College at heart of Kyoto debate

THE College is at the centre of a collaborative network organisation discussing the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the climate change treaty, on which global negotiations reopen in Bonn today.

The public launch of Climate Strategies, uniting some of the most senior and influential academics and policy analysts in Europe, took place last Monday when the organisations first reports and website were revealed.

The organisation aims to connect leading applied research on international climate change issues to the policy process and public debates, raising the level of debate and the quality of advice to policy formation.

The brainchild of Michael Grubb, professor of climate change and energy policy, the organisation is supported by the Shell Foundation. It was conceived and developed in response to the collapse of The Hague negotiations in November 2000 and the subsequent statements by George W Bush rejecting the Kyoto Protocol.

Shortly after the US Presidents announcement, the professor gave a presentation on Washingtons Capitol Hill entitled The Seven Myths of Kyoto, subsequently published in the Elsevier journal Climate Policy whose editorial office at Imperial.

"When George Bush made his announcement rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, I sat back and thought about what we should do," he said. "The most stunning thing about the US pronouncement is the sheer ignorance it displayed not only about climate science, but also about the technological opportunities for limiting emissions and the real nature and purpose of the Kyoto agreement.

"I realised this was a time to get out from behind research desks and do something to help more directly inform the public and policy debate, and speak out for the results our research clearly demonstrate. Colleagues in Europe held similar views."

The first three reports from Climate Strategies focus upon issues surrounding Kyoto and the possible role of carbon sinks and their relationship to biomass energy; the latter being co-authored by Ausilio Bauen in the Huxley School.

They are aimed at sending clear messages to negotiators this week that Kyoto can be made to work even without the US, no credible alternatives have been proposed and that the commitment of the rest of the world is the best way to bring the US back on board in the long run.

"Kyoto is a complex agreement and there has been so much misinformation and confusion about it that we needed to inject some solid facts into the debate," concluded the professor. "We aim to cut through the confusion so that everyone, from the negotiators in Bonn to the general public, knows what is at stake, what will work and what will not."

Imperial has a strong research team in the area of climate change and energy policy based in the centre for energy policy and technology part of the environmental management and policy group in the Huxley school.

It has analysed satellite data taken 27 years apart, and in March reported in the journal Nature that less radiation was escaping from Earth into space in 1997 than in 1970. It also detected higher levels of carbon dioxide, methane, ozone and chlorofluorocarbons (carbon dioxide accounts for about 60 per cent of heat trapping).

Climate Strategies is convening a training course for professionals with an interest in climate change issues, to be held first at Imperial and run by the centre for continuing education.

*** © Imperial College 2001. This article originally appeared in IC Reporter, the staff newspaper of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. Please contact the editor Tanya Reed (Email: c.uk">icreporter@imperial.ac.uk, Telephone: +44 20 7594 6697) for permission to re-use any or all parts of this article.***