Models for Stakeholder Engagement and Climate Change
The ECI has a strong emphasis on applied policy related research and working with stakeholders and partners across multiple sectors to come up with the best solutions to environmental issues. This is demonstrated through a number of projects led by the ECI.
UK Climate Impacts Programme
ECI's most recognised model of stakeholder engagement is the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) which we have hosted since the outset. Funded by Defra since 1997, UKCIP has been working with stakeholders to co-ordinate research on how climate change will have an impact at regional and national levels in order to help them form adaptation strategies. UKCIP has worked with many public sector and commercial businesses, and local authorities to come up with tailored adaptation policies.
UKCIP is a forerunner in pushing adaptation as a positive and necessary part of the solution to climate change. Read more about UKCIP on their website.
Oxfordshire ClimateXChange
In 2006 ECI won funding from DEFRA’s Climate Challenge to form the Oxfordshire ClimateXChange: a project to engage and inspire Oxfordshire’s people with the opportunities unveiled by climate change. Based at Oxford University, ClimateXChange is in a unique position to bridge the gap between academic scientific research and the people of Oxfordshire. Using a toolkit of inspiring initiatives from light-bulb libraries, to film screenings of an inconvenient truth?, to local business conferences on adapting to climate change, and an Open EcoHouse event, ClimateX is a model for taking the message of climate change out of the university and into every-day homes throughout the county.
Read more, and engage with ClimateXChange on www.climateX.org.
UK Energy Research Centre and Lower Carbon Futures Research
The ECI is a founding institution in the UK Energy Research Centre with the responsibility for the following key nodes:
- The Meeting Place: bringing together international specialists to tackle the fundamental challenge of sustainable energy.
- The Demand Reduction Theme: with a focus on reducing the demand for energy across the UK.
- Home Truths: a report commissioned by Friends of the Earth and relased in November 2007 to outline the policies needed to reach an 80% reduction in carbon emissions in the UK b 2050.
- 40% house: a report on how to achieve 60% cuts in the UK’s housing stock by 2050.
- www.imeasure.org.uk and smart metering– tools for recording and monitoring energy readings in the home in return for useful feedback and comparatives on our energy usage.
- Carbon labeling – host to a number of roundtable workshops with key stakeholders to discuss the issues around carbon labeling of food products.