This research area is focused on solutions to and opportunities from the diverse challenges of climate change. These challenges include both mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The primary focus of this research area is to identify a pathway to achieve a sustainable greenhouse gas emissions profile for Ireland.
The Climate Change Research Programme (CCRP) has identified a Carbon Neutral Ireland by 2050 as a sustainable emission profile. This research strategy is described in further detail in the Achieving a Greenhouse Gas Neutral Ireland paper. Technology development and deployment and behavioural changes are essential to achieve greenhouse gas mitigation.
The aim of research in this area is to inform key decision makers and policy makers on options and issues surrounding technological and socio-economic solutions to climate change and to advance Ireland’s role in the global move towards a low carbon economy.
Socioeconomic models can be used to examine the effectiveness of mitigation policies and the impacts of other policies on greenhouse gas emissions and sinks. A model demonstrates the impact of policy changes (or technology changes) on households, individuals, businesses or farms through changes to their income, consumption or production. These changes give rise to changes in greenhouse gas emissions and sinks. In this way, models are also useful for imagining the future impacts of current production or consumption trends given a set of assumptions regarding economic growth, fuels prices and population trends. Models can also be used to assess the costs of given policies, trends or technology changes to the economy or to groups within the economy. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) uses socioeconomic modelling to project global greenhouse gas emissions to 2050 and beyond and to assess the cost of different levels of mitigation ambition. The CCRP supports socioeconomic modelling related to greenhouse gas emissions and sinks as part of its research strategy and funded projects. Two modelling workshops have been held to enhance coherence of socioeconomic modelling of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks in Ireland. These focussed on information sharing, and appropriate usage and communication of modelling results. A working paper on modelling in an analytical framework is available here: Analytical Framework for a Carbon Neutral Ireland by 2050
Check out the latest research reports from the Climate Change area.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change www.unfccc.int Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change www.ipcc.ch International Energy Agency http://www.iea.org/ Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations http://www.fao.org/ European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists www.eaere.org
Funding opportunities in the climate research area
Download the Achieving a Greenhouse Gas Neutral Ireland; paper
Download the Analytical Framework for a Carbon Neutral Ireland by 2050
