read more + SoGE research in North-west Zambia: DRYCAB Project Climate change is expected to impose a considerable burden on the southern African region as it is one of two land-based areas of the planet where large-scale drying is projected to occur in future decades. A lot of the early summer drying is expected to result from the late onset of the rains after the six month long dry season. However much of what we know depends entirely on models rather than observations. In an effort to sharpen our understanding, a team from Oxford joined up with the Zambian Met Department from August to November 2022 to compile a comprehensive dataset on the onset of the rainy season as part of the NERC funded DRYCAB project.
17/11/2217 November 2022 -
read more + Can the world feed 8bn people sustainably? Dr Tara Garnett, of Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute, explores the dietary changes needed to feed 8 billion people sustainably. She argues that widespread dietary change cannot be achieved by focusing on individuals. 'Stop blaming the individual is one point I would make. There is a much greater role for government leadership and the food industry to play.'
15/11/2215 November 2022 -
read more + Expert comments: COP27 Gender Day The power of women as key drivers of climate solutions yesterday took centre stage at the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh. SoGE researchers Alex McGivern and Sugandha Srivastav, and MSc Nature, Society and Environmental Governance alumna Sana Sherif share their insights.
09/11/229 November 2022 -
read more + Is the future of transport electric? Focusing solely on electric vehicles and technology is actually slowing down the path to zero emissions. Christian Brand, Associate Professor in Transport, Energy and Environment and chapter contributor to Greta Thunberg's new 'The Climate Book' explains how we meet Paris-compliant decarbonisation targets for the transport sector.
07/11/227 November 2022 -
read more + 100 Most Influential People in Climate 2022 Apolitical has featured Kate Raworth and Myles Allen from the Environmental Change Institute, and Sam Fankhauser and Ben Caldecott from the Oxford Smith School on their annual list of climate luminaries.
05/10/225 October 2022 -
read more + Shining a light on energy's zero carbon future In a new film and long read article, the Oxford Martin School explores how its Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy has been working towards a future for the energy system that is not just about reaching net zero, but that is about delivering a high quality of life for everyone: a future with clean and efficient transport, affordable domestic energy, and life-enhancing benefits. The programme's interdisciplinary team includes several researchers from SoGE.
read more + Could Liz Truss allow new drilling for oil and gas and still strengthen the UK's net zero target? "The UK's new prime minister, Liz Truss, has pledged to suspend green levies on energy bills and look for 'better ways to deliver our net zero targets'. Despite a record-breaking heatwave plus wildfires, droughts and floods worldwide, neither contender for the Conservative Party leadership felt the urge, as David Cameron once did, to hug a husky during the summer leadership campaign." Prof Myles Allen writes in The Conversation.
05/09/225 September 2022 -
read more + Pakistan floods: what role did climate change play? In a recent article for The Conversation, Ben Clarke, a DPhil candidate in the School, explores whether climate change played a role in causing the most devastating and widespread floods in Pakistan's history.
read more + Dr Neil Hart awarded UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Dr Neil Hart is one of five Oxford University academics who have been awarded a Future Leaders Fellowship. Neil will lead a team of researchers in SoGE, in collaboration with project partners across southern Africa and the UK, to develop the predictions of rainfall season characteristics needed to manage the growing climate risk caused by delayed first rains. Neil's research programme, First Rains, will make use of cutting-edge climate prediction modelling tools pioneered in the UK paired with novel application of machine-learning approaches.
05/04/225 April 2022 -
read more + What the invasion of Ukraine means for the IPCC's latest climate change report The UN's new IPCC report on the mitigation of climate change says that immediate and deep emissions reductions are needed to limit global warming, along with removing carbon dioxide back out of the air in future. Meanwhile, the world's governments are urging fossil fuel companies to drill for more oil and gas as fast as possible to make up for sanctions on Russia. What on earth is going on? Prof Myles Allen and Dr Hugh Helferty write for The Conversation.
28/03/2228 March 2022 -
read more + "Ghana: Roadmap for Resilient Infrastructure in a Changing Climate" Report Launch In an effort to mitigate the impact of climate change on Ghana's infrastructure systems, the Government of Ghana and the Global Center on Adaptation, with support from UNOPS, UNEP and the University of Oxford, in July 2020 decided to undertake a national assessment to assess the impacts of climate change on Ghana's National Infrastructure and identify adaptation measures to mitigate these impacts.
read more + COP26: Seven reasons global transport is so hard to decarbonise Transport accounts for 21% of global carbon emissions. It is now the largest emitting sector in many developed countries. On 'transport day' at the COP26 climate summit, Dr Christian Brand provides seven reasons why global transport is particularly hard to decarbonise. Part of The Conversation's coverage on COP26.
05/11/215 November 2021 -
read more + COP26: here's what it would take to end coal power worldwide Why is coal such a stubborn relic of energy systems around the world - even where cleaner alternatives like solar power are cheaper? Alex Clark, DPhil candidate at the School, explores what can be done about it in an article in The Conversation. Part of The Conversation's coverage on COP26.
read more + Dr Louise Slater awarded UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Dr Louise Slater is one of eight Oxford University academics who have been awarded significant financial funding from the UKRI 'Future Leaders Fellowships scheme' that was created to help develop the next wave of world-class research and innovation leaders in academia and business.
09/08/219 August 2021 -
read more + Earth will hit 1.5°C climate limit within 20 years, says IPCC report Scientists from across the world including ECI Associate Director Friederike Otto contributed to the IPCC's sixth assessment report, released today. The findings have been described as the starkest warning yet, with earth likely to hit the 'critical threshold' of 1.5 degrees warming within twenty years without decisive action. By 2100, in a worse case scenario, the earth would have warmed by 4.4 degrees and the consequences for life on earth would be devastating. In a best-case scenario, sustained action would see net zero achieved and warming limited to 1.4 degrees by 2100. Dr Otto was a leading author of the report.
