News
Contracts-for-difference can aid shipping industry decarbonisation - research
Incentivising private investment is key to the scaling and adoption of clean fuels and technology by the shipping industry, and the implementation of contracts-for-difference (CfDs) by the public sector is a tried and tested means of achieving this, according to a report from the Smith School.
Exchange Traded Funds are directly financing fossil fuel companies at large scale
Financial institutions with over $70 trillion in assets have pledged to achieve net zero portfolios and loanbooks by 2050, including meeting ambitious interim 2030 targets.
Business Green: Big banks' big footprint: UK financial institutions responsible for double UK's annual carbon emissions, report warns
A report from WWF and Greenpeace found that UK banks and investors are responsible for almost double the UK's net annual carbon emissions. Dr Ben Caldecott, director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme, told Business Green: 'UK institutions providing financial products and services globally can make a massive contribution to solving the problem and there is no time to lose.'
£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.
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.
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.
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.