News
£30 million official backing for Oxford-led greenhouse gas removal programme
Coordinated by an Oxford team including Cameron Hepburn and Stephen Smith, the CO2 Removal Hub launched today with £30million in funding to explore innovative ways of stabilising our climate.
The Guardian: Trials to suck carbon dioxide from the air to start across the UK
Professor Cameron Hepburn talked to The Guardian about the launch of the CO2 Removal Hub, which launched on 24 May with £30m of funding. He commented: 'This is seriously exciting and pretty much world leading... Nobody really wants to be in the situation of having to suck so much CO2 from the atmosphere. But that is where we are, we have delayed for too long.'
Renewable energy can keep global warming well below 2 degrees
A new Smith School report sets out how the revolution in renewable technology can put the world on track to keep global warming well below 2 degrees.
Significant fall in cost of financing renewable energy projects
New research from the Sustainable Finance Programme tracks how the financing costs for energy projects, measured through loan spreads, have changed over the past 20 years and finds that financial institutions are viewing renewables as less risky and coal as more so. Oil and gas financing costs have exhibited significantly less change.
Oxford students win 2021 Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge
A team of four students from Oxford University including Annabella Wainer, 2nd year PhD student at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment has been named the winner of the 2021 Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge.
Sky News: Sky and BBC climate shows feature 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.
National COVID debts: climate change imperils countries' ability to repay
As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group convene their spring meetings, researchers from the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment find that most governments' astronomical borrowing during the pandemic pays scant attention to the effects that climate change could have on their ability to repay the debt.
Alternative proteins: how Big Food can accelerate the transition to net zero
A new working paper from the Smith School describes the rapid growth of corporate venturing in the alternative proteins sector, and why this could represent a step-change in the transition of global food systems to net zero.
Climate policy in the United States is at an inflection point
A new report demonstrates that for the first time, a majority of Americans live in a jurisdiction with a net zero emissions target. Furthermore, US companies accounting for at least $5.2 trillion in yearly sales have committed to net zero.
BBC: Climate change: Africa's green energy transition 'unlikely' this decade
New research uses machine learning to predict that total electricity generation across the African continent will double by 2030, with fossil fuels continuing to dominate the energy mix and posing potential risk to global climate change commitments. The study, published in Nature Energy, was led by Galina Alova with co-authors Philipp Trotter and Alex Money.
The Telegraph: How can we create a greener future?
As UK citizens, should we all be doing more to make our money matter? Writing in the Telegraph, Ben Caldecott, Director of Oxford's Sustainable Finance Programme, encourages individuals to invest in companies that can prove their environmental credentials. "Getting our capital to speed up the transition to environmental sustainability is a key lever and one of the most important ones we have."
Times of India: Shift to net-zero buildings is not only cheap now, but viable too: India finds solutions
The Times of India covers new research from Radhika Khosla and international partners across North America, Europe and Asia, finding that cheap technology and sufficient skills already exist worldwide to achieve net-zero energy buildings at costs in the range of traditional projects. The article explores net-zero solutions and the implications of the study in Delhi.