Lecture Title: Incorporating the value of nature into assessments of future energy pathways

This Valuing Nature Keynote Lecture will be given by Professor Andrew Lovett from the University of East Anglia (UEA). The 45 minute lecture will be followed by a panel discussion chaired by Professor Michael Winter with Professor Neil Strachan, Director, UCL Energy Institute and the Hon. Professor Peter Pearson Imperial College London.

Abstract: 

The UK government has made formal commitments to reduce GHG emissions (e.g. under the Climate Change Act 2008) and to protect/improve natural capital and the environment (e.g. as part of the 25 Year Environment Plan).  Meeting these objectives requires an integrated approach to two parallel challenges i) decarbonising the energy system and ii) better understanding and valuation of natural capital and ecosystem services.  From an academic perspective this involves bringing together two substantial, but currently weakly connected bodies of research, while also acknowledging that this integration in a UK setting needs to recognise the international context (i.e. a whole systems perspective).

The ADVENT project (ADdressing Valuation of Energy and Nature Together) has been funded by the National Environment Research Council to develop conceptual frameworks and modelling tools which ‘integrate the analysis of prospective UK energy pathways with considerations relating to the value of natural capital’.  It is also envisaged as a bridge between the activities of the Valuing Nature Programme and the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC).  This lecture will discuss the need for more attention of energy-environment interactions and discuss the content of the ADVENT programme.  Initial results from work to downscale the implications of national energy pathways and incorporating environmental impacts into the assessment of different options will be presented and evaluated.

Biography

Andrew Lovett is a Professor of Geography at the University of East Anglia (UEA). His academic background is in human geography and since moving to UEA in 1990 he has been involved in a range of projects concerned with applications of GIS, landscape visualisation software and statistical techniques.

His current focus is on future rural land-use change, including research on renewable energy systems funded by the UK Energy Research Centre and the Social, Economic and Environmental Research (SEER) project into Multi-Objective Land Use Decision Making funded by the ESRC. He is also co-leader of the Wensum Demonstration Test Catchment project funded by Defra and the Environment Agency.

Panel

The 45 minute lecture will be followed by responses from the following Panelists:

Michael Winter (Chair) – Professor of Land Economy and Society, Centre for Rural Policy Research (University of Exeter). Member of Valuing Nature Programme Coordination Team

Neil Strachan is an interdisciplinary energy economist. He is the Director of the University College London (UCL) Energy Institute, where he is Professor of Energy Economics and Modelling.

Peter Pearson Hon. Professor of Sustainable Innovation & Energy, Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London

Delegates will be encouraged to take part in a Q&A session to round off the evening.

Light refreshments will be available.

UK-SCAPE (UK Status, Change and Projections of the Environment) is a National Capability programme funded by NERC / UKRI to provide national-scale data and models in order to help us understand how and why the environment is changing and improve our ability to manage environmental change.

Come and discover more about this five-year programme, which will span air, soil, biodiversity, water and land, improving and integrating data. Its outcomes will underpin future environmental research across the UK and as a trusted stakeholder we would welcome your views.

The event will present an overview of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, its national capability work including the UK-SCAPE Programme, its objectives and planned outcomes. There will also be an opportunity to engage with and find out more about four components of the Programme.

Date:                    5 December 2018
Time:                    10:00-14:00
Venue:                 The Kia Oval, England Suite (2^nd Floor), London.

If you would like to attend, please register online via this link, or if you have any questions please contact uk-scape@ceh.ac.uk.