News
How can the UK afford net zero?
Oxford Smith School working paper proposing that countries adopt a ‘Border Carbon Adjustment’ on carbon heavy materials like steel, concrete and fertilisers, and goods like cars and mobile phones
Graduate students flock to Smith School MSc
The 2022 iteration of the MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment was the University of Oxford's most applied to graduate programme in November 2021, and the 4th most applied to in January 2022, according to latest admissions figures.The programme, which is still in its inaugural year after launching in September 2021, has received
Fossil fuel industry can't rely on carbon capture and bioenergy to save its assets
Fossil fuel power sources producing the equivalent of ten times the global electricity production in 2018 will become unusable if global heating is to be kept below degrees, even if carbon-abatement technologies such as carbon capture and storage, bioenergy, and coal-to-gas conversions are deployed at scale, new research published in Nature Comm
Employees who fear technology-induced unemployment more likely to retrain
Workers who feel their job is at greater risk due to technological advancements are more willing to seek retraining opportunities, according to researchers from the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford and University of Zurich.
Taxing meat can protect the environment
Taxing meat could be an important lever for aligning Western diets with environmental goals and can be designed such that low-income households and farmers are compensated, find a forthcoming paper in the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, co-authored by SSEE Director Cameron Hepburn.
IKEA Foundation pledges £4.5m to back Oxford sustainable finance action
The IKEA Foundation is supporting, with a grant of £4.5 million over three years, four key University of Oxford Sustainable Finance Group projects, aimed at making a significant contribution to aligning finance and the financial system with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
US$150 billion per year: Tallying the cost of delayed climate action
US$150 billion per year. That's the expected additional loss that the financial sector could face when climate action by companies is delayed, according to the launch report of a joint initiative by the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group at the University of Oxford and the non-profit think tank 2° Investing Initiative.
First global inventory of solar energy installations created using remote sensing and AI
The number of solar energy installations across the world soared by more than 81% from 2016 to 2018, according to ground-breaking research from an international Oxford University-led team.
Oxford University and Pearson launch online programmes in sustainable business and law
The Oxford Smith School has partnered with publishing group Pearson to launch two online programmes in January 2022.The programmes will allow a global audience to access the Smith School's world leading sustainability research and teaching.
A greener recovery from the pandemic will create more jobs, spur long-term growth, and save lives
A renewed focus on a green economic recovery from COVID-19 would create more jobs, spur long-term growth, and save lives, a new report from the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, Oxford University Economic Recovery Project, and Vivid Economics finds.
The FT: Scorching and surrounded by water, Singapore is on climate's front lines
Associate Professor Radhika Khosla told the Financial Times that rising temperatures and changing demographics will increase the demand for cooling systems in Asia. 'It is hard to say to families at the cusp of an increase in income that they should not have access to a service that is tied to the idea of development... India and Indonesia are on track for very high penetration of air conditioners in the next decade,' she said.
The Final 25%: How to tackle hard-to-reach emissions
Electricity, transport and heating account for a massive 80% of greenhouse gas emissions and are at the forefront of the battle to achieve Net Zero. But reaching Net Zero means also dealing with the hard-to-reach 20% of emissions: agriculture, plastics, cement, and waste, and extracting at least 5% extra from the atmosphere to account for the emissions that we simply cannot get rid of. Today, the Smith School published three reports from its 'Final 25%' series which explore ways of tackling this urgent problem.