Welcome to Climate Strategies

In its rapid development to date, Climate Strategies has already made significant impact on the development of international policy responses to climate change. With our unique blend of internationally networked research that engages relevant decision processes, our work on allocation issues in the European Trading Scheme – the focal point of our initial ‘trial’ project in 2006 - provided crucial input to the European Commission decisions on Phase II allocation.  Last year’s research made important input both to the design proposals for the EU ETS post 2012, and the wider debate about competitiveness and carbon leakage. The results of our assessment of the international Kyoto project mechanisms will be published shortly.

This year’s Research Prospectus – setting out the programme for 2008 [and indicating major themes to be extended through 2009] - illustrates the rapidly expanding intellectual scope and international reach of our activities. Reflecting the 3-year development plan, we now move firmly into the terrain of global, post-2012 design issues, building upon the base established by our earlier research. To accommodate the expanding agenda, our proposed work programme is structured around three main themes:

·         Developed country commitments post 2012 including major programmes: on options for tackling international carbon leakage; on how the various schemes emerging in different regions of the world might (or might not) be linked; and on the options for wholesale reform of the ways in which land use carbon flows might be incorporated into quantified commitments.

·         Deepening developing country engagement will address the many issues in proposals for reform of the CDM; complementary approaches to ‘north-south’ cooperation; and the options addressing land use including the design of regimes for avoiding deforestation.

·      Ongoing and proposed cross cutting studies include analysis of specific options for the G8 process; a major collaboration with the ‘RECIPE’ programme in which we will provide the policy and sectoral input to a quantitative analysis of low carbon scenarios in Europe and beyond; international sector studies; and work on international processes and cross-border carbon flow mechanisms.