03/08/213 August 2021 -
read more + No evidence in claims climate change is fuelling East African migration, warns Oxford study No link currently exists proving climate change is driving migration out of East Africa, despite a widespread acceptance that human mobility is a key impact of climate change, according to research today from a multi-disciplinary Oxford University team, which maintains the factors driving migration are complex.
17/06/2117 June 2021 -
read more + Climate change increased the likelihood of damaging frosts in France Between 6 and 8 April 2021 an intense late frost episode damaged agricultural lands in France. Vineyards in particular were severely affected, with early assessments estimating losses of almost 2 billion euros. The cold wave hit France after the country experienced record high temperatures in March. A group of researchers including ECI's Dr Friederike Otto has quantified the role that human-caused climate change played in the event.
read more + Natural climate change solutions highly effective long term - Oxford research Nature-based solutions (NbS) can contribute to the fight against climate change up to the end of our century, according to new Oxford research in the leading scientific journal Nature. The analysis suggests that, to limit global temperature rise, we must slash emissions and increase NbS investment to protect, manage and restore ecosystems and land for the future.
13/04/2113 April 2021 -
read more + Sky and BBC climate shows feature ECI and SSEE research and expertise On 7 April, Sky News launched the The Daily Climate Show, a new prime time programme dedicated to covering the global climate crisis. Front and centre of the programme is the Oxford University Global Warming Index, which reveals how the Earth's temperature is steadily rising in fractions of a degree. The Index is based on research by Dr Karsten Haustein, Dr Friederike Otto and Professor Myles Allen and maintained by the ECI at globalwarmingindex.org.
07/04/217 April 2021 -
read more + Sky and BBC climate shows feature SSEE and ECI research and expertise At 18:30 BST today, 7 April, Sky News will launch the 'The Daily Climate Show' a new prime time programme dedicated to covering the global climate crisis. Front and centre of the programme is the Oxford University Global Warming Index, which reveals how the Earth's temperature is steadily rising in fractions of a degree. The Index is based on research by Dr Karsten Haustein, Dr Friederike Otto and Professor Myles Allen, and maintained by the ECI at globalwarmingindex.org.
23/03/2123 March 2021 -
read more + Oxford's ambitious Environmental Sustainability Strategy is approved Oxford University approves its Environmental Sustainability Strategy aiming for net zero carbon and biodiversity net gain by 2035. Includes comment by Prof Myles Allen, Professor of Geosystem Science at SoGE and leader of climate research programme Oxford Net Zero.
read more + Why avoiding climate change 'maladaptation' is vital A new study concludes that many adaptation projects can make people more, rather than less, vulnerable to climate change. Lisa Schipper argues that while adaptation is needed more than ever, it requires better planning, targeting the people who are most in need.
read more + How dust storms in the world's largest desert form: revelations from a new satellite data set Hundreds of millions of tons of dust are blown off the Sahara desert each year. This dust interferes with the climate system and is capable of both cooling and heating the atmosphere depending on its height, size, shape and colour. It also interacts with cloud formation and weather systems like tropical cyclones. Being able to represent the location and quantity of dust in models is really important as these are the tools we use to make weather forecasts and climate projections.
19/12/2019 January 2021 -
read more + Storytelling can be a powerful tool for science ECI scientists Josh Ettinger, Lisa Schipper and Fredi Otto have written a response to a recent Nature commentary arguing against storytelling in science communication. Used appropriately, storytelling humanizes the research process and makes science more accessible to diverse audiences, the authors say. Read the full rebuttal in Nature magazine.
28/12/2028 December 2020 -
read more + BBC News: The Climate Question Not only has this year been one of the hottest on record, but there has also been a catalogue of record breaking extreme weather events. This BBC World Service interview with Friederike Otto picks apart how climate change is impacting weather systems and the lives of millions of people around the world.
14/12/2014 December 2020 -
read more + ECI supports Youth-led Mock COP26 Reuters: In place of the delayed COP26 UN climate summit youth representatives from 142 countries met virtually to consider potential climate solutions. ECI's involvement as an official partner was led by DPhil student Bill Finnegan, with special thanks to Bernard Soubry, James Dixon, Saher Hasnain, Fredi Otto, Lisa Schipper and Cecile Girardin who created explainer videos for the delegates. [Videos here: bit.ly/38mqSDA]
07/12/2007 December 2020 -
read more + Students push for university climate change divestments The Financial Times explores the fossil fuel divestment movement, highlighting the University of Oxford's approach which couples divestment with engagement activities to curb the use of dirty energy. Kaya Axelsson, policy engagement fellow with Oxford Net Zero, explains the model, which includes the requirement for all businesses within Oxford's portfolio to have a credible net-zero carbon strategy.
read more + Oxford convenes Race to Net Zero Dialogues Oxford Net Zero, the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, the Said Business School and partners including the Resilient 40 joined forces to host four events as part of Race to Zero campaign, led by the UN's High-Level Climate Champions. The dialogues enabled youth to set the agenda on three key topics - energy, transport and food - and enter into dialogue with industry leaders including Nestlé, Daimler and Shell.
20/11/2020 November 2020 -
read more + Heatwaves caused record deaths as Britain struggled with coronavirus Heatwaves caused a record 2,556 excess deaths in Britain this summer as the country was struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new government estimate. Increasingly frequent and severe heatwaves are among the deadliest impacts of climate change, writes Reuters. Extensive media coverage includes comment and research from Friederike Otto on climate change attribution.
