Evidence to the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change

The UK Energy Research Centre welcomes this opportunity to provide input to the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. 

The Centre was established in 2004 following a recommendation from the 2002 review of energy initiated by Sir David King, the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor. It is funded by three research councils: the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). We take a co-ordinated and collaborative approach to national and international energy research, and through our own interdisciplinary research activities, we intend to provide the knowledge needed to work towards a sustainable energy system and realise UK energy policy goals.

We are a distributed Centre operated by a consortium of eight universities and research institutions. Our work is relevant to items 1 and 4 of the Review Terms of Reference, i.e.

• The implications for energy demand and emissions of the prospects for economic growth over the coming decades, including the composition and energy intensity of growth in developed and developing countries; and
• The impact and effectiveness of national and international policies and arrangements in reducing net emissions in