AVOID 2
AVOID 2 is a UK government funded climate change research programme involving a multi-disciplinary consortium of UK research organisations. The programme will run from February 2014 to March 2016. It follows on from the first AVOID programme which took place from 2009 to 2013.
The research being undertaken will provide scientifically-robust, policy-relevant answers to questions directly related to the Ultimate Objective of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is to ‘prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’.
The multi-disciplinary consortium is led by the Met Office and includes the Grantham Institute (Imperial College London), Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and Walker Institute (University of Reading). There are 12 other organisations in the AVOID network.
Research and purpose
The AVOID research programme focuses on three key questions:
- What are the characteristics of ‘dangerous’ climate change?
- What greenhouse gas emissions pathways will avoid ‘dangerous’ climate change?
- What is the feasibility of such pathways?
2014/2015 is a critical period in the international climate change negotiation process, in which the long-term climate goal will be discussed and the scale of greenhouse gas mitigation ambition and structure of a global agreement will be shaped. AVOID 2 will help to provide Government analysts and climate negotiating teams in both the UK and internationally with the scientifically robust and policy relevant science needed to inform their decisions.
What did AVOID 1 achieve?
AVOID 1, which ran from 2009 to 2013, supported the UK's international engagement and informed its position at international climate change negotiations, including contributing to the UN's Environment Programme with credible, targeted and timely research, and supporting the setting of the UK’s carbon budgets. Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change recognised this in a speech at the final AVOID 1 symposium where he said it was "an impressive demonstration of successful collaboration between academia and Government. …[delivering] concrete outcomes.” See more of the outputs from AVOID 1 here
Funding
The programme has a budget of £1.45M, funded by DECC, DEFRA and NERC, and developed under the Living With Environmental Change Partnership (LWEC). All work carried out under the programme will be impartial, and advised by a board of key stakeholders, including representation external to the funding bodies.
Image Credit: "Sandy Bottom" by Marc Cooper is licensed under CC BY SA 2.0