Smith School of Enterprise and Environment

The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment is a leading interdisciplinary academic hub focused upon teaching, research, and engagement with enterprise on climate change and long-term environmental sustainability. It works with social enterprises, corporations, and governments; it seeks to encourage innovative solutions to the apparent challenges facing humanity over the coming decades; its strengths lie in environmental economics and policy, enterprise management, and financial markets and investment.

These strengths are complemented by close ties with the physical and social sciences, and especially the research and teaching programmes of the School of Geography and the Environment, the Environmental Change Institute, and the Transport Studies Unit. In conjunction with the Saïd Business School’s Executive Education Board, it offers a variety of ExEd programmes to industry on a local, UK and Europe, and international basis ranging from certificate to short-courses and the MSc and MBA.

Engagement with enterprise is an important goal of the Smith School. This takes a variety of forms including research and teaching in areas such as environmental liabilities and market pricing, supply-chain management, and long-term sustainable investment. Engagement provides Oxford academics and students ways in which to better understand the significance of enterprise in promoting solutions to long-term environmental problems while offering independent research and advice on matters like environmental strategy, corporate governance, and long-term innovation.

This involves student-led group projects, company-based research programmes, and the visiting business fellows that come to the University so as to deepen and complement our knowledge and understanding. The goal of the Smith School is to promote the highest quality research and education in the field as well as innovative solutions to some of the most significant global environmental challenges facing the modern firm.

SEMINAR SERIES:
Paris and Beyond – Pragmatic Climate Policy

Hilary Term weeks 1-8 | Wednesdays 5-6:30pm | Beckit Room | OUCE | South Parks Rd | Oxford | Ox1 3QY

Following the agreement between Presidents Obama and Xi Jinping on carbon caps, the focus of climate change negotiations is focussed on the Paris Conference of the Parties in December 2015. This seminar series looks at the big issues at Paris, the chances of success, the possible shape of an agreement, whether it will have much impact, what the alternative approaches are, and what lies beyond in technology and climate change policy.

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REconomy Comes to the US | Transition US

REconomy Comes to the US

Transition US is part of a group of five national Transition hubs (along with Portugal, Germany, Brazil, and Mexico) who are receiving mentoring and support from Transition Network to bring the award-winning REconomy Project to the US. We’re the second cohort of national hubs to engage in this work – last year Transition Network partnered with Italy, Croatia, Belgium, Latvia, and the Netherlands.

Launched in Transition Town Totnes, UK, REconomy is intended to bring forth a new economic vision that aligns with Transition values, supported by tangible measures and strategic thinking around needs and resources for developing Transition-oriented enterprises.

Like Transition itself, REconomy looks different in each country and community. For example, in Portugal REconomy will combine with “One Year in Transition” to create leadership and employment opportunities for youth. Transition Mexico will host a market for sharing, swapping, and selling locally-produced goods. And each country’s economic context is dramatically different (click here to read short profiles of the five countries included in last year’s REconomy cohort).

…(read more).

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USAID Mekong ARCC Climate Study for the Lower Mekong Basin: Key Final Results

Report on Key Final Results
https://weadapt.org/organisation/mekong-arcc

Overall Project Description

The USAID Mekong ARCC project is a five-year program (2011-2016) funded by the USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia (RDMA) in Bangkok and implemented by DAI in partnership with the International Centre for Environmental Management (ICEM),World Resources Institute (WRI), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Asian Management and Development Institute (AMDI).

The project focuses on identifying the environmental, economic and social effects of climate change in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB), and on assisting highly exposed and vulnerable rural populations in ecologically sensitive areas increase their ability to adapt to climate change impacts on water resources, agricultural and aquatic systems, livestock, and ecosystems. USAID Mekong ARCC is headquartered in Bangkok and supports climate change research and adaptation initiatives in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Lao PDR.

The Key Final Results publication draws from and summarizes the methodology and key basin-wide results generated by the USAID Mekong ARCC Climate Change Impact and Adaptation Study and updates the Key Initial Results document prepared in March 2013. This publication employs maps, charts, and graphics to provide a snapshot view of how projected climate changes in the Lower Mekong Basin would impact key livelihood sectors. Complete information on the USAID Mekong ARCC Climate Study can be found in the full report and summary report.

Adaptation Measures

Adaptation measures are necessary throughout the LMB to mitigate the impacts of climate change; and there is a growing sense of urgency for the implementation of such measures as temperatures continue to rise, precipitation patterns shift more significantly from baseline conditions, and the combined effects of increased flooding and sea level rise affect greater land surface areas.

Ecosystems and Community-based Adaptation

The completion of the USAID Mekong ARCC Climate Adaptation and Impact Study for the LMB is not an end point but instead serves as a tool in linking research and on-the-ground adaptation action that increases the adaptive capacity of local communities.Through partners, USAID Mekong ARCC is assisting communities at 5 sites in Thailand, Lao PDR and Vietnam to better understand and prioritize climate risks and take action that strengthens their resilience to food and livelihood insecurity resulting from climate change (see figure below for process of incorporating Study results into community planning). Successful adaptation will require flexibility and a diversity of approaches to adapt to shifting conditions.

See full report.

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Obama’s climate change envoy: fossil fuels will have to stay in the ground

Todd Stern claims the world will have to forgo developing reserves of oil, coal and gas in order to solve global warming

Todd Stern says a global deal to fight climate change would necessarily require countries to abandon known reserves of oil, coal and gas. Photograph: Richard Hamilton Smith/Corbis

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent

Monday 24 November 2014 19.09 EST

The world’s fossil fuels will “obviously” have to stay in the ground in order to solve global warming, Barack Obama’s climate change envoy said on Monday.

