As lockdowns have changed the ways in which people spend their time and money, many have made a priority of engaging with the local natural environment. This has led to investments in nature, increases in wildlife populations – especially birds – and improvements in wellbeing. Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, people across the […]
Category: Energy & climate change
Getting the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change to ‘net-zero’ by 2050 will require significant technological advances. How can that ambitious goal still be achieved while ensuring employment and growth in the aftermath of coronavirus? The 2019 update to the UK’s 2008 Climate Change Act legislated for ‘net-zero’ emissions of carbon dioxide and other […]
Central banks have become large-scale buyers of assets as they seek to stimulate inflation and growth. Targeting these purchases can influence the allocation of capital and the level of emissions in an economy. Should central banks aim for carbon-neutral interventions? It is now clear that environmental degradation demands a sustainable approach across all sectors. As […]
Harnessing nature may boost our efforts to tackle climate change. Using these nature-based solutions can also bring economic opportunity and improve human health and wellbeing. Climate change is widespread, rapid and intensifying, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2021). And it is accelerating an unbalancing of the natural […]
Global energy prices have risen sharply, primarily as a result of the invasion of Ukraine and European efforts to move away from dependence on Russian oil and gas. But increased demand in Asia and struggling production from shale in the United States are also having an impact. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, […]
Anthropogenic climate change is increasing average temperatures and the number of days each year with extreme heat. This is likely to affect the way people behave and the economic choices they make: how and when will depend on where in the world they live. The earth’s average temperature is rising rapidly. The latest Intergovernmental Panel […]
Rising energy prices have sparked calls to scale down UK decarbonisation policies, as well as to resurrect extraction of shale gas by fracking. But public support for pursuing ‘net-zero’ carbon emissions remains high; and the transition will bring benefits from health improvements to green jobs. As a cost of living crisis bites, some politicians and […]
Uncertainties about the future mean that the design of climate policy is a challenging task. Being able to make adequate predictions of different potential scenarios is vital for building effective tools for both climate mitigation and climate adaptation. Uncertainty is all around us. Tsunamis; the systems-wide repercussions of a global pandemic; ecosystem collapse following the […]
How we live, work and travel all have an impact on our energy use and carbon emissions. New approaches to collecting data on household behaviours help to establish a clearer picture of the effects on climate change and the implications for achieving net zero. Around 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change […]
While the public finances in many countries are now under great pressure, this is no time to forget commitments to tackling climate change. Indeed, conditional on action being taken early, governments’ support for the transition to net zero could ultimately improve fiscal sustainability. Recent global efforts to tackle the climate crisis are not a happy […]