19/11/2019 November 2020 -
read more + Times letters: Boris Johnson's green industrial revolution 'There is one important difference between the prime minister's ten-point plan and that released last week by the all-party parliamentary group on net zero,' writes Myles Allen. 'The PM doesn't say who is going to pay for carbon capture in the long term. The solution the APPG proposed is simple: a carbon takeback obligation.' [Also covered by BBC, Guardian and others]
17/11/2017 November 2020 -
read more + 'Oxford Net Zero' launches to tackle global carbon emissions The initiative, launched this week, draws on the university's world-leading expertise in climate science and policy, addressing the critical issue of how to reach global 'net zero' - limiting greenhouse gases - in time to halt global warming. The new programme, backed by a 2.2 million pound investment from Oxford's Strategic Research Fund, includes leading researchers from across the university.
read more + Net Zero All-Party Parliamentary Group A team from across the School of Geography and the Environment, including co-authors Byron Fay and Kate Cullen (alumna, MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management) from the Oxford Net Zero initiative, has contributed to the APPG Decarbonisation Report, 'Putting Net Zero at the heart of future UK Policy'. The report is backed by MPs and Peers from across the political spectrum and makes the case for urgent Government action to secure a low carbon future for the UK.
10/10/2010 October 2020 -
read more + TED: Fossil fuel companies know how to stop global warming. Why don't they? The fossil fuel industry knows how to stop global warming, but they're waiting for someone else to pay, says climate science scholar Myles Allen. Instead of a total ban on carbon-emitting fuels, Allen puts forth a bold plan for oil and gas companies to progressively decarbonize themselves and sequester CO2 deep in the earth, with the aim of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and creating a carbon dioxide disposal industry that works for everyone. This talk was presented at an official TED conference.
29/09/2029 September 2020 -
read more + Oxford launches new principles for credible carbon offsetting Researchers from across the University of Oxford, led by Ben Caldecott and Eli Mitchell-Larson, have launched new carbon offsetting principles to ensure the 'net' in net zero is credible. The guidelines provide a key resource for the design and delivery of rigorous voluntary net zero commitments by government, cities and companies around the world.
25/09/2025 September 2020 -
read more + Wildfires, hurricanes and vanishing sea ice: the climate crisis is here Scientists warn extreme, weather-related events around the world show the economic and social costs of a warming planet, writes the Financial Times. With comment from Friederike Otto, associate director of the ECI: 'Where we really see the clearest and biggest sign of climate change is in extreme temperatures.'
12/09/2012 September 2020 -
read more + Bending the curve of biodiversity loss A new report, published in Nature, identifies two key areas for action to stop global biodiversity loss and 'bend the curve' towards recovery by 2050 or earlier - without jeopardising the achievement of other Sustainable Development Goals. The study calls for bold conservation and restoration efforts, alongside a transformation of the global food system. It forms a core part of WWF's Living Planet Report 2020, and authors include Michael Obersteiner, Director of the ECI.
10/09/2010 September 2020 -
read more + ECI contributes to WWF's Living Planet Report 2020 Global wildlife populations have plummeted more than two-thirds in less than 50 years, according to a new report from WWF. The Living Planet update comes alongside a study co-authored by more than 40 NGOs and academic institutions, including ECI's new Director Michael Obersteiner, that lays out ways of arresting and reversing nature loss by 2050.
09/09/2009 September 2020 -
read more + Greenhouse gases hit new record despite lockdowns, UN says A new report shows concentrations of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere hit a record high this year, despite an economic slowdown amid the coronavirus pandemic. As CO2 levels increase, so too does global temperature. Friederike Otto comments that society is not yet ready or able to adapt to the weather extremes made more likely and intense by climate change.
25/08/2025 August 2020 -
read more + Climate change after COVID-19: Harder to defeat politically, easier to tackle economically A column in VoxEU draws on a new research paper, 'Five Lessons from COVID-19 for Advancing Climate Change Mitigation' from a team including Franziska Funke, Linus Mattauch and Brian O'Callaghan at the ECI and Smith School. It argues that the current pandemic is an opportunity to understand where the real challenges lie for progression on climate action - in garnering political will and public support.
11/08/2011 August 2020 -
read more + The Economist: Siberia's heatwave would not have happened without climate change This year's Arctic heatwave has had far-reaching consequences, writes the Economist, from shrinking sea ice, to wildfires, to a massive oil spill. Friederike Otto, co-lead of the World Weather Attribution initiative, discusses the game-changing impact of climate change on this extreme weather.
03/08/2003 August 2020 -
read more + How Climate Science Moved Online Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the April 2020 meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was held online for this first time. Lisa Schipper, social scientist at the ECI and coordinating author of an IPCC report chapter about climate resilient development options, spoke to NPR about the challenges associated with working from home, particularly for female researchers.
22/07/2022 July 2020 -
read more + We still don't know if warmer weather slows down the spread of COVID-19 In a new analysis, a team of researchers from Oxford's Smith School, Environmental Change Institute, Institute for New Economic Thinking and Martin School highlight key limitations of available data, concluding that it is currently impossible to know whether more people contract COVID-19 in hot or cold weather. [Extensive media coverage including the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, and the Independent]
read more + That Siberian Heat Wave? Yes, Climate Change Was a Big Factor 2020's record-breaking 38 degree heatwave in Siberia would have been all but impossible without human influence on climate change, reports the New York Times. Dr Friederike Otto and the World Weather Attribution team found that global warming made this year's long hot spell 600 times more likely. [Extensive media coverage included BBC, CNN, Guardian, Economist, FT, Washington Post, Daily Mail, Metro UK, USA Today]
15/07/2015 July 2020 -
read more + Reducing the carbon footprint of academic travel post COVID-19 Prior to the global pandemic, researchers identified an uncomfortable truth: the very meetings and events meant to support the fight against climate change were themselves causing vast greenhouse gas emissions through international air travel. Building on learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of Oxford researchers have identified new measures, published this week in the journal Nature, that may reduce the carbon footprint of conference travel by up to 90%.
