRC). The novelty of this Fellowship is the implementation of current knowledge on bioenergy crops into an ESM, where their impacts can be studied in the interactive climate system. The hosted workshops and associated seminars will encourage intra- and inter-disciplinary discussion necessary to move this field forward.
Throughout the fellowship, I will provide clear information for non-academics on the potential impacts of climate change and decisions on renewable energy and NETs on the food-water-energy nexus through a website and blog, and through outreach events at schools, making use of the number of outreach and community engagement events sponsored within the UoE College of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences. A potential hurdle in mitigating climate change with BECCS is public perception of the process, therefore these outreach activities can provide substantial benefit.
The research of this fellowship will benefit other researchers in the field of climate change impacts and bioenergy, policy makers and planners of UK energy investments, students, and the general public. The outcomes of the work will be disseminated through publications in scientific journals, presentations at academic and industry conferences, academic lectures, outreach events at secondary schools, and a mini-conference held at the end of the Fellowship. I will harness in full media opportunities, including television, radio, newspapers, alongside emerging methods such as blogs and social media.
A short conference will follow the CMIP6 science workshop aimed at communicating the science enabled by this fellowship to key stakeholders such as regional governments officials and infrastructure planners in the UK. The high-resolution simulations for the UK will particularly benefit UK policy makers. The global simulations can be used to identify the distribution of bioenergy crops that will optimise negative emission potential with the minimal impact on food and water availability. The maps of potential energy production will be useful for a variety of applications, such as: planning economically advantageous locations for bioenergy crops, planning conversion of dedicated coal firing plants to co-firing plants, planning future dedicated biomass power stations, calculating emissions associated with transporting biomass, and planning an infrastructure to support BECCS.
The work will contribute to the development of a world-leading Earth System Model (ESM) and complements other UK-funded research in the bioenergy sector. The UKESM is based off the HadGEM2 ESM, which has been widely used in the international research community. The developments included in this proposal will keep the UKESM at the cutting edge of climate science. Moreover, the proposed work will use the UKESM in an interdisciplinary manner, bringing a social and engineering dimension to the forefront of the climate change dilemma.
The work addresses the EPSRC research areas of the Water/Energy/Food nexus and Forecasting Environmental Change, and there are opportunities for synergy with other EPSRC funded research in the bioenergy theme (for example, WEFWEBs at the University of Glasgow, and MAGLUE at the University of Southampton, both of which are funded through EPSRC). The novelty of this Fellowship is the implementation of current knowledge on bioenergy crops into an ESM, where their impacts can be studied in the interactive climate system. The hosted workshops and associated seminars will encourage intra- and inter-disciplinary discussion necessary to move this field forward.
Throughout the fellowship, I will provide clear information for non-academics on the potential impacts of climate change and decisions on renewable energy and NETs on the food-water-energy nexus through a website and blog, and through outreach events at schools, making use of the number of outreach and community engagement events sponsored within the UoE College of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences. A potential hurdle in mitigating climate change with BECCS is public perception of the process, therefore these outreach activities can provide substantial benefit.
Publications
Burton C
(2019)
Representation of fire, land-use change and vegetation dynamics in the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator vn4.9 (JULES)
in Geoscientific Model Development
Collins W
(2018)
Increased importance of methane reduction for a 1.5 degree target
in Environmental Research Letters
Comyn-Platt E
(2018)
Carbon budgets for 1.5 and 2 °C targets lowered by natural wetland and permafrost feedbacks
in Nature Geoscience
Harper A
(2018)
Vegetation distribution and terrestrial carbon cycle in a carbon cycle configuration of JULES4.6 with new plant functional types
in Geoscientific Model Development
Harper A
(2021)
Improvement of modeling plant responses to low soil moisture in JULESvn4.9 and evaluation against flux tower measurements
in Geoscientific Model Development
Harper AB
(2018)
Land-use emissions play a critical role in land-based mitigation for Paris climate targets.
