Reports & policy briefs

This guide features tips for taking a whole-school approach when creating healthy and sustainable school menus that children enjoy. It  covers procurement and outlines simple steps that schools can take independently to embed a healthier food culture in the curriculum and in the dining hall

Working with our project partners at Leicester City Council, this report helps local stakeholders understand the value of systems thinking when tackling local food challenges. It provides a snapshot of how local food systems are performing and discussion points when taking steps to improve food system outcomes.

Working with our project partners at Leicestershire County Council, this report helps local stakeholders understand the value of systems thinking when tackling local food challenges. It provides a snapshot of how local food systems are performing and discussion points when taking steps to improve food system outcomes.

This paper introduces a methodology integrating climate risks and adaptation into credit ratings using catastrophe modeling, demonstrating that while potential downgrades are greater than previously estimated, investments in adaptation can mitigate these risks. A case study in Thailand highlights how flood adaptation reduces economic losses and borrowing costs, strengthening the case for large-scale adaptation. The paper calls for incorporating climate risk scenarios into fiscal assessments and stress tests, urging financial institutions and governments to address the interconnected risks of sovereign credit and financial instability to build resilience.

This research was conducted as part of the UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) project “Greening Thailand’s Financial System: Advancing Climate and Environmental analytics and Knowledge for Resilient Finance”, led by the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment (SSEE), and the Oxford Martin System Resilience Initiative, led by the Environmental Change Institute.

The report highlights the potential impacts of investment to boost the production and consumption of UK bean. These include a more sustainable and profitable agricultural system and healthier diets with a lower environmental impact.  The authors outline three pathways for upscaling, examining each pathways barriers, enablers and outcomes. It also highlights which food system actors could pursue these routes.

The extent to which firms are adapting to climate change and building resilience to climate and nature-related risks is vital information for financial institutions, regulators and governments. Yet currently no framework or tool exists to assess corporate adaptation and resilience alignment and there is little guidance available for firms to improve disclosure. We propose a new Adaptation Alignment Assessment Framework (A3F) to analyse corporate adaptation and resilience progress. We combine the framework with a natural language processing model and provide an example application to the Nature Action 100 companies. The pilot application demonstrates that corporate reporting on climate adaptation and resilience needs to be improved and implies that progress on adaptation alignment is limited. Further, we find that firms are already reporting on environmental impact but integration of nature-related risks and dependencies is low, suggesting further engagement is needed with the Taskforce for Nature-Related Disclosures. In general, the paper demonstrates the feasibility and practicality of assessing large swathes of corporate reporting through AI to gain insights on company resilience alignment.

Adaptation taxonomies are a key tool in the sustainable finance toolkit, creating clarity and coherence around what constitutes an adaptation-aligned investment. Twenty-four adaptation taxonomies have been published in the last 4 years, forcing us to ask the question: clarity or chaos? We compare these taxonomies based on their underlying principles, definitions of adaptation and sector coverage, and reveal major differences.

This report addresses the question where next for SMEs and net zero?, It provides insights from a comprehensive review of policies and business support initiatives across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, as well as interviews with 83 governance stakeholders acting at the national, regional and local levels and 30 interviews with SMEs.

The deterioration of the UK’s natural environment could lead to an estimated 12% loss to GDP, according to new analysis. In comparison, the financial crisis of 2008 took around 5% off the value of the UK GDP, while the Covid-19 pandemic cost the UK up to 11% of its GDP in 2020. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world – three quarters of the UK has a high level of ecosystem degradation, with risks to financial services and the wider economy as a result. The analysis shows however, that half of the UK’s nature-related financial risks originate overseas. Within the analysis, a new inventory charts these domestic and international nature-related risks to the economy, many of which are not currently captured in national risk assessments. The inventory captures financial risks arising from the deterioration of nature and biodiversity, including: soil health decline; water shortages; global food security repercussions; zoonotic diseases that pass from animals to humans, like bird flu, swine flu, and Covid-19; and antimicrobial resistance, where bacteria and viruses no longer respond to medicines; as well as transition and litigation risks.

This report sets out seven principles of place-based net-zero policy for SMEs. Setting place-based action within context of national, international, and sector action on climate change, the report provides assessment of where place-based action can provide most added value, and address limitations in existing provision.

