Media Centre

18.03.09: UKERC Researchers Make Key Contribution to Copenhagen Congress

Researchers at the UK Energy Research Centre played an important role at last week's Copenhagen Climate Change Congress.

The Congress generated critical scientific input to the Copenhagen negotiations in December which will determine the global climate regime post-Kyoto.

UKERC researchers contributed five presentations and five posters, with Research Director Professor Jim Skea chairing a session on the potential of Renewable Energies. 

UKERC researcher and Director of the Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research (4CMR), Dr Terry Barker, argued at the Congress that combating climate change may not be a question of who will carry the burden but could instead be a rush for the benefits:

"Where many current calculations get it wrong is in the assumption that more stringent measures will necessarily raise the overall cost, especially when there is substantial unemployment and underuse of capacity as there is today", he explained.

The Congress, attended by more than 2,500 delegates from nearly 80 countries drew together the latest research on climate change. 

It concluded unambiguously that the problem of climate change is even more severe than the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report suggested. Outcomes of the Congress will be summed up in a report to be given to political negotiators in preparation for COP15 in December where a new global climate agreement will be negotiated.

UKERC Research Director Prof Jim Skea commented: "It was tremendously important for UKERC to have a presence at this Congress - a staging post for the COP 15 in December.  To have so many contributing experts under one roof, from all over the world, is an important signal to decision-makers at December's event of how serious researchers are taking climate change and the contribution that the energy sector makes."

UKERC researchers gave presentations throughout the Congress:

• Climate change, social justice and development -  Dr Terry Barker (with SS Scrieciu and D Taylor) 
• Keeping Government on Track: The UK Climate Change Act and the Committee on Climate Change - Prof Jim Skea (with S Smith)
• Good or bad bioenergy?  The validity of comparing biomass and biofuels using life cycle assessment - Dr Jeanette Whitaker (with K Ludley, S Ryder, R Rowe, J Chapman, G Taylor and D Howard)
• The macroeconomic rebound effect from the implementation of energy efficient policies at different end-use sectors at global level - Anthanasios Dagoumas (with T Barker)
• Top-down technological modelling of stabilisation pathways: UKERC scenarios for the UK to 2050 using E3MG-UK - Anthanasios Dagoumas (with T Barker, S Scrieciu and S Stretton)

UKERC researchers were also involved in a number of posters:

• Maximising energy saving s from domestic microgeneration: a cultural and behavioural analysis (Noam Bergman, J Barton, R Blanchard, N Brandon, D Brett, A Hawkes, C Jardine, N Kelly, M Leach, A Peacock, I Staffell, B Woodman
• Habitat and land use constraints on biomass production in England (Richard Wadsworth, D Howard, J Whitaker)
• Backcasting policies for carbon reduction in the UK energy system (Paul Ekins, G Anandarajah)
• Policy implications from the Japan-UK Low Carbon Society modelling project (Tim J Foxon, N Strachan, J Fujino)
• Biochar as a soil amendment positively interacts with nitrogen fertiliser to improve barley yields in the UK (Alfred Gathorne-Hardy, J Knight, J Woods)