Research
From research on greenhouse gas removal solutions to reducing carbon emissions in difficult to decarbonise sectors, our work extends across the economic system. We’re working to identify the crucial points where small actions can generate large-scale positive change in moving to net-zero. In addition, we developed guidance on delivering successful carbon offsetting schemes.
Our work
We work in partnership with the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) at the Oxford Martin School, and in collaboration with the Oxford Energy Network. We're developing new methods of modelling economy-ecosystem interactions to enhance our understanding of the impact of climate policies on economic growth, employment, and the political economy.
- Explores natural capital
- Measures wealth creation
- Stimulates green technology innovation
- Assesses climate and economic risk
- Models the post-carbon transition
- Supports reforms to electricity and energy markets for the post-carbon transition.
Collaborations
Our goal is a future where plastics are fully recyclable but ultimately degradable, so reducing environmental damage and pollution without losing the benefits that plastics provide.
We are helping to develop new materials, and investigate chemical recycling which breaks down plastics to their base ingredients for re-use in multiple ways. In the long term, our aim is to develop packaging that is both recyclable and biodegradable.
Our research explores carbon budgets to identify potential stranded assets – assets that are worth less than expected due to changes associated with the transition to a low-carbon economy. We aim to identify the implications for corporate decision-makers, financial investors, and policymakers.
In order to stabilise climate change and limit global warming, net CO2 emissions must reach zero, as acknowledged in the Paris Agreement – cumulative emissions at that point will determine how much warming we will experience. While we have not yet consumed the carbon budgets for 1.5 or 2 degrees C warming scenarios, much of the remaining budget is already taken up by existing capital stock that will emit carbon for many years to come.
What drives technology progress? We are exploring the possibilities for predicting or accelerating the rate of technological progress, and the implications for energy and sustainability policy. The project is funded by Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy and the US Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative, and developed in collaboration with Arizona State University and the University of North Carolina.
In collaboration with project sponsor The Nature Conservancy, our goal is to understand how natural capital options can help to limit the increase in global temperature to 1.5 or 2 degrees C, given the cumulative emissions we are already committed to, and the potential and limitations of land-based carbon sequestration. The research will analyse:
- The economics of global cumulative carbon budgets
- The implications of carbon budgets for sequestration requirements
- The economics of land-based sequestration compared to asset stranding, faster deployment of zero carbon technologies, and other sequestration methods
- The evidence base for different policy instruments that could deliver sequestration to meet the temperature targets.
Our work takes the sustainable development goals into account, specifically the competing demands on land, including food, habitats, and energy production, and the trade-offs and synergies between those land uses.
Using evidence from a range of different technologies, we are developing methods to produce forecasts which show the median prediction as well as uncertainty around the future costs of energy technologies.
Our project builds on the World Bank report on carbon prices to examine aspects of pricing mechanisms from both economic and political acceptability perspectives, including carbon taxes, cap and trade, and hybrid options.
Latest news
Bloomberg: Canada to Sell Green Bond as Push to Exit Oil Rises Amid War
Canada started taking orders for its inaugural green bond amid a renewed global push to reduce dependence on fossil fuels after the Russian invasion of Ukraine brought reliance on non-renewable sources of energy back into the spotlight.
As the world heats up, could 'carbon clubs' supercharge climate action?
Forbes' David Vetter explores a new working paper by Bethan Adams, Kaya Axelsson and Adam Parr on the concept of an international "Carbon Club." A Carbon Club is a group of countries who individually introduce a Border Carbon Adjustment (BCA) on carbon-intensive imported goods, working independently but in parallel. Adam Parr told Vetter that "Pricing signals are a fundamental principle of how markets operate, and taxing bad stuff is a fundamental tax principle of how governments operate."
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
Our team
Directors
- Professor Cameron Hepburn | Professor of Environmental Economics
- Professor Robert Hahn | Visiting Professor
Deputy Director
- Dr Alex Teytelboym | Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Economics
Researchers
- Dr Géraldine Bouveret | Honorary Research Associate
- Dr Kim Schumacher | Honorary Research Associate
- Alexander Pfeiffer | Research Assistant
Research Assistants
- Sugandha Srivastav
- Nicolas Cerkez
- Penny Mealy
- Simone Sulikova
- Matthias Roesti
Faculty Associates
- Dr Rob Metcalfe | University of Chicago
- Prof Myles Allen | School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford
- Prof Robert Axtell | George Mason University
- Dr Richard Bailey | School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford
- Prof Eric Beinhocker | Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford Martin School
- Prof Doyne Farmer | Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford Martin School
- Prof Dieter Helm | New College, University of Oxford
Collaborators
- Dr Kirk Hamilton | The World Bank