In the clearest sign to date the administration sees no long-range future for fossil fuel, the state department climate change envoy, Todd Stern, said the world would have no choice but to forgo developing reserves of oil, coal and gas.

The assertion, a week ahead of United Nations climate negotiations in Lima, will be seen as a further indication of Obama’s commitment to climate action, following an historic US-Chinese deal to curb emissions earlier this month.

A global deal to fight climate change would necessarily require countries to abandon known reserves of oil, coal and gas, Stern told a forum at the Center for American Progress in Washington.

“It is going to have to be a solution that leaves a lot of fossil fuel assets in the ground,” he said. “We are not going to get rid of fossil fuel overnight but we are not going to solve climate change on the basis of all the fossil fuels that are in the ground are going to have to come out. That’s pretty obvious.”

Last week’s historic climate deal between the US and China, and a successful outcome to climate negotiations in Paris next year, would make it increasingly clear to world and business leaders that there would eventually be an expiry date on oil and coal.

“Companies and investors all over are going to be starting at some point to be factoring in what the future is longer range for fossil fuel,” Stern said.

…(read more).

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President Putin Pledges to Increase Trade with China and Asia to Rebuck Sanctions

TheRealNews

Uploaded on Nov 12, 2014

400 billion dollar 40 year oil and gas deal between China and Russia is a response to the new cold war pressure and sanctions on Russia says Michael Hudson, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

Global Climate Change
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After Vowing to End Combat Mission in Afghanistan, Obama Secretly Extends Amer ica’s Longest War

President Obama has secretly extended the U.S. role in Afghanistan despite earlier promises to wind down America’s longest war. According to the New York Times, Obama has signed a classified order that ensures U.S. troops will have a direct role in fighting. In addition, the order reportedly enables American jets, bombers and drones to bolster Afghan troops on combat missions. And, under certain circumstances, it would apparently authorize U.S. air-strikes to support Afghan military operations throughout the country. The decision contradicts Obama’s earlier announcement that the U.S. military would have no combat role in Afghanistan next year. Afghanistan’s new president Ashraf Ghani has also backed an expanded U.S. military role. Ghani, who took office in September, has also reportedly lifted limits on U.S. airstrikes and joint raids that his predecessor Hamid Karzai had put in place. We go to Kabul to speak with Dr. Hakim, a peace activist and physician who has provided humanitarian relief in Afghanistan for the last decade. We are also joined by Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, who has just returned from Afghanistan.

Global Climate Change
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Facilitating Linkage of Heterogeneous Regional, National, and Sub-National Climate Policies Through a Future International Agreement – Harvard – Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Discussion Paper, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

November 2014

Authors: Daniel Bodansky, Seth Hoedl, Gilbert E. Metcalf, Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements Discussion Paper Series

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

Links to full text of the discussion paper and its executive summary are at the bottom of this page.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements has been collaborating with the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) to explore the role of linkage in the new international climate-change agreement to be completed in Paris in December 2015, under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). IETA is a corporate membership organization whose mission is to advance market-based mechanisms for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

As a major part of this initiative, Robert Stavins, Director of the Harvard Project, has co-authored a discussion paper on linkage—not only among cap-and-trade systems, but among cap-and-trade, carbon tax, and non-market regulatory systems—and the role of linkage in the Paris agreement. Co-authors are Daniel Bodansky (Arizona State University), Seth Hoedl, (Harvard Law School), and Gilbert Metcalf (Tufts University).

The Harvard-Project team and IETA colleagues will host panels, based in part on this paper and also addressing related topics involving market mechanisms for reducing carbon emissions, at the Twentieth Conference of the Parties (COP-20) of the UNFCCC in Lima, Peru in December 2014. Times and locations of these events follow; for more information see here:

• Tuesday, December 9, 4:45 – 5:45 pm, IETA Pavilion, “Linkage and the 2015 Paris Agreement”
• Thursday, December 11, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm, Room: Caral, “What role will market mechanisms play in the 2015 Agreement”

The Executive Summary of the discussion paper was released at an event co-sponsored by IETA and the Harvard Project in New York on September 22, 2014, on the sidelines of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Climate Summit. See more on this event here—and see the links at the bottom of this page for the full text of the Executive Summary and the full discussion paper.

…(read more).

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Democracy Now! Live Reports From U.N. Climate Summits

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLneypbodq-jaXBchstsNT2UyHwkATu4FG

• by democracynow

Democracy Now! has traveled to the annual U.N. climate change conferences since 2009 to report live on intergovernmental negotiations and the protests outside the summit. We have spoken to many key policy makers, journalists, activists, and academic experts.

See more of our reports on climate change in general at http://www.democracynow.org/topics/climate_change.

Global Climate Change
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How Walmart is Planning to Dodge Billions MORE in Taxes

freespeechtv

Published on Nov 25, 2014

Thom Hartmann talks with Frank Clemente, Executive Director-Americans for Tax Fairness about how Walmart is scheming to dodge billions more in taxes.

Global Climate Change
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Revealed! 90 Pipeline Spills You Didn’t Hear About

The Big Picture RT

Published on Nov 25, 2014

Tyson Slocum, Public Citizen’s Energy Program, joins Thom Hartmann. Are you surprised that the Canadian media has largely ignored the almost daily spills in Alberta – and the damage that they’re causing? If the Keystone Pipeline were given the go-ahead – could we expect a similar number of spills and leaks from it? How damaging would that be to our environment?

Global Climate Change
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