Online Series: Oxford net zero - Sensitive intervention points for Net Zero

As the UK prepares to host the next UN climate summit, a wave of businesses, cities and countries are pledging to bring their emissions down to net zero. Oxford scientists were among the first to show that net zero is needed to end global warming. Now, the new Oxford Net Zero initiative is bringing together leading academics from across the University to focus on how it can be achieved.

This series of discussions will showcase the diversity of net zero research at Oxford, and point to the burning questions that need to be answered in the race to halt the climate crisis.

Sensitive intervention points for Net Zero

Achieving net zero emissions involves an economic transformation on a scale comparable to the Victorian era, when the foundations of the infrastructure used in the United Kingdom today were put in place. The scale of the transformation ahead implies that, if successful, our generation will justly be considered the “Victorians of the 21st century".

In the fourth discussion in the Oxford Net Zero Series, hosted by the Oxford Martin School, Professor Cameron Hepburn, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, considers the economics of the key technologies, which are increasingly positive. The costs of renewables, batteries and electric vehicles continue to fall. Similar trends are emerging in low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia, which can decarbonise major parts of heavy industry, as well as some long-distance transportation. As further deployment and innovations cut costs, it is no longer entirely implausible that net zero emissions could be achieved at net zero cost (even ignoring significant co-benefits and large benefits from avoiding the worst climate impacts).

The talk examines 40 potential sensitive intervention points organised into the nine categories, with a particular focus on technological interventions to accelerate progress to net zero.

Register here: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/sensitive-intervention-points/register?utm_source=Oxford%20Martin%20School%20Academics%20(Past%20%26%20Present)%20%26%20Admin&utm_campaign=6e32acfe89-Oxford_Martin_School_Events_Jan_March_2018_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9b3128cc0e-6e32acfe89-1243173009