in Nature communications
Hayman G
(2021)
Regional variation in the effectiveness of methane-based and land-based climate mitigation options
in Earth System Dynamics
Description | I have assessed the feasibility of land-based mitigation of CO2 emissions via forests and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), focusing on their effectiveness in contributing to achieving either the 1.5°C or 2.0°C climate change targets, as set out in the Paris Climate agreement. With my co-authors, we used a new scenario for BECCS extent from the IMAGE integrated assessment model (IAM), discussed in the context of keeping climate change well below 2°C (RCP1.9). This study is the first (to our knowledge) to test the assumptions regarding total land carbon sequestration in the IAM scenarios and for the 1.5°C target. We do this in a process-based model that formally represents the interactions between land-use change, the dynamic terrestrial carbon cycle, and climate. This is for ensembles of climate simulations stabilizing at 1.5°C and 2. 0°C. We find that for the 1.5°C target, BECCS is a more risky method for carbon dioxide removal than afforestation/reforestation and avoided deforestation. In particular, the additional land-use change for BECCS to achieve a 1.5°C scenario - compared to a 2.0°C scenario - can actually result in substantial losses of land carbon. This is the opposite of the desired effect. The seemingly counter-intuitive finding that especially large BECCS implementation will aggravate climate change is due to the initial clearance of natural vegetation with high carbon content, and subsequent losses of soil carbon. BECCS "pay-back" times to re-capture such initial losses and beyond may be on the order of centuries. Follow-on funding has been secured to look in more detail at 'ecosystem-based' methods of climate mitigation (such as forest restoration, reforestation, agroforestry, silvopasture, and sustainable logging); and to further investigate the potential of the UK to meet it's target of net zero emissions using land-based methods for greenhouse gas removal. |
Exploitation Route | There are key policy implications from the research, and if publication continues on schedule, I hope that the study can contribute to the forthcoming IPCC report on 1.5°C stabilization, and the IPCC report on Climate Change and Land. Critically, it places bounds on the usefulness of one of the main suggested mechanisms to aid in constraining global warming levels. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Energy Environment Government Democracy and Justice |
URL | https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-why-beccs-might-not-produce-negative-emissions-after-all |
Description | Model developments and research partnerships from this Fellowship contributed to follow-on projects focusing on informing land use decisions in the UK and the development of a policy analysis tool through the NetZeroPlus project: https://netzeroplus.ac.uk/. Following publication of my paper in Nature Communications, this was picked up by several media outlets. The most impact comes from engagement with policy makers, in collaboration with colleagues funded on a series of NERC grants focusing on Pathways to Reaching the Paris Agreement. Together we developed policy briefing cards, and sent these to relevant connections in government and industry. We delivered pdf's of the briefing cards at the UNFCCC Conference of Parties in Katowice, Poland in 2018. We also organized (along with BEIS) an event in London where researchers involved in the NERC program gave summary of their results to an audience of around 30 people, including policymakers. |
First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
Sector | Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
Impact Types | Policy & public services |
Description | Citation in IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land, based on my Nature Communications paper that evaluated carbon cycle implications of large-scale bioenergy crops to meet the Paris 1.5C climate change target |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in systematic reviews |
URL | https://www.ipcc.ch/report/srccl/ |
Description | Contribution to the Committee on Climate Change Call for Evidence on Building a zero-carbon economy |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-climate-targets-request-for-advice-from-the-committee-... |
Description | Developed policy briefs which were shared with policymakers in the UK and at the COP in Poland (2018). At the COP, the briefs were delivered on USB sticks that also contained relevant publications for mitigation pathways to meet the Paris agreement. More than 400 USB sticks were handed out. I also contributed to a Policy Brief put together by colleagues in an EU project, CRESCENDO (see link) |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
URL | https://www.crescendoproject.eu/crescendo-is-supporting-policy-makers-on-routes-to-realizing-the-201... |
Description | Dynamic modelling of ecosystem-based pathways for 1.5C |
Amount | $53,056 (USD) |
Organisation | Rockefeller Foundation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United States |
Start | 12/2019 |
End | 11/2020 |
Description | ESM2025 |
Amount | € 11,300,000 (EUR) |
Organisation | European Union |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 05/2021 |
End | 05/2025 |
Description | Feasibility of Afforestation and Biomass energy with carbon capture storage for Greenhouse Gas Removal (FAB GGR) |
Amount | £684,867 (GBP) |
Funding ID | NE/P019951/1 |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2017 |
End | 09/2022 |
Description | Greenhouse Gas Removal Plus (GGR+): Sustainable Treescapes Demonstrator & Decision Tools |
Amount | £5,621,807 (GBP) |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2021 |
End | 11/2025 |
Description | JULES EMulator of ecosystem services (JEM) |
Amount | £50,335 (GBP) |
Funding ID | NE/T004177/1 |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2019 |
End | 03/2020 |
Description | Understanding the Pathways to and Impacts of a 1.5°C Rise in Global Temperature |
Amount | £100,032 (GBP) |
Funding ID | NE/P014941/1 |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2016 |
End | 10/2017 |
Title | Development of capability to model bioenergy crops in JULES |
Description | None of the drop-down options match the new tool. With PDRA Emma Littleton, we have developed a representation of second generation lignocellulosic bioenergy crops in a widely used land surface model. |
