School of Geography and the Environment

ECI will be sending 12 researchers to the Bali COP negotiations between 3-14 December 2007. This represents the largest cohort of ECI expertise at any of the COP negotiations and reflects the increasing relevance of our research in climate change governance debates and research.

ECI has been invited to present in side events and to advise government, business and NGO negotiators in Bali. We will host a joint side event with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research on "How can we get more GHG emissions out of the atmosphere and contribute to sustainable development? Insights from research". Professor Diana Liverman will also be a plenary speaker in a side event on adaptation of food systems to climate change, representing GECAFS.

Research presented at Bali

The following webpages give background and published material on research emerging from the ECI. In particular, read about our work on:

• Tropical forestry and avoided deforestation. This research has shown that:
  • the combined impacts of climate change and land use change in the Amazon may result in the drying of the region
  • tropical forests are growing faster as a result of higher CO₂ levels
  • there will need to be a step increase in tropical forest monitoring if carbon credits for reducing deforestation become part of the international carbon trade (Malhi et al Science Nov 2007).

ECI hosted an international conference on "Climate Change and the Fate of the Amazon" in 2007. Download podcasts and listen to the sessions here.

• The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
  Our research shows that the CDM is not meeting its criteria of promoting sustainable development because of the bias to large countries and industrial projects (Boyd et al Tyndall report 2007).
• Voluntary Carbon Offset Market
  The formal CDM market and the voluntary offset market are closely related with voluntary offsets self regulating in response to media backlash and the threat of government guidelines (Bumpus and Liverman 2007).

Read also about our work on: climate change in China | the role of non-nation state actors | reviews on the IPCC process | economics of climate change and models for stakeholder engagement in climate change.

Alumni Representation

ECI are pleased to hear that a further 15 alumni from the MSc in Environmental Change and Management will be present in Bali. Our alumni increasingly hold influential positions in industry, academia, NGO and public sectors, and many have established careers related to climate change. Those present in Bali will be representing a varying mix of professions, sectors and industries. Read more about the roles of our alumni at the COP negotiations.