This brief sets out how the pursuit of climate security for all can drive opportunities for adaptation finance – the next generation of green finance – and where markets can lead, and governments can accelerate action, focusing on the UK as a case in point. A new approach to public policy and an investment plan to match is required. This entails a systems-change approach to ensure economies and communities can be resilient to the impacts of the climate change that we are already experiencing. This focus on resilience must not be delivered as an alternative to driving economy-wide decarbonisation. Both are needed, and by taking a dual track approach, climate security can be delivered for citizens.

This report, completed by the Resilient Planet Finance Lab at the ECI, reviews the status of nature finance globally, to learn from the role played by nature-focused funds and their investment managers, understand what works, and draw conclusions for how we might mobilise more financing for nature-based solutions for adaptation. Our focus is on exploring opportunities to overcome the barriers that hold back finance and action for NbS at scale. This knowledge will inform a roadmap and toolkit for identifying viable investment modalities in Bangladesh.

New study reveals in excess of 5 Trillion USD in nature-related risks to the global economy that will amplify the impacts of climate change. Shocks to the global economy related to biodiversity loss and ecosystem damage could cost upwards of five trillion USD. Human activities, such as pollution, deforestation, land-use change and overextraction, are fundamentally eroding the natural capital upon which are societies and economies are built – including our water, clean air, fertile soils and pollinators – and act as ‘risk amplifiers’ on the impacts of climate change. Study by the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) and the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford.

Bringing together a vision for achieving the shift towards bean-rich diets, this report outlines case studies, key themes and next steps as discussed at the summit held on 27 to 28 September 2023 in Oxford.

Energy prices in the UK continue to be very high, and in the absence of Government help, millions of households will struggle without adequate energy for heating, hot water, cooking and other vital services. This report uses data from smart-enabled prepayment meter customers to explore how the Government can best target support to those in greatest need, and to describe the minimum level of support needed to prevent serious suffering this coming winter.

Energy prices in the UK continue to be very high, and in the absence of Government help, millions of households will struggle without adequate energy for heating, hot water, cooking and other vital services. This report uses data from smart-enabled prepayment meter customers to explore how the Government can best target support to those in greatest need, and to describe the minimum level of support needed to prevent serious suffering this coming winter.

This report describes UK demand and supply of plant-based alternatives to meat, for human consumption, and the role of beans. The aim is to provide a better understanding of the current and potential future demand for, and supply of, beans and how this fits into a broader shift to plant-based foods.

Energy Superhub Oxford's (ESO) main focus was investment in infrastructure for energy storage, electric vehicle charging, low carbon home heating and developing innovative, smart ways of generating benefits for users, investors and society at large. This summary report highlights research findings spanning each of the major work packages: transport, decarbonising heat, and the transmission grid connected battery, its operation and carbon impact. 

Energy Superhub Oxford (ESO) is a £41m demonstration project delivering innovation in smart local energy systems. As countries around the world embark on energy transitions to decarbonise their economies, decentralised and digitised solutions are increasingly important in delivering power, heat and mobility to users. Exploring options for smart local energy systems is a key UK priority.
ESO is one of three large demonstrator projects part-funded by the UK government under its “Prospering from the Energy Revolution” (PFER) programme. Work began in April 2019 and ran until March 2023. ESO’s main focus has been on investment in infrastructure for energy storage, electric vehicle charging, low carbon home heating and developing innovative, smart ways of generating benefits from these for users, investors and society at large.
This report has been produced by the University of Oxford team and draws on their research findings spanning each of the major work packages: transport (including private wire and Superhub construction), decarbonising heat, and the transmission grid connected battery, its operation and carbon impact.
It also includes a chapter on consortium working practices and concludes with overall learnings from the project.

Foresight is a key tool that governments, private sector, and civil society can jointly use to better understand future risks and opportunities, explore possible futures, and to adapt. Foresight4Food anticipates trends and changes in food systems, analyses solutions and innovations, and creates foresight-backed scenarios and options to guide action. 

Better digital networks, accessible venues and nutrition-based subsidies could all help community-scale food providers play a greater role in making the UK food system more resilient and nutritious. This policy brief explores the barriers to market faced by three community-scale food provision models – farmers markets, salad suppliers and community growers – as Covid-19 changed food consumption patterns.

Collaboration with larger institutions could untap the potential for small and medium sized enterprises to contribute to greater UK food security, according to a policy and practice brief from the GFS FSR Programme. The briefing note examines how specific interactions between SMEs and larger players in the food system could result in greater food system resilience.

