Anglia Ruskin University

Capital Markets Climate Initiative (CMCI)

CMCI is a public-private initiative set up by Greg Barker MP, Minister at the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change. CMCI is designed to support the scale up of private finance flows for low carbon technologies, solutions and infrastructure in developing economies by:

• Developing a common understanding amongst policy makers of why and how public sector action can help mobilise private capital and encourage new markets in low carbon investments
• Demonstrating the potential impact of public sector action by developing and testing tailored financial and policy tools in specific partner country case studies to mobilise private capital

Working Group 1 is chaired by Dr Aled Jones and has developed a set of principles for policy makers to enable a common understanding of what constitutes 'investment grade policy', with the aim of leveraging climate-friendly private finance. A set of Working Draft principles will be published in early 2012 for comment, discussion and testing amongst stakeholders.

Principal Investigator: Aled Jones
GSI researchers: Aled Jones

Communication of climate science

How interested are the general public in climate science? Are there ways of improving communication by climate scientists, to allow people to better engage with the climate change debate? This project, funded by members of the Living with Environmental Change consortium (the Met Office, DECC, DEFRA, and NERC) has involved running focus groups and polls with the general public. We are investigating how communication of climate science in the British media could be improved, and measuring current public opinion in a range of areas, such as levels of trust in scientists. A report of our findings will be published in 2012.

Principal Investigator: Emily Shuckburgh (British Antarctic Survey)
GSI researchers: Rosie Robison

Climate policy and business lobby comparative analysis

This work will explore the commonalities and differences between policy calls made by leading progressive business groups from around the world (such as the UK Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change and the US Climate Action Partnership).

Principal Investigator: Aled Jones & Nicolette Bartlett (Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership)
GSI researchers: Aled Jones

Cleantech market development

Drawing on network and institutional theory, this project will investigate whether institutions and networks connecting the different actors already exist in the cleantech market in the UK and Switzerland; and how the government, NGOs, financial institutions, investors and entrepreneurs have to act in order to establish and sustain growth in the business. In a fairly new industry institutional change comes from a collective action, involving many of the economic players.

Principal Investigator: Zsuzsa Pogats
GSI researchers: Zsuzsa Pogats (supervisor: Dr. Mahmoud Al-kilani (LAIBS) & Aled Jones)

Cloud Computing and Hardware Loads

An optimised and novel approach to an Autonomous Virtual Server Management System in a Cloud Computing environment. One key advantage of this System is its ability to improve Hardware Power Consumption through autonomously moving Virtual Servers around a Network to balance out Hardware Loads. This has a potentially important impact on issues of sustainability with respect to both physical resource management and economic viability.

Principal Investigator: Razvan-Ioan Dinita (Computing & Technology)
GSI researchers: Razvan-Ioan Dinita (supervisors: Dr. George Wilson, (C&T) Adrian Winckles (C&T) & Dr Aled Jones)

Green Deal trials

The Cabinet Office's Behavioural Insights Team, The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), published a paper "Behaviour Change and Energy Use" in June 2011 announcing five trials, three of which focus on testing interventions to increase uptake of energy efficiency measures in the domestic sector. The Green Deal is the Coalition Government's flagship policy to increase the energy efficiency of buildings in the UK, reduce emissions from homes by 29% and help meet carbon reduction targets. It will enable households to install energy efficient measures from loft, cavity, floor (etc) insulation to innovative hot water systems and solar PV in people's homes at no upfront cost to them. Three different incentive structures will be tested to evaluate the impact of incentives on overcoming the hassle factor associated with loft clearance, and the impact of financial and community incentives on uptake of energy efficiency measures within the home. The GSI is contributing to the design of these trials with local authorities and the commercial sector to determine how interventions can be most effective in increasing uptake, and which incentives are most attractive.

Principle Investigator: Dr Candice Howarth
GSI Researcher: Dr Aled Jones

Climate change discourse

This research project explores climate change discourse in terms of scepticism and denial. It explores the categories that researchers have suggested for categorising climate change deniers and illustrates the extent to which current research has captured the variety of sceptics in the field. It explores the issues and contentions inherent in classifying sceptics due to the nature and fluidity of beliefs which lead to overlapping of sceptic types and reconnoitre the inherent disagreements that sceptics experience among themselves.

Principle Investigator: Dr Candice Howarth

CONNECT2020: CONsumer Networking towards the EU's Energy and Climate Targets 2020

Consumer 2020 provides a strategic framework for the novel use of existing consumer ICT capabilities and suggests filling out the framework with innovative, simple to deploy and powerful initiatives that can be implemented across EU 27 member states and within existing legal framework and business models. The initiatives outlined in Consumer 2020 focus on maximising the use of existing schemes and the use of ICT in disseminating information to influence behaviour change and ensure the EU's 2020 energy and climate targets are met with minimal legislation implemented. CONNECT 2020 involves collaborative work with selected EU Directorates led by INFSO with the aim of addressing the extent to which the initiatives described in Consumer 2020 are on track to enable the EU to reach its 2020 Energy and Climate targets and it's wider Europe 2020 targets of economic governance, smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Principle Investigator: Dr Candice Howarth

UK farmers' perceptions of climate change

The Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) is currently working in collaboration with Sustainability East on a UK pilot project to develop an understanding of farmers' perceptions of climate change in the UK as well as current mitigation and adaptation practices.

Principle Investigator: Dr Candice Howarth