EEIST project: new paper offering a theoretical framework

A new paper has just been published, led by Dr Jean-Francois Mercure entitled ‘Risk-opportunity analysis for transformative policy design and appraisal ‘ (Global Environmental Change). This paper demonstrates how governments can make better decisions when forming new policies for promoting a rapid transition to a low carbon economy. Mitigating climate change requires deep dynamic transformational change globally. Risk-Opportunity Analysis offers holistic systems thinking for climate policy, by making better use of available information, clearer account of uncertainty and improved assessment of the positive contributions of innovation to economic outcomes.

This paper forms an important component and offers a theoretical framework for the ‘Economics of Energy Innovation and System Transition’ project (www.eeist.co.uk), jointly funded by the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. The project aims at better understanding and improving the research-policy interface involved in informing climate policy in China, India, Brazil, the EU and the UK. It seeks to develop not only improved abilities to provide evidence to inform specific climate policy decisions, but also better ways to package and use existing evidence to support decision-making. To this end, the project engages with a large number of policy stakeholders in each countries, through discussions and networks of communities of practice.

The three year project has completed its first year, releasing the Risk-Opportunity Analysis framework for policy analysis, the use of which will be demonstrated during the rest of the project. The project also prepares to release its flagship report at COP26, in which the use of Risk-Opportunity analysis is made, exploring a number of historical and future case studies. The report will be launched at the EEIST event on Nov 4 in the UK Pavilion.