Discussions with Greater London Authority’s (GLA) Food Resilience Champions Group were framed around four key resilience questions: Resilience of what? Resilience from whose perspective? Resilience to what? And resilience over what time frame? These discussions led to co-creation of three resilience strategies based on robustness, recovery and re-orientation.

This report contains insights from a major interdisciplinary research programme to enhance the UK’s food security in a changing world. Undertaking collaborative research spanning UK universities, research institutes and many other stakeholders, 13 projects produced evidence and recommendations for policy and practice to help to identify and develop interventions to strengthen UK food security.

The GFS FSR Programme  policy and practice brief recommends actions for enhancing the resilience of grazing livestock systems. Transforming the resilience of UK grazing livestock systems presents an integrated set of system-level interventions for transformational change in UK grazing livestock systems to improve their resilience to environmental, social and economic shocks and stresses.

A policy and practice brief from the GFS FSR Programme examines the risks associated with soy dependency in the food industry and shares recommendations on how those in the food system can mitigate exposure to current and future risks.

A short report of the method used to generate preliminary Natural Capital maps for Oxfordshire. The work was undertaken under an Oxford Policy Exchange Network fellowship, enabling Alison Smith to work with Oxfordshire County Council, with support from Cherwell District Council, and develop evidence on natural capital to feed into development of the Oxfordshire Plan to 2050.

An overview of the report on Oxfordshire can sustain the momentum of the last decade to achieve net-zero emissions. Decarbonising transport, reducing reliance on fossil fuels for heating, and protecting and enhancing carbon stored in the natural environment are priorities for the next two decades.

Further details on the methodology used to analyse the role of the land use sector in Pathways to a zero carbon Oxfordshire, Chapter 9.

Oxfordshire has made good progress on achieving its climate goals, with success in decarbonising electricity and reducing energy demand over the last. This report addresses how Oxfordshire can sustain the momentum of the last decade to achieve net-zero emissions. There remains significant work to do to decarbonise transport, reduce reliance on fossil fuels for heating, and protect and enhance carbon stored in the natural environment.

What does the future hold for the world’s 500 million small-scale farms as food systems change? A significant transformation of small-scale agriculture is needed to realise the SDGs, and to achieve healthier, more equitable and environmentally sustainable food systems. This report argues that a much deeper, more nuanced and up-to-date understanding of small-scale agriculture and family farming is urgently needed to drive such a transformation.

Executive summary contains highlights of the distribution of economic value, the number of enterprises, and levels of employment across the UK food system. 

This report quantifies the distribution of economic value, the number of enterprises, and levels of employment across the UK food system. It has ‘mapped’ UK food system activities as described by their economic value, employee and enterprise numbers. This provides a first assessment of the overall shape of the UK food system and a foundation to build on for further analyses.

This short guidance note lists potential datasets that can be used to create a base map of existing green infrastructure assets, and suggests how they could be combined into a single asset map.

The nexus of interdependencies between the water, energy and food (WEF) systems are multiple. The increasing pressure on all these systems has been described as the ‘perfect storm’; stresses and shocks in one system have potential knock-on effects on the others, with implications for life and its quality. A multi-disciplinary study – WEFWEBS – sought to explore, map and measure these relationships at multiple scales and in different places across the UK. Local Authorities can play a critical role in building awareness of the water-energy-food nexus regionally, and developing capacity and resilience to manage likely stresses and strains.

An introduction to the Food System Group at ECI. Our aim is to have a positive impact on food systems through collaborative initiatives, ranging from understanding the links between food security and global environmental change to creating new communities of food systems thinkers.

This report addresses the question: how and where is public participation in energy systems occurring in the West of England? Achieving deep and timely cuts to carbon emissions requires fundamental changes to the way society produces and consumes energy, and the active engagement and participation of citizens. 

Scenario building is just one tool to help us think about the future. The Zero Hunger, Zero Emissions project uses scenario building to ask questions about the future of Bangladesh, particularly in terms of climate change and food security. This issue of Climate Tribune explores the importance of scenario building, insights into the process, the scenarios that were developed by this project and how people reacted to them.

This protocol outlines the research design and methodological steps for a rapid review of evidence for the project Energy Publics. The aim is to gather up-to-date information about energy participation within the West of England.

A short report that describes a simple method for mapping ecosystem services based on scoring different types of land cover from 0 to 5, depending on their ability to supply different services. We applied this approach to the Bicester area, by adapting a matrix of land-cover scores generated from a study in Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull.