Environmental Change Institute (ECI), University of Oxford

The changing face of flooding. The Environment Agency has published details of its National Assessment of Flood and Coastal Erosion risk in England. ECI's Prof Jim Hall, and Commissioner at the national Infrastructure Commission, says: "The new data showing the significant increase in properties at risk from surface water flooding also demonstrates the need for further action to stop the problem getting worse." https://lnkd.in/e-kS_hby

What psychology reveals about climate worry and the ensuing will to engage in sustainable action Francesco Fuso Nerini, at the Environmental Change Institute and KTH Climate Action Centre in Sweden has been collaborating in a study how climate change impacts people’s mental health and their subsequent ability to take action. The paper, Climate worry: associations with functional impairment, pro-environmental behaviours and perceived need for support, has been published in BMC Psychology. Their study found a relatively large proportion of individuals with severe and frequent climate worry experienced significant impairments in everyday life functioning. Dr Fuso Nerini says, “Understanding how climate change impacts individuals' mental health—and how this, in turn, affects their ability to engage in pro-environmental behaviours—is crucial. This knowledge forms the foundation for developing strategies to manage climate-related distress, promoting both individual well-being and collective environmental action.” Read more on the study: https://lnkd.in/d_ahTktk

Occupancy in the Built Environment Hear from Dr Marina Topouzi and Dr Amr Suliman, Researchers at the ECI as they speak on an ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) Journal podcast about occupancy in the built environment. Their work covers ventilation, indoor environmental quality, resilience, harnessing data on occupant behaviour and how building efficiency and indoor conditions can be improved for a healthier, optimised built environment. Listen to the podcast: https://lnkd.in/e89hx_EH

Beans and peas are the best meat alternative, veggie burgers second, lab-grown meat worst, according to new ECI research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Dr Marco Springmann, Senior Researcher in Environment and Health has found not only do beans and peas rank best as meat and milk replacements, outperforming processed products like veggie burgers and plant milks, but that lab-grown meat ranked worst. https://lnkd.in/ddDT2EG2

5 easy ways to make your online shopping more sustainable this festive season ECI DPhil student Felippa Amanda has been looking at how we can help make Christmas more sustainable. Throughout the holiday season, the urgent need for sustainable consumption is clear. Some 300,000 tonnes of clothing and 471 million small electrical everyday items end up in household waste in the UK in a year, with the number of unwanted items increasing significantly just after Black Friday. The current trend of overconsumption is fuelling climate change, nature loss and pollution. https://lnkd.in/dp2wmS-p

The ECI's and Prof Myles Allen's involvement in The evolving science of ‘extreme weather attribution’. As global temperatures rise, extreme weather events are becoming more intense and more frequent all around the world. Carbon Brief has mapped every attribution study published to date, revealing that three-quarters of the extremes analysed were made more intense or likely due to climate change. 

We are excited to announce our #EGU25 session on 'Advances in physical climate risk assessment for the financial and insurance sectors' co-convened with Andrej Ceglar (European Central Bank), Dr Nicola Ranger (University of Oxford), Alessio Ciullo (CLIMADA Technologies), M. Kotz (BSC-CNS, PIK - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) featuring invited speakers Nick Leach (U Oxford, Climate X) and Irene Monasterolo (U Utrecht). Submit your abstract by January 15th: https://lnkd.in/empCSDQ6 Climate change and environmental degradation constitute a growing threat to the stability of societal and economical systems. The observed and anticipated escalation in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events under future emission scenarios, combined with the projected long-term shifts in climate patterns and consequential impacts on biodiversity, have the potential to significantly affect specific sectors such as insurance and finance leading to significant economic damages on a local to global scale. In recognition of this challenge climate risk assessments have experienced amplified attention in both the academic and private spheres, leading to initiatives such as the ‘Network for Greening the Financial Sector’ (#NGFS) and the ‘Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure’ (#TCFD) and a growth in climate risk services aiming at setting standards and frameworks as well as the provision of comprehensive climate impact information for the private sector and financial institutions. The need for more adequate risk assessment poses new academic challenges: the accurate representing extreme events and their compounding and cascading effects on high spatial resolution and the integration of non-linearities associated with tipping elements in the climate system to avoid an underestimation of physical climate risks. Interactions between scientists, economists and financial experts are urgently needed to make progresss. With the goal of facilitating such dialogue, this session aims at providing a platform for actors from academia and the private sector to exchange information on strategies for assessing climate risk. The session will organised under three main pillars:  -Physical Climate Risks: Trends, Processes and Modelling -Identifying and Managing Climate Risks -Quantifying Damages and Impacts from Climate Risks International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) Columbia Climate School University of Oxford European Central Bank CLIMADA Technologies

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐂𝐈'𝐬 𝐃𝐫 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 🎬 To meet net zero targets, over the next decade there needs to be a tenfold increase in annual installations of energy-efficient heat pumps into UK homes. In partnership with the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, Samsung Research UK are working with community members to develop new ways to roll-out heat pumps in Rose Hill and Iffley through the Clean Heat Streets project.   Dr Nick Banks is part of the team developing place-based, socially inclusive approaches that help to build trust and understanding around this new technology. Their approach could pave the way for a national rollout.   Watch this film about Clean Heat Streets - https://lnkd.in/dz95WC7h   Clean Heat Streets is a government-funded initiative under the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Heat Pump Ready programme. It aims to create a dense installation of clean and sustainable heat pumps in a specific area – the Rose Hill and Iffley neighbourhood of Oxford City.   #NetZero #Sustainability #ResearchPartnerships #SocialSciencesInAction #CleanEnergy #HeatPumps #ResearchPartnerships

ICYMI: This article co-authored by colleagues at the Environmental Change Institute (ECI), University of Oxford explores the urgent need to recognise nature-related financial risks.  What steps can be taken at #COP16 to support this action? Read now ⬇️ School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford

A reminder to join us in-person or online next Monday, 2 December, for a discussion with the World Bank Country Director, Idah Pswarayi-Riddihough, on the role of finance in adapting to climate change in the Indian Ocean and Southern Africa.