News

With COP26 currently underway, we want to highlight the vital importance of whole-systems expertise for addressing the climate crisis.

Reaching net zero will require significant changes to our energy system that will impact all areas of the economy and society, from how we power industrial processes, to how we heat our homes and move from place to place. Whole-systems research is vital to help us both understand the pathway to net zero, but also how these changes will impact and influence other wider systems.

We have published a series of outputs, and are contributing to a number of activities during COP26 that highlight our whole-systems expertise and how this can feed into net zero decision making. Alongside the activities listed below, UKERC Director Rob Gross will be at COP for energy day, contributing to the UKRI display in the green zone, and attending a number of blue zone events and activities.

Key outputs and topics are listed below:

• Blog: ‘Shining a light on Glasgow’ by UKERC researcher Jamie Stewart, University of Strathclyde.
• Podcast: ‘Exploring the 2035 clean power target’ hosted by Jessica Bays, with UKERC Director Rob Gross.
• Blog: ‘Net Zero Strategy and local government: do commitments meet calls for change?’ by UKERC researchers Jess Britten and Jan Webb, University of Edinburgh.
• Podcast: ‘COP26: What can the UK hope for?’ hosted by UKERC Director Rob Gross, with guests Doug Parr, Greenpeace and Simon Sharpe, Cabinet Office COP26 Unit.
• Video & blog: Director Rob Gross reports back from COP26 and records a short video with UKERC researcher Will Blyth discussing the Green Grids Initiative.
• Publication: ‘Risk and Investment in Zero-Carbon Electricity Markets: Implications for policy design’. This was published to coincide with Science and Innovation day on the 9th November.
• Podcast: ‘Decarbonising Transport’ hosted by Claire Spooner, EPSRC, with UKERC Co-Directors Christian Brand, University of Oxford and Jillian Anable University of Leeds. This was published on mobility day on the 10th November.
• Blog: ‘COP26 – a peek behind the curtain of the energy campaign‘. Will Blyth reflects on his secondment into the Cabinet Office COP26 Unit and highlights its achievements.