13/07/2013 July 2020 -
read more + Why Africa's heatwaves are a forgotten impact of climate change Recent summers have demonstrated dramatically that heatwaves are not only deadly, but they are already being influenced by human-induced climate change. In this guest post for Carbon Brief, Luke Harrington and Friederike Otto explain why extreme heat events in sub-Saharan Africa are not routinely monitored, meaning that heat-related deaths are chronically underreported - putting even more people in danger.
read more + Guardian: UK infrastructure 'under threat from climate breakdown' Energy networks, water utilities, communications, transport and other essential services are all at risk due to flooding, heatwaves and other climate change impacts in the UK. A new report from the National Infrastructure Commission features work from ECI's Raghav Pant, Tom Russell, Conrad Zorn, Edward Oughton and Jim Hall, and urges the government to explore plans for resilient infrastructure. [Report: bit.ly/2ZMUebF]
20/05/2020 May 2020 -
read more + 'Dust bowl' heatwaves now more than twice as likely due to climate change Record-breaking temperatures across the US Great Plains during the Dust Bowl 1930s were caused by long-lasting and intense heatwaves. New research finds that the US is now at least 2.5 times more likely to experience a Dust Bowl-level heatwave than it was in the 1930s. Coverage included the Guardian, Forbes and the Daily Mail.
15/04/2015 Apr 2020 -
read more + Mapped: How climate change affects extreme weather around the world A new map from Carbon Brief collates the numerous studies that look at the potential link between climate change and extreme weather such as floods, heatwaves, droughts and storms. For the first time, the map includes the rapid attribution studies carried out by Friederike Otto and the World Weather Attribution team.
08/04/2008 April 2020 -
read more + ECI partners with the United Nations on sustainable infrastructure Billions of dollars are being invested in infrastructure, and more is now being planned to help recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Launching a new joint initiative led by Jim Hall, UN leaders highlight how important it is that this infrastructure contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals.
read more + Five tough questions to ask about reaching net zero climate targets Anyone setting a net zero target - and the citizens, activists, consumers, and investors holding them to account - should be considering these 5 key challenges, explain physical and social scientists Myles Allen, Thomas Hale, Tim Kruger, Stephen Smith and Kaya Axelsson in the Independent.
05/05/2005 March 2020 -
read more + Climate change made Australia's fire season 30% more likely The new rapid attribution study was co-authored by Australian scientists as well as Dr Friederike Otto and World Weather Attribution. They concluded the results were highly conservative, and that weather conditions that make fires more likely will continue to worsen. Extensive coverage included Nature News, BBC, New Scientist.
04/05/2004 March 2020 -
read more + Climate change and flooding on BBC Radio 4 In the wake of storms and flooding across the UK, Jim Hall, Professor of Climate and Environmental Risk, discusses potential policies for UK coastal communities that are under threat due to climate change. [Listen from 20:50]
26/02/2026 Feb 2020 -
read more + MIT Tech Review 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2020 Climate change attribution, a growing area of research that allows scientists to understand climate change's role in extreme weather, has been named one of Tech Review's top breakthroughs of 2020. This research is led by World Weather Attribution, based in the Environmental Change Institute and led by acting director Dr Fredi Otto.
19/02/2019 Feb 2020 -
read more + Prof Myles Allen's scientific life profiled on BBC Radio 4 On 'The Life Scientific' Myles Allen tells Jim Al-Khalili how our ability to predict climate change has evolved from the early days, when scientists had to rely on the combined computing power of hundreds of thousands of personal computers. He sheds light on how the IPCC works and explains why, he believes, fossil fuel industries must be forced to clean up the carbon dioxide that they emit - a plausible solution, he says, to the "deeply solvable problem" of human-induced climate change.
09/02/2009 Feb 2020 -
read more + Climate Assembly UK Nick Eyre joined the UK's first nationwide citizens' assembly on climate change to provide expert information on heat and energy use in the home. Five other members of the Oxford-led Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDs) also provided advice. Climate Assembly UK brings together over 100 members from all walks of life and of all shades of opinion to discuss how the UK should achieve net zero.
07/02/2007 Feb 2020 -
read more + Home Truths Report UK homes are under threat from climate change, including increases in the frequency and severity of extreme weather like heat waves, flooding and storms. A new report from the Climate Coalition and the Priestley International Centre for Climate Change features a chapter from Friederike Otto describing the impact that climate change is already having on UK weather and homes.
17/12/1917 Dec 2019 -
read more + How Africa will be affected by climate change Professor Richard Washington has explained to the BBC World Service why Africa is more vulnerable to the world's changing weather patterns than any other region. Key parts of the system, such as the Congo Basin, are very understudied: "We know remarkably little about that climate system - it is scarcely even monitored - there are more reporting rain gauges in the UK county of Oxfordshire than the entire Congo Basin," he commented. We share how Richard and other Oxford Geography researchers are working to close the knowledge gap in this area.
16/12/1916 December 2019 -
read more + Changing risks of simultaneous global breadbasket failure What does climate change mean for our global food system? New research from Franziska Gaupp, Simon Dadson and Jim Hall finds that climate shocks increase the risk that multiple global breadbaskets fail at the same time. Coverage of this and related University of Oxford research in the Washington Post explains, "Extreme weather patterns are raising the risk of a global food crisis, and climate change will make this worse." The research is published in Nature Climate Change.
11/12/1911 December 2019 -
read more + Icebound - the climate change secrets of 19th Century ships' logbooks 'Old Weather' is a group of citizen-scientists that includes Joan Arthur, Office Coordinator at ECI. They have transcribed millions of observations from long-forgotten logbooks of ships, many from the great era of Arctic exploration. As the polar regions grow ever warmer, the volunteers have amassed a rich repository of climate data in a 21st century rescue mission. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrew Marshall investigates in a special report for Reuters.
08/12/1908 December 2019 -
read more + Global heating plus inequality is a recipe for chaos - just look at Chile Dr Maisa Rojas is scientific coordinator for the COP25 climate summit, director of Chile's Centre for Climate and Resilience Research, and a visiting professor at the Environmental Change Institute. In this op-ed for the Guardian she explores the social unrest that forced COP25 to move from Santiago to Madrid and the impacts of climate change on inequality. She reminds us: only if social demands are met will ambitious and rapid climate action be feasible.
04/12/1904 December 2019 -
read more + Climate change - who should we sue? To date, there have been climate change legal cases in at least 28 countries. From Greta Thunberg leading a group of young people in filing a lawsuit against five countries at the UN, to the Hague Court of Appeals upholding a historic ruling against the Dutch government, increasing numbers of people are taking legal action together to demand governments do more. Fredi Otto and Myles Allen joined the University of Oxford's #TruePlanet podcast to discuss what this rise in litigious climate action means for society as we race to meet climate targets.
03/12/1903 December 2019 -
read more + Don't hate, mitigate Dr Friederike Otto, Acting Director of the ECI, talks to Quartz about the need for climate change solutions that marry mitigation (reducing fossil fuel emissions for the long term) and adaptation (actions that protect existing communities and infrastructure now). "One way to reimagine how to tackle climate change is to put people at the heart", she explains. "It's then easier to come up with win-win solutions."
02/12/1902 December 2019 -
read more + Key countries need to turn up political momentum at COP25 The UN Climate Summit, also known as COP 25, will take place in Madrid from Dec 2 to 13 2019. Dr Lisa Schipper is attending the summit, and was interviewed live on CNA (Breaking News Asia and Singapore) to share her views on the summit, the need for a just transition, and crucial agenda items including Article 6 (carbon markets) and ongoing negotiations on loss and damage.
13/11/1913 November 2019 -
read more + Only 1 in 10 of the world's largest energy companies have made plans to get to net-zero emissions Just 13 out of the largest 132 coal, electricity, and oil and gas companies have made commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to net zero, according to research published today by the Grantham Research Institute (LSE), the Oxford Martin School, and the Transition Pathway Initiative. Authors Rupert Stuart-Smith and Cameron Hepburn are also affiliated with the Smith School and ECI.
11/11/1911 Nov 2019 -
read more + Rivers are changing all the time, and it affects their capacity to contain floods Building robust flood defences and modelling vulnerable areas is crucial if we are to avoid loss of life and livelihoods from these devastating weather events. But new research by Dr Louise Slater and colleagues reveals that the capacity of rivers to keep water flowing within their banks can change quickly - and in failing to acknowledge this, some flood models and defences may be under-equipped to deal with the consequences when they do.
29/10/1929 October 2019 -
read more + Oxford #TruePlanet podcast features researchers from across the School of Geography and the Environment Climate change may be the issue that comes to define our time - but it's a hugely complex problem. The University of Oxford's Futuremakers podcast is the 'fly on the wall' to the debates between academics and leading experts from around the world on what, and how, climate action should be taken. Join researchers from across the School of Geography as they explore the existential threats from climate change, and how we can help to prevent them.
28/10/1928 October 2019 -
read more + nina.draws.scientists x ECI Instagram illustrator Nina Chhita draws trailblazing scientists (that happen to be women). A new collaboration with the University of Oxford #TruePlanet campaign highlights research from the ECI including: 🌍How to feed the world whilst mitigating climate change 🌍Opportunities for households to become more energy efficient 🌍The impact of climate change on health 🌍How humans are influencing extreme weather. Pictured: Dr Saher Hasnain (Foresight4Food), Dr Tara Garnett (Food Climate Research Network)
18/10/1918 Oct 2019 -
read more + SoGE climate research well represented at the first African Climate Risks Conference Dr Ellen Dyer, Dr Callum Munday, Dr Rachel James, Dr Richard Jones, Dr Katrina Charles and Professor Richard Washington, all from the School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE), presented results from five large NERC and DFID funded current research projects (REACH, UMFULA, IMPALA, FRACTAL and LaunchPad) in 20 papers at the first African Climate Risks Conference in early October.
27/09/1927 September 2019 -
read more + Storm Imelda twice as likely, ten to fifteen percent stronger, due to climate change Just as for Hurricane Harvey, the extreme rainfall and flooding caused by Tropical Storm Imelda was made more likely and intense due to global warming concludes a rapid analysis from international science partnership World Weather Attribution. Dr Friederike Otto, acting director of ECI, is one of WWA's lead scientists.
23/09/1923 September 2019 -
read more + Landmark science report informs United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019 There are large and growing gaps between agreed targets to halt global warming and the actions being taken to implement them, reveals a new report synthesising the latest science from leading climate organisations. Dr Lisa Schipper, Environmental Social Science Research Fellow at ECI, contributed to the United in Science report as a member of the UN Climate Action Summit science advisory group.
