Memorandum from Research Councils UK (RCUK)
INTRODUCTION
1. Research Councils UK (RCUK) is a strategic
partnership that champions the research supported by the seven
UK Research Councils. Through RCUK the Research Councils together
with the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) are creating
a common framework for research, training and knowledge transfer.
Further details are available at www.rcuk.ac.uk
2. This memorandum is submitted by Research
Councils UK on behalf of two of the Research Councils, drawing
on inputs from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
and represents our independent views. It does not include or necessarily
reflect the views of the Office of Science and Technology (OST).
RCUK welcomes the opportunity to respond to this inquiry from
the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee.
COMMENTS
3. The Research Councils recognise the importance
of inter-disciplinary research on climate change and the crucial
role of research on the economic dimensions for under-pinning
and informing future public policy debates. RCUK believes that
high quality, independent research on the economics of climate
change, alongside research into other aspects of climate change
research in the physical, engineering, natural and medical sciences,
as well as other areas of social science outside economics, is
indispensable to allow an integrated assessment of the causes
and impacts of climate change and potential responses to it.
4. The Research Councils support a diverse
range of research into the economics of climate change, particularly
in terms of developing integrated models of the economic, social
and environmental impacts of climate change and of future technological
change, policy options and scenarios.
5. The Tyndall Centre, established in 2000
with £10 million of funding from the Natural Environment
Research Council (NERC), EPSRC and ESRC brings together scientists,
economists, engineers and social scientists, who together are
working to develop sustainable responses to climate change through
independent inter-disciplinary research and dialogue on both a
national and international level—not just within the research
community, but also with business leaders, policy advisors, the
media and the public in general. The Tyndall Centre is continuing
to take a lead role in developing a next generation Community
Integrated Assessment System (CIAS) which comprises a linked Community
Integrated Assessment Model (CIAMn) and a novel interactive stakeholder
process. The CIAMn prototype links computer modules of the global
climate system, the global economy, climate impacts, and other
key factors, from a contributing network of institutions. The
complete community-owned CIAMn model will harness prime international
expertise in integrated assessment of climate change to inform
policy makers, NGOs, industry, and local stakeholders in Europe
and beyond. The Tyndall Centre has submitted separate detailed
written evidence to this Inquiry.
6. "Energy Systems and Modelling"
is one of the key themes of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC),
part of the Towards a Sustainable Energy Economy (TSEC) Programme
funded by the EPSRC, NERC and ESRC, in collaboration with the
Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BBSRC) and Council
for the Central Laboratory of the Research Council (CCLRC). Work
under this theme will seek to integrate previous top-down energy
modelling approaches (represented by the work of Cambridge University's
Department of Applied Economics, which builds in part on previous
work funded in the 1990s under the ESRC's Global Environmental
Change Programme) and bottom-up approaches (eg the work of Future
Energy Solutions and Imperial College for DTI using the MARKAL
model) to develop whole-systems energy-environment-engineering-economy
("E4") modelling. This work will draw closely on research
under UKERC's demand reduction, future sources of energy, infrastructure
and supply and environmental sustainability themes and is being
conducted in close collaboration with the Tyndall Centre; a national
energy modelling network is also being created. The aim is to
develop a comprehensive energy modelling capability for the UK,
comprising linked top-down models at the global, regional, national
and sub-national levels, interfacing with the range of bottom-up
models that cover the main energy demand areas, carbon emissions,
the main energy supply technologies and carbon management. The
Co-Director responsible for this theme, The Policy Studies Institute
has also separately submitted written evidence to this Inquiry.
Further work on energy markets and the economics of energy is
currently under consideration as a part of the TSEC Programme's
"Managing Uncertainties" Theme.
7. The ESRC Centre for Social and Economic
Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) (University of East
Anglia) has a long track record of pioneering environmental economics
research, including research on the economics of climate change.
CSERGE uses social science analysis as a link between existing
scientific knowledge and policy guidance, with the aim of mitigating
environmental problems in both developed and developing economies.
Current themes include multi-level governance and environmental
policy integration; social capital, equity and justice; and innovation
in decision-support tools and methods and environmental valuation.
CSERGE has also submitted evidence to the Inquiry.
8. The £3.2 million initiative "Building
Knowledge for a Changing Climate" (BKCC) is a partnership
between EPSRC and UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP), designed
specifically to improve understanding of the multidisciplinary
research challenges raised by the necessity to adapt UK buildings
and infrastructure to changing climate patterns. BKCC focuses
on research solutions as part of adaptation strategies for the
built environment, while acknowledging that such adaptation strategies
need to be consistent with UK strategies for economic, social
and environmental sustainability. Each of the projects involves
close collaborations between research groups and users in the
public and private sectors, including companies in the construction,
transport, financial services sectors and bodies such as English
Heritage, The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and The National
Trust. The users provide a vital function in the projects, by
steering them closely to ensure that they produce research outputs
that are useful in their decision-making processes. Users are
also providing input data for the research projects. These close
collaborations are a key defining element of the BKCC portfolio
that covers:
— Climate Change Risk Assessment:
New Impact and Uncertainty Methods;
— Construction of climate scenarios
for the built environment, transport and utilities;
— Adaptation of Historic Environments
to Moisture-Related Climate Change;
— Adaptable Urban Drainage—Addressing
Change in Intensity, Occurrence and Uncertainty of Stormwater;
— Climate Change Impacts assessment
on the Electricity Supply Industry and Utilities;
— Adaptation Strategies for Climate
Change in the Urban Environment;
— Biological and Engineering Impacts
of Climate Change on Slopes;
— Economic and Social Information
for Examining the Effects of Climate Change;
— Impact of Climate Change on
UK Air Transport.
9. Innovative research at the University
of Stirling, funded by ESRC, has recently combined a number of
different models (including models of climate change, crop systems
and farmer decision-making) to estimate the impacts of predicted
climate change on crop yields, land use, farm incomes and farmland
biodiversity for Scotland, and has given explicit consideration
to how these impacts may vary regionally. The results of this
research suggested that climate change is likely to have a positive
impact on Scottish agriculture. Such work illustrates the complexity
and variability in the likely impacts of climate change for different
regions, economic sectors and groups in societies over different
periods in time and the crucial role that adaptive capacity and
response strategies play in affecting these impacts.
RCUK RESPONSE TO
QUESTIONS
What has been the approach within the IPCC to
the economic aspects of climate change, and how satisfactory has
it been?
10. UK economists have played a leading
role in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) process.
For example, contributions from economists at CSERGE to the IPCC
process include the chapter from CSERGE's Professor David Pearce
OBE (with Samuel Fankhauser) on the monetary value of global damages
from climate change in the 1996 IPCC Second Assessment Report,
the work of Professor Kerry Turner CBE as lead author with the
IPCC Working Group II and Dr Neil Adger's current role as Convening
Lead Author for the Fourth Assessment Report on adaptation to
climate change. Scientists from a number of NERC's Research and
Collaborative Centres contributed as authors or reviewers to the
IPCC Third Assessment Report and are contributing to the Fourth
Assessment Report.
Is there sufficient collaboration between scientific
and economic research?
11. The Research Councils recognise the
need for such collaboration and are working closely together to
support inter-disciplinary research of this kind. The work of
the Tyndall Centre and the UK Energy Research Centre mentioned
above provides examples of the substantial inter-disciplinary
collaboration which is now occurring between scientists and economists
in providing integrated "whole-systems" assessments
of climate change issues. Such work is placing the UK at the forefront
of international developments in inter-disciplinary climate change
research.
1 March 2005
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