Type Of Material | Model of mechanisms or symptoms - non-mammalian in vivo |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The ability to represent bioenergy crops in an Earth system model will enable more physically-based investigations of the impacts and feasibility of climate mitigation through bioenergy. |
Title | Data for: Avoided damage to the terrestrial carbon sink due to the Montreal Protocol |
Description | This dataset contains the driving data and model outputs for the paper: "Avoided damage to the terrestrial carbon sink due to the Montreal Protocol" which has been accepted for publication in Nature. The study shows the avoided reduction in the land carbon sink due to the Montreal Protocol. Contents of the dataset: Driving met data based on output from the NIWA-UKCA CCM and a weather generator to produce clear sky shortwave (which was used to produce the incoming UV values). Ozone column and Caldwell-weighted UV fluxes derived from the NIWA-UKCA runs. Clear sky UV scale factor assuming a 3% reduction in NPP per 10% increase in UV. Annual JULES outputs of the terrestrial carbon cycle and other surface fluxes. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://zenodo.org/record/4733882 |
Title | JULES-Bioenergy |
Description | We describe developments to the land surface model JULES, allowing for flexible user-prescribed harvest regimes of various perennial bioenergy crops or natural vegetation types. Our aim is to integrate the most useful aspects of dedicated bioenergy models into dynamic global vegetation models, in order that assessment of bioenergy options can benefit from state-of-the-art Earth system modelling. A new plant functional type (PFT) representing Miscanthus is also presented. In addition to perennial grasses, JULES-BE can also be used to represent short-rotation coppicing, residue harvesting from cropland or forestry and rotation forestry. |
Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The Miscanthus PFT fits well with growth parameters observed at a site in Lincolnshire, UK; however, global observed yields of Miscanthus are far more variable than is captured by the model, primarily owing to the model's lack of representation of crop age and establishment time. Global expansion of bioenergy crop areas under a 2 °C emissions scenario and balanced greenhouse gas mitigation strategy from the IMAGE integrated assessment model (RCP2.6-SSP2) achieves a mean yield of 4.3 billion tonnes of dry matter per year over 2040-2099, around 30 % higher than the biomass availability projected by IMAGE. |
URL | https://jules-lsm.github.io/latest/release_notes/JULES7-0.html |
Title | Land-use and climate change for 1.5 and 2.0 degrees Celsuis warming scenarios (JULES land surface model) |
Description | This dataset includes six sets of model output from JULES/IMOGEN simulations. Each set includes output from JULES (the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator) run with 34 climate change patterns from 2000-2099. The outputs provide carbon stocks and variables related to the surface energy budget to understand the implications of land-based climate mitigation. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | None yet. |
URL | https://data.gov.uk/dataset/702e434d-0928-493d-b431-272e659390b0/land-use-and-climate-change-for-1-5... |
Description | PBL |
Organisation | Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency |
Country | Netherlands |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | I now collaborate with two researchers in the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency who work with the IMAGE Integrated Assessment Model. I am using outputs from their model and including them in publications. |
Collaborator Contribution | They contribute land-use data from IMAGE which we use to run JULES. |
Impact | Publications in review: Relative effectiveness of land-based mitigation strategies in stabilising climate change at 1.5C, in review at Nature Communications. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | PhD studentship on bio-based building materials |
Organisation | Miscanthus Nursery |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | I am secondary supervisor for a PhD student in Engineering who is working with Miscanthus Nursery Ltd and Agrikinetics Ltd, his project is: 'Development of bio-based, low carbon and low-cost building materials with improved thermal and acoustic properties- harvesting the potential of vegetal fibres'. I am contributing on the side of environmental and carbon cycle impacts of Miscanthus production. |
Collaborator Contribution | They will provide the biomass used in the student's experimental design, they will help with pull-through into the market. |
Impact | The student just began in Jan. 2019 so there are no outcomes yet. |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | UK Met Office |
Organisation | Meteorological Office UK |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Through the EPSRC-funded NET-X project, I collaborated with the scientists in the Earth System and Mitigation Science team to enable JULES to represent bioenergy crops, with most development work being performed by post-doctoral researcher Emma Littleton, funded through a complementary NERC grant. These developments have gone on to be used in EU project ESM2025 and we aim to have them included in UKESM2 for CMIP7. They were added to JULESv7.0 https://jules-lsm.github.io/latest/release_notes/JULES7-0.html PhD student Simon Jones contributed to the JULES land surface model, used by the Met Office for weather and climate applications. His developments (SUGAR) were added to JULESv7.4: https://jules-lsm.github.io/vn7.4/release_notes/JULES7-4.html |
Collaborator Contribution | The effort to included developments into JULES was collaborative, involving initial development by Drs Littleton and Jones, and testing and technical assistance from the Met Office scientists. Two members of Simon's supervisory team are at the Met Office. |
