Publications

Climate information needs in Southern Africa: a review

Working paper by Daleen Lötter, Claire Davis, Emma Archer van Garderen, Katharine Vincent, Joanna Pardoe, Mark Tadross, Willem Landman, Sabine Stuart-Hill, Graham Jewitt on 3 Jul 2018

There are currently challenges to generating climate services relating both to the supply of climate science and its application. This paper from the UMFULA project reviews the current availability of climate information in Southern Africa and assesses the requirements of a variety of end users in the region, highlighting the importance of creating user-tailored climate services. read more »

Are seawalls correlated with lower property values in California?

Working paper by Arlan Brucal, Qingran Li, John Lynham on 3 Jul 2018

As sea levels rise with climate change there is pressure to protect the coast but while individual properties may benefit from seawalls, neighbouring properties may experience negative effects due, for example, to accelerated beach loss. This paper investigates the impacts of seawalls on property values in San Diego and Santa Cruz. read more »

The best of centuries or the worst of centuries: Leadership, governance and cohesion in an interdependent world

Policy publication by Nicholas Stern on 3 Jul 2018

The world has built a remarkable global agenda. Nicholas Stern explains the urgency of rising collectively to the challenges and describes how the necessary political will can be built to deliver the strong decisions we need, at sufficient pace. read more »

Supporting private adaptation to climate change in semi-arid lands in developing countries

Policy publication by Kate Elizabeth Gannon, Florence Crick, Declan Conway, Sam Fankhauser on 3 Jul 2018

Most climate change adaptation decisions, in semi-arid lands and elsewhere, are made by ‘private actors’ – which include households, producers and businesses. These groups try to manage their exposure to … read more »

Submission to the inquiry by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee on ‘Heatwaves: Adapting to Climate Change’

Policy publication by Bob Ward on 3 Jul 2018

This submission to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on ‘Heatwaves: Adapting to Climate Change’ focuses on the importance of communicating with the public to raise awareness of the increasing incidence of heatwaves. read more »

Building narratives to characterise uncertainty in regional climate change through expert elicitation

Research article by Suraje Dessai, Ajay Gajanan Bhave, Cathryn Birch, Declan Conway, Luis Garcia-Carreras, John Paul Gosling, Neha Mittal, David Stainforth on 26 Jun 2018

Knowledge about regional and local climate change can inform climate risk assessments and adaptation decisions. However, estimates of future precipitation change at the regional and local level are deeply uncertain for many parts of the world. A novel methodology was developed that uses climate processes and expert elicitation to build narratives of future regional precipitation […]

Communicating resourcefully: A natural field experiment on environmental framing and cognitive dissonance in going paperless

Working paper by Greer Gosnell on 12 Jun 2018

This paper explores the potential for environmental information and dissonance-inducing messaging to encourage resourceful behaviour, following a study of customers of a renewable energy provider in the UK. read more »

Trust, compliance and international regulation

Working paper by Ara Jo on 12 Jun 2018

This paper uses data on the compliance of installations regulated under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme to investigate how the levels of trust in a country affect the compliance of firms with regulations on climate change. read more »

Investing in a just transition: Why investors need to integrate a social dimension into their climate strategies and how they could take action

Policy publication by Nick Robins, Vonda Brunsting, David Wood on 12 Jun 2018

This discussion paper explores why investors should contribute to the ‘just transition’ as the world’s economy decarbonises, and how they can do so. It is the first output of the … read more »

Adopt or innovate: Understanding technological responses to cap-and-trade

Working paper by Raphael Calel on 18 May 2018

This paper presents new evidence that the EU Emissions Trading System may have encouraged innovation rather than simply encouraging polluters to adopt existing abatement technologies. read more »