News

Radically transforming transport systems over the coming decades is both a necessity and a challenge, particularly in relation to their energy needs and environmental impact.
This is the conclusion of Energy, Transport & the Environment, the most comprehensive publication to date on the current mobility challenges. Edited by Professor Sir David King and Dr Oliver Inderwildi [...]

A new briefing paper on Water Security, Risk and Society has been published.
The briefing, by Dr Angela Wilkinson and Aisling O’Sullivan Darcy of the Smith School, set outs the critical challenges around water stress and how the drivers are diverse and interconnected.
Water Security, Risk and Society briefing

The international business and finance community must take the lead in solving increasing water, food and energy scarcity around the world as population growth and economic development puts greater strains on the planet’s resources.
The call to action was issued today (Monday 23 April 2012) by Re|Source 2012, a new initiative created by the University of [...]

A project running almost 10,000 climate simulations on volunteers’ home computers has found that a global warming of 3 degrees Celsius by 2050 is ‘equally plausible’ as a rise of 1.4 degrees.
The study, the first to run so many simulations using a complex atmosphere-ocean climate model, addresses some of the uncertainties that previous forecasts, using [...]

An urgent remodelling of the UK’s energy infrastructure is vital if the country wants to decarbonise without “the lights going out” and not be reliant on imported energy supplies, says a new report by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment (SSEE) at the University of Oxford.
“Towards a low carbon pathway for the UK” [...]

The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment together with UBS has hosted its first “Smith in the City” evening seminar. The series will profile leading thinkers from around the globe looking at some of the major issues and challenges facing the world’s economies and people.
The series launched on Wednesday 22nd February 2012 and was introduced [...]

The Arctic is a region undergoing significant changes through a combination of economic and political developments, as well as climatic and other environmental changes.
Often perceived as an outpost or frontier in a world of ever expanding human activity, the next 20 years are estimated to see an increase in economic activity with shipping, oil and [...]

The heat wave that struck western Russia in summer 2010, causing 55,000 deaths, was caused by a combination of manmade and natural factors. However, the frequency of occurrence of such heat waves has increased by a factor of three over recent decades, new research suggests.

A study, led by Oxford University scientists including Neil Massey of [...]

Professor Gordon Clark FBA, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at Oxford University, has been appointed as the next director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. He will take up the new position in January 2013 succeeding the founding director, Professor Sir David King.
Professor Clark is an economic geographer with an interest in [...]

The very cold weather we have recently been experiencing across parts of the UK and Europe raises the question if this is normal, or if it is in fact part of a wider pattern of changing climate.

 
Dr Patrick McSharry was interviewed on China Central TV on this issue and commented: “We expect cold conditions at [...]

Dr Mick Blowfield, Research Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, has won the CMI (Chartered Management Institute) Management Book of the Year award with co-author Alan Murray.
Corporate Responsibility was up against competition in the Management and Leadership Textbook category of the competition and was shortlisted from a collection of over 250 [...]

Professor Sir David King has published an analysis of the oil market in Nature this week with Professor James Murray of the University of Washington, which demonstrates that since 2005 oil supply has reached a ceiling of economically affordable rates.
The resulting unheralded oil price spikes, ranging between $40 and $140 per barrel, act as a [...]

With 90% of transport fuels being oil-derived, uncertainty around depletion levels of conventional oil reserves combined with rising car ownership and climate change concerns, there remains a mammoth challenge to transform our oil-dependent transport industry.
Writing in the journal – Oxford Energy Forum, Tara Shirvani and Dr Oliver Inderwildi explore the interest in synthetic fuel production [...]

In collaboration with 20 leading experts, investors, NGOs and universities, the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment has contributed to an open letter to the Bank of England urging the Governor, Sir Mervyn King, to investigate how Britain’s exposure to polluting and environmentally damaging investments might pose a systemic risk to the UK financial [...]

In spring 2012 the Smith School will publish a report that focuses on developing a pathway for how the UK can and must maximise its nuclear assets and opportunities, and produce a holistic approach to nuclear power for 2050 and beyond.  
Our formal consultation period is now closed, however more information on the consultation can [...]

Sam Arie, Visiting Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, has looked at the Green Deal and outlines his concerns about the new scheme in which households will be encouraged to borrow money on easy terms to finance energy saving home improvements.
Writing in The Ecologist, Arie suggests that the Green Deal will create [...]

The Today Programme on Radio 4 featured a debate between Professor Sir David King and Jonathan Porritt who headed up the Sustainable Development Commission on what should replace the Kyoto Treaty when it expires next year.
Over the next two weeks scientists and politicians are gathering in Durban at the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to [...]

Professor Sir David King, Director of The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, has set our how a new process for a climate treaty could be developed, as the COP17 talks begin.
Writing in The Guardian, Sir David explains that is has been evident for some years now that the top-down approach to climate negotiations [...]

The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment has published a report in collaboration with the Government of Rwanda that sets out a framework for the country to move towards a low carbon economy.
Rwanda has a fast-growing economy, which is growing at eight percent per annum, and is particularly vulnerable to oil price spikes, population [...]

Dr Oliver Inderwildi and Professor Sir David King have edited a new book which will be published early next year by Springer. Energy, Transport & the Environment: Addressing the Sustainable Mobility Paradigm will tackle the highly complex problem of sustainable mobility – a challenge affected by the interactions between socio-economic, environmental, technological and political issues.

The [...]

The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment has appointed Dr Oliver Inderwildi to lead its Low-Carbon Energy Centre, a newly formed research centre charged with addressing the challenges that depleting natural resources and environmental challenges pose to our energy sector.
The new team, led by Dr Inderwildi, will focus on energy and fuels modeling and [...]