20/09/1920 September 2019 -
read more + Global Climate Strike 2019 On 20th September climate and energy scientists from the School of Geography and Environment attended the youth-led climate strike in Oxford, answering questions and sharing the latest research on net zero, mitigation, clean energy, reducing demand, attribution and more. Around 10,000 people attended the strike in Oxford, joining an estimated 4 million people worldwide.
19/09/1919 September 2019 -
read more + Making maths relevant to the climate strikes One of the key demands of the UK's school climate-strike movement is that more attention is paid to climate change in the curriculum. To help address this, ECI researchers have worked with students to write new GCSE and A-level maths practice questions that help to integrate climate change into the school curriculum. Teachers are invited to use this resource and all feedback is welcome.
17/09/1917 September 2019 -
read more + ECI to provide expert advice to the UK's first citizens assembly on climate change In September 2019 Oxford will be the first UK city to hold a citizens assembly on climate change, following a unanimous declaration of a climate emergency by the City Council. Myles Allen and Nick Eyre of the ECI will join the assembly to provide expert advice on climate science and clean energy. Citizens' assemblies on climate and ecological justice are a key demand of the Extinction Rebellion movement.
15/09/1915 September 2019 -
read more + Air conditioning for all? Hotter world faces risk of 'cooling poverty' As extreme heat grows with climate change, finding cheaper and greener cooling is crucial to protect both people and the climate. "By the end of the century, global energy demand for cooling will be more than it is for heating," Dr Radhika Khosla told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Dr Khosla is a senior researcher at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and leads the Oxford Martin programme on the future of cooling.
12/09/1912 September 2019 -
read more + Highlights: The net-zero climate change conference in Oxford Didn't get a chance to attend the "Achieving Net Zero" conference in Oxford? Read this comprehensive summary from Carbon Brief, or watch the complete livestream on the Environmental Change Institute YouTube channel. Over 160 science and policy researchers, energy experts, members of government, activists and industry representatives attended the conference, with over 400 viewers tuning in online.
09/09/1909 September 2019 -
read more + Oxford climate change conference ramps up efforts to achieve net zero carbon emissions Community leaders join academics from the University of Oxford and around the world at the Achieving Net Zero conference, 9-11 September, to discuss opportunities, challenges and pathways for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming. The conference is hosted by the Environmental Change Institute and Oxford Martin School and sponsored by the University of Oxford and the Victoria University of Wellington.
29/08/1929 August 2019 -
read more + Ethiopia's future is tied to water Water is a vital yet threatened resource in a changing climate. Postdoctoral researcher Ellen Dyer writes with REACH Country Programme Manager about the effects of climate change on water resources, people and the economy in Ethiopia for the Conversation.
27/08/1927 August 2019 -
read more + Amazon rainforest fires: top ten questions answered Swathes of the Amazon rainforest are burning at a record rate, with many of the fires believed to be started deliberately. Professor Yadvinder Malhi, ecosystems scientist and Director of the Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests, spoke to the BBC to help answer readers' questions about this complex issue. Extensive coverage elsewhere includes the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, National Geographic, BBC Mundo and Der Politiken.
20/08/1920 August 2019 -
read more + How governments can transform food systems under climate change Food systems have a key role to play in mitigating climate change and are at the same time highly vulnerable to its impacts. Dr Monika Zurek has contributed to a new working paper outlining policy options to deliver sustainable, equitable global systems capable of meeting food and nutrition needs while mitigating global warming.
16/08/1916 August 2019 -
read more + Risk to the British railway network from flooding and erosion at bridges Scour (localised erosion by water) can cause substantial damage to bridges, leading to transport disruption and safety risks. A new probabilistic analysis with partners including JBA Trust, Lancaster University and ITRC-Mistral shows the risk of bridge scour equates to an average of 8.2 million passenger journeys being "lost" annually.
5/08/195 August 2019 -
read more + How much warmer is your city? ECI climate scientists have contributed to a new data visualisation and interactive tool from the BBC. Find out how the temperature in 1,000 major cities has changed and how much it could increase by in the coming years.
4/08/194 August 2019 -
read more + Pathways to sustainable land-use and food systems It is possible to achieve sustainable land-use and food systems, concludes a new report from the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use and Energy (FABLE) Consortium. Countries must address three pillars for action: efficient and resilient agriculture systems, conservation and restoration of biodiversity, and food security and healthy diets.
02/08/192 August 2019 -
read more + European heatwave made up to 100 times more likely due to climate change Record-breaking July 2019 heatwave would have been extremely unlikely without human-induced climate change in many parts of continental Europe, shows a near real-time analysis from World Weather Attribution and partners including Oxford's Environmental Change Institute.
19/07/1919 July 2019 -
read more + A message from climate scientist Myles Allen on #FridaysforFuture Myles says 'thank you' to strikers, explains why it's not too late to solve climate change and introduces the 'Achieving Net Zero' international conference and public talk happening in Oxford in September 2019. Watch the full video on YouTube.
read more + Climate change made European heatwave at least five times likelier Near real-time analysis from Dr Fredi Otto, Acting Director of the ECI, shows human-induced climate change made record-breaking June 2019 heatwave five to 100 times more likely. Coverage included BBC, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Mail, New Scientist and Scientific American.
read more + Long term study reveals public health benefits from air pollution reductions Policies to improve air quality in the UK over the past 40 years have led to significant reductions in air pollution and associated mortality rates, a new study led by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and involving Dr Clare Heaviside, senior research fellow at the ECI, has found.
06/06/196 June 2019 -
read more + Rain or shine: Watching the weather for 250 years Come rain or shine, come howling gale or thick fog - Oxford doctoral student Emma Howard must keep her 09:00 appointment. Two hundred and fifty years of history demand it. Jonathan Amos features the School's Radcliffe Meteorological Station in an article for the BBC.
read more + DPhil student working with the Government of St Lucia As part of a collaboration between the University of Oxford and the UN Office for Project Services, Lena Fuldauer (2018) is working with the government of St Lucia in order to implement cross-ministerial infrastructure systems planning. Read more about her work, spatially modelling the island's climate change hazards and impacts, in St Edmund Hall's research profile.
29/05/1929 May 2019 -
read more + Ruksana Rimi wins Commonwealth Scholarship Commission Best Journal Article Prize Ruksana was awarded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and the Taylor and Francis Group for her article 'Risks of pre-monsoon extreme rainfall events of Bangladesh: is anthropogenic climate change playing a role?', published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society in December 2018.
24/05/1924 May 2019 -
read more + Global temperature change attributable to external factors, confirms new study In a new study, published in the Journal of Climate, researchers at the Environmental Change Institute have confirmed that slow-acting ocean cycles do not explain the long-term changes in global temperature over the last century. 'We can now say with confidence that human factors like greenhouse gas emissions and particulate pollution, along with year-to-year changes brought on by natural phenomenon like volcanic eruptions or the El Niño, are sufficient to explain virtually all of the long-term changes in temperature,' says study lead author Dr Karsten Haustein.
read more + Growing Greener project launches free online course for sustainable business champions The Growing Greener project is proud to partner with OpenLearn to launch a new course on 'Promoting sustainability in business: a values-based toolkit'. Co-written by Sam Hampton (ECI) and Richard Blundel (Open University Business School), the course helps anyone who wants to bring about change within Small- or Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
23/04/1923 April 2019 -
read more + Dr Jian Peng wins 2019 Remote Sensing Young Investigator Award Dr Jian Peng has won the 2019 Remote Sensing Young Investigator Award for his outstanding research on exploring the teleconnection between hydrological variability and climate oscillations based on satellite observations.
read more + Reflective roofs can reduce overheating in cities and save lives during heatwaves A new modelling study from the University of Oxford and collaborators has estimated how changing the reflectivity of roofs can help keep cities cooler during heatwaves and reduce heat-rated mortality rates. "Climate change and increasing urbanisation mean that future populations are likely to be at increased risk of overheating in cities," Dr Clare Heaviside comments, "although building and city scale interventions have the potential to reduce this."
04/02/192 April 2019 -
read more + Infrastructure needed to achieve 72% of Sustainable Development Goal targets A new ECI analysis published in Nature Sustainability has found that the majority of the UN's SDGs - global targets relating to poverty, health, the environment, peace and justice - will rely on infrastructure systems. Whilst the SDG deadline of 2030 may seem a long way off, massive global infrastructure investments have the potential to lock-in patterns of unsustainable development for years to come.
read more + Achieving Net Zero emissions - call for abstracts Following on from the ECI's International Conference on '1.5 Degrees: Meeting the Challenges of the Paris Agreement', comes a two-day Oxford conference 'Achieving Net Zero' in September 2019. Questions include 'What do we mean by Net Zero?' and 'How much can we reduce emissions?' and will explore innovative ideas for reducing and recapturing emissions, as well as consider the governance, regulation, and reality - the opportunities and challenges - of delivering Net Zero globally.
18/03/201918 March 2019 -
read more + Adapting to climate change: the need for acceptance Environmental Social Science Research Fellow Dr Lisa Schipper reflects on the reality that life will change dramatically for many, as climate change increasingly impacts on lives. This has powerful implications for the path of development and human wellbeing she writes in an article for GlobalDev.blog, saying that it is time for "true acceptance of what is happening".
15/03/201915 March 2019 -
read more + "I'm a climate scientist, ask me anything!" On Friday 15 March Oxford schoolchildren, students and their supporters are taking part in the international #schoolstrikeforclimate day, gathering in Bonn Square 11am - 2pm. Researchers from the School of Geography and the Environment will be at the event, running a climate change science information table.
13/03/201913 March 2019 -
read more + How indigenous knowledge can help address climate change The Chicago Policy Review takes a closer look at a recent paper by Cuthbert Makondo and Professor David Thomas, which provides evidence of indigenous knowledge in climate change adaptation in Zambia. Their research, interviewing 18 indigenous leaders, reveals that communities have long considered and developed adaptation plans for their changing environment.
13/03/201913 March 2019 -
read more + A climate scientist's view on the 'Green New Deal' resolution Professor Myles Allen presents climate science from the IPCC report and puts forwards his own ideas as to how the United States of America might tackle climate change by incrementally reducing its fossil fuel emissions.
01/02/20191 February 2019 -
read more + Mapping the atmosphere: Methane from East African swamps At the end of January the ECI's Dr Michelle Cain joined an ambitious 35-person piece of fieldwork in Uganda and Zambia. The research, part of the NERC-funded MOYA (Methane Observations and Yearly Assessments) and ZWAMPS (Zambian Swamps) projects, used the FAAM aircraft to gather 3-dimentional observations of methane concentrations in the atmosphere.
read more + Friederike Otto is Scientific American's one to watch in 2019 ECI Acting director Dr Friederike Otto tops the list of key climate scientists and projects to watch this year. Otto and her collaborators are making attribution studies faster and easier to conduct, they write. "Eventually, their work could help establish rapid attribution services that provide quick assessments of extreme weather events and their links to climate change, similar to the way weather services provide forecasts."
08/01/20198 January 2019 -
read more + Blog: Animal agriculture takes centre stage at COP24 Recent ECI MSc graduate Jessica Zionts (ECM, 2017-18) writes about her experiences at COP24, organising the ECI's side event and exploring how new climate models are changing the debate around livestock emissions.
read more + COP24: How can we achieve net zero in energy, industry and agriculture? ECI and Oxford Martin School experts took to the stage at COP24 last week, hosting a side event during the conference in Katowice, Poland, to address key issues around greenhouse gas metrics and set out what 'net zero' emissions will mean for energy, industry and agriculture.
read more + How the finance industry can save the world A news article by the World Economic Forum, which cites our research, explores the way that the finance industry can be redefined to have a more positive impact on the world.
read more + Keeping global warming to 1.5°C will require drastic action with a limited window for action. Today's landmark report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlights the scale of change needed to limit warming to 1.5C. The warnings are stark - we are on track for catastrophic climate change, and any hope of limiting the warming to 1.5C requires unprecedented changes across all aspects of society - how we eat, travel and produce energy.
07/10/1807 Oct 2018 -
read more + Early career award for Oxford Martin Fellow Richard Millar ECI physicist Dr Richard Millar, of the Oxford Martin Net Zero Carbon Investment Initiative, has been named as one of Elsevier and the US-UK Fulbright Commission's six UK Early Career Researcher Award winners for 2018.
25/09/201825 September 2018 -
read more + Oxford hosts global collaboration on Africa's climate conundrum On 13 September an international team of scientists from Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa and the United Kingdom travelled to the School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE) in Oxford to discuss an enduring problem: how to improve climate models over Africa.
24/09/1824 Sep 2018 -
read more + Dr Chris West, 1951 - 2018 It is with great sadness that the ECI has learned of the death of our former colleague and Director of the UK Climate Impacts Programme, Dr Chris West.
read more + Carbon dividend from polluters to households could win over the public Political acceptability is the biggest challenge for the introduction of ambitious carbon pricing schemes aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But new research suggests that using the revenue to pay a dividend to households could make carbon pricing a success.
read more + A new way to assess 'global warming potential' of short-lived pollutants Dr Michelle Cain writes a guest post for the Carbon Brief to address whether treating all greenhouse gasses as CO2 equivalent is the best measure for stocktaking countries emissions reduction targets under the Paris Agreement. She suggests a modified metric as an better way of linking emissions to warming.
read more + Why blowing the 1.5C global warming goal will leave poor tropical nations sweating most of all Almost all of us are going to be worse off as climate change takes hold, whether through heatwaves, changing rainfall patterns, sea level rise, or damage to ecosystems. But it's the world's poorest people who will suffer the biggest disruptions to their local climate, Dr Luke Harrington explains in the Conversation.
11/05/201811 May 2018 -
read more + Sea Ice and Arctic Biota - Special edition published this week The impacts of the rapid melting of sea ice on arctic biota requires a new scientific framework, if we are to have a chance of protecting plant and animal ecosystems, says Dr Marc Macias-Fauria, co-editor of a special edition of Biology Letters.
04/05/1804 May 2018 -
read more + Recent extremes 'not unusual, but climate change makes them seem so' In a news article in the Independent newspaper Dr Friederike Otto explains that the recent weather extremes experienced in the UK are not unusual. She cites the increasingly early arrival of spring as one explanation for changing our expectations for warm weather compared to the past.
read more + Climate change in a San Francisco courtroom Professor Myles Allen writes about his latest assignment - to explain the history and science of climate change to a judge in a San Francisco court - in a case brought by American cities against the oil companies.
read more + Climate computer modeling needs to be greener ECI's deputy director Dr Friederike Otto outlines the steps she has taken to reduce carbon emissions in her personal life but calls for more to be done to cut carbon at research organisational level in this article for DW news
22/02/1822 February 2018 -
read more + From peaks to plains: troubled waters along Nepal's Gandaki River In Autumn 2017, we sent a team with the Himalayas to Ocean (H2O) project to follow the Gandaki River from the Himalayas, to the floodplains of Nepal. Along the way, they collected stories of those living at the forefront of climate change. Read about their journey and the novel ways they seek to raise awareness about climate change.
21/02/1821 February 2018 -
read more + What do doughnuts have to do with climate change? Kate Raworth's pioneering idea of doughnut economics reconceptualises traditional economic principles and offers new opportunities to create a world which is more equitable and sustainable. In this article, Varsity Magazine explore doughnut economics and the benefits that modern alternatives to neoliberalist economics may offer to the world.
13/02/1813 February 2018 -
read more + Amazon rainforests that were once fire-proof have become flammable Carbon emissions from the Brazilian Amazon are increasingly dominated by forest fires during extreme droughts rather than by emissions from fires directly associated with the deforestation process, according to a study in Nature Communications. The authors suggest that recurrent 21st century droughts may undermine achievements in reducing emissions from deforestation in this region.
read more + The Carbon Debate live | How much carbon can we emit while holding warming to below 1.5 degrees? Tune in on Monday 22 January at 9am GMT to a online debate with Professor Myles Allen and Dr Richard Millar to discuss their media headlining paper from 2017 in which they showed that the world can emit substantially more CO2 than previously thought and stay within the 1.5 degree targets. Hear their views on this and more.
09/01/1809 January 2018 -
read more + New principles to guide corporate investment towards climate goals Research published this week in Nature Climate Change and authored by ECI's Richard Millar and SSEE's Cameron Hepburn proposes a new set of principles for helping investors and companies to address the moral challenges of climate change. The investment community is recognised as pivotal to the success of transitioning to a net zero carbon economy.
08/01/1808 January 2018 -
read more + Researchers can now blame warming for individual disasters In a new article published in EE News, Professor Myles Allen recounts the scientific journey into attributing single weather events to climate change. The science has emerged over the last 15 years, from being an impossible idea into a reality, and is now one of the most rapidly expanding subfields of climate science.
