Continued funding for global climate change research

OU researchers have been awarded funding to continue their research into global climate change.

Professor Neil Edwards, Director of Research, Environment, Earth and Ecosystems Sciences is leading on the OU’s role in The Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation (LC³M) project, which has received just over £168,000 from The Leverhulme Trust.

The funding will enable the project to enter Phase 2 and complete and submit the three studies already commenced that are close to completion from Phase 1.

These are the Earth system transient carbon response to emissions (TCRE) under carbon removal; the impact of a proposed Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) in the supply chain as a CO2 removal strategy, and the geography of financial risks and potential losses and gains resulting from the low-carbon transition.

Professor Edwards said: “Completing these locally detailed studies acts as a stepping stone to the ultimate objective to be addressed in Phase 2, which will be assessment of realistic policy regimes that could plausibly support an ERW framework as part of a coherent national strategy to achieve commitments under the Paris agreement for key nations such as the UK.

“This national policy-level analysis is critical, as it is becoming clear that the climate problem will only be solved through sovereign nation-level commitments to national mitigation targets motivated by expected gains in terms of employment, GDP, green growth and geopolitical influence in the post-transition renewable energy-driven global energy economy.”