Impact | The bioenergy crop representation resulted in multiple publications (Littleton et al. 2020, Littleton et al. 2022, Littleton et al. 2023) and is now being used in an EU-funded project ESM2025: https://www.esm2025.eu/. The nonstructural carbohydrates developments were a major component of Dr Jones' PhD work and were published in Jones et al. 2021. Jones, S.J. et al. (2020): The impact of a simple representation of non-structural carbohydrates on the simulated response of tropical forests to drought. Biogeosciences. DOI: 10.5194/bg-17-3589-2020 Littleton, E.W. et al (2020): JULES-BE: representation of bioenergy crops and harvesting in the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator vn5.1. Geoscientific Model Development. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-1123-2020 Littleton, E.W. et al (2021): Dynamic modelling shows substantial contribution of ecosystem restoration to climate change mitigation. Environmental Research Letters. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac3c6c Littleton, E.W. et al. (2023): Uncertain effectiveness of Miscanthus bioenergy expansion for climate change mitigation explored using land surface, agronomic, and integrated assessment models. GCB-Bioenergy. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12982 |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Climate at the Quay (Exeter) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Climate at the Quay was an informative and interactive event to encourage people to think about how climate change action intersects with various aspects of their life - for example home, commuting to work, or diet. We highlighted how changes in different aspects of daily life can be beneficial in many ways, as well as have a positive impact on environment and help tackle climate change. The event was put on by the Exeter Community Climate Network, which includes academics and post-graduates at the University of Exeter, lead by Anna Harper. The location was the Quay, a popular pedestrian area in Exeter. We had around 30-50 people stop by and encouraged them to leave feedback and talk about how they think Exeter could be more climate friendly. A number of local businesses and organisations took part at the event including; Riverford Organics, Co Cars, and Exeter Community Energy, in order to promote local schemes and opportunities for people to enrich their life and help the environment and tackle climate change. The event also received funding from the British Science Association, which has since set up a branch in Exeter, which several people from the ECCN are a part of. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.facebook.com/ECCN.Events |
Description | Discussion Meeting on Policy Developments Relating to Greenhouse Gas Removal, Westminster, London, 6 June 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | The meeting presented the findings from the Greenhouse Gas Removal Instruments and Policies (GRIP) project which is being undertaken by researchers at the universities of Oxford, Manchester and Bristol. Participant discussion focused on (i) the findings from a series of semi-structured interviews that were conducted with expert stakeholders in the GGR space, (ii) public engagement exercises, (iii) some proposed policy pathways, (iv) an exercise involving a more detailed exploration of some of the comments drawn from the semi-structured interviews and (v) a general discussion which will seek to stimulate views as to proposed next steps. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Participation in expert/stakeholder panel for the Greenhouse Gas Removal Instruments and Policy project, focusing on bioenergy with carbon capture and storage |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | The Institute for Science, Innovation and Society at the University of Oxford is currently undertaking research into possible policy frameworks for the responsible development of greenhouse gas removal technologies. The Greenhouse Gas Removal Instruments and Policy project (GRIP) is sponsored by the V. K. Rasmussen Foundation and ClimateWorks. As part of this work, on Friday 8th March there was a workshop with experts and stakeholders in London. The purpose is to explore initial responses to future policy scenarios for one such GGR technology, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). The discussion will be summarized in research outputs by the GRIP project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Presented research findings at Pathways to and impacts of a 1.5 deg C rise in global temperature, A workshop jointly organized by myself and colleagues at BEIS, CEH, University of Reading, and University of Exeter to brief UK government policy-makers on the project outputs from the BEIS program on Pathways to Meeting the Paris Agreement. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | The 2015 Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has the stated aim "to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C". As part of the Paris Agreement, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was asked to prepare a special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emissions pathways. The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) funded a research programmeref1 in 2016 to inform the IPCC special report and /or UK domestic climate policy. The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), the Universities of Exeter and Reading and BEIS organised a workshop recently to brief UK government policy-makers on the project outputs from this programme. The workshop was timely as it was held during the final government review of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C Warming. The workshop was attended by 45 participants from the academic research and policy communities. All 10 of the funded NERC Warming projects gave presentations of the key findings and policy-relevant outcomes of the research. Short presentations of related research were also given by David Hendry (University of Oxford) and Edward Comyn-Platt (CEH). The event was attended by roughly 30 people from academia and various branches of the UK government. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-media/blogs/understanding-pathways-and-impacts-rise-global-temperatur... |
Description | Press Release, media coverage, and guest blog posts following Nature Communications publication |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Press releases from the University of Exeter and Nature Communications were picked up by various news outlets. See link below for summary of articles written on the topic. Not included in that list: https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/geral-45135318 As a result of this paper and press releases, I was asked to contribute a guest post to the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation website (https://www.leonardodicaprio.org/authors/anna-harper-ph-d/) and Carbon Brief (https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-why-beccs-might-not-produce-negative-emissions-after-all) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05340-z/metrics |
Description | Radio interview on BBC Radio4: Inside Science |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Part of a segment answering listener questions on climate change, my interview lasted about 3 minutes and I discussed the use of crops for removing CO2 from the atmosphere and wider implications of this. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b081l87w |