Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy

Details:

The ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP) brings together some of the world’s leading researchers on climate change economics and policy, from many different disciplines. It was established in 2008 and its first phase ended on 30 September 2013. The second phase started on 1 October 2013 and is due to end in 2018.

The Centre is hosted jointly by the University of Leeds and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and is chaired by Professor Lord Stern of Brentford. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The Centre’s mission is to advance public and private action on climate change through rigorous, innovative research.

CCCEP’s research objectives are to:

• Undertake an ambitious, innovative and interdisciplinary programme of research, firmly grounded in theory but with practical applications, linking science and social science and combining quantitative and qualitative approaches;
• Conduct research of the highest academic standard, subjecting it to internal and external review through seminars, briefings and publication.

In pursuit of its research objectives, the Centre is taking account of two key factors during its second phase:

• The need to address the changing context for climate research, particularly taking into account the financial crisis and recession, the continuing absence of an over-arching global climate treaty and the impacts of recent controversies relating to climate science;
• The need to develop more integrated and joined-up approaches to climate decision-making, breaking down barriers between, for example, modellers and field workers, and between adaptation and mitigation specialists.

There are five integrated research themes during the second phase:

• Understanding green growth and climate-compatible development
• Advancing climate finance and investment
• Evaluating the performance of climate policies
• Managing climate risks and uncertainties and strengthening climate services
• Enabling rapid transitions in mitigation and adaptation

The centre’s five interlinked research programmes during its first phase were:

• Developing climate science and economics
• Climate change governance for a new global deal
• Adaptation to climate change and human development
• Governments, markets and climate change mitigation
• The Munich Re Programme – evaluating the economics of climate risks and opportunities in the insurance sector

The Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy has been funded since its foundation in 2008 by the UK Economic and Social Research Council. The first phase of funding extended from 2008 until 2013. At the end of the first phase, the Economic and Social Research Council undertook a mid-term review of the Centre, and subsequently awarded it a second phase of funding for the period between 2013 and 2018. Details of the submission by the Centre to the Economic and Social Research Council for the mid-term review are available here.

An Advisory Group provides advice about the general strategy of CCCEP.

The management group, led by the directors at LSE and the University of Leeds, ensures the achievement of the ESRC Centre’s mission and its policy and research objectives.

The activities of the ESRC Centre complement the work of LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) at the University of Leeds.