News

Verdicts are already being given on the latest climate deal which emerged early this morning [13 Dec] in Dubai, although many weary COP28 participants have yet to arrive home.

There has been considerable debate and discussion over the best path forward, but there was general agreement among Oxford researchers about the devastating impact of fossil fuels and the need to phase out their use, while supporting nature-based solutions, developing renewables and switching to clean energy.

Dr Radhika Khosla, Associate Professor at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, explores how to make COP28's pledge to cut emissions from cooling happen, in an article for The Conversation.

So, COP28 has just called for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science”. Is this the moment that the world finally decided to hit the brakes, even if ever so gently, on fossil-fuelled global warming? writes Professor Myles Allen, professor of Geosystem Science.

After forty years at the coalface of the energy industry and 16 years leading the Energy Research programme and teaching students at the Environmental Change Institute in Oxford, Professor Nick Eyre is stepping aside. For an accidental academic who ‘scraped into a place at Oxford’ as an undergrad, he’s carved out quite a career and during that time witnessed some impressive advances in energy sustainability. 
Nick explains why he has great hopes for the future and the world his grandchildren will grow up in.

Cases in which body is found decomposed have been steadily increasing since 1980, researchers say. Growing numbers of people in England and Wales are being found so long after they have died that their body has decomposed, in a shocking trend linked to austerity and social isolation. A new study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine by a team of researchers including Prof Danny Dorling has been featured in The Guardian.

Blenheim Palace and the University of Oxford are partnering on a data-led approach to restoring the three-hundred-year-old building. Built to celebrate the Duke of Marlborough's 1704 victory at the Battle of Blenheim, the eponymous Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire requires a major programme of restoration work. However, rather than just replacing individual stones that have failed, the Built Heritage Team at the Palace want to find out precisely why certain stones crack or flake, and others do not. To delve deeper into how the building performs, and so that it can prioritise where restoration budget is efficiently spent, the team has partnered with experts at the University of Oxford.

The IMF in collaboration with University of Oxford researchers has launched 'PortWatch', a new online portal a platform to monitor and simulate trade disruptions due to climate extremes and other shocks.