A new perspective on decarbonising the global energy system

We are in the midst of a renewables revolution. Solar panels, for example, are 1,000 times cheaper than they were 50 years ago, with the International Energy Agency recently declaring that in many locations around the world solar is ‘the cheapest source of electricity in history.’ 

Launching the report ‘A new perspective on decarbonising the global energy system’, Professor Doyne Farmer and Dr Matthew Ives will draw on over a decade of research to explain why the more we deploy renewables, the faster their prices are likely to drop. As they will outline, this has profound implications for the potential cost and optimal pace of our transition towards net zero. 

Professor Farmer and Dr Ives will set out new evidence on the importance of continuing renewables’ current growth rates for the next decade, and discuss the huge environmental, economic, and social benefits this could bring. 

Finally, Jiangwen Guo will provide an overview of their engagement with the Chinese government on this exciting new research

Speakers:

• Dr Matthew Ives, Senior Researcher at the Oxford Martin Post-Carbon Transition Programme and lead author of ‘A new perspective on decarbonising the global energy system’. 

• Professor J. Doyne Farmer is Director of the Complexity Economics programme at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School and Baillie Gifford Professor in the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford. 

• Jiangwen Guo, Senior Research Fellow, Energy, Environment, and Resources Programme, Chatham House. 

Moderated by: 

• Antony Froggatt, Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director, Energy, Environment and Resources Programme, Chatham House.

This report is part of the UK-China Cooperation on Climate Change Risk Assessment, funded through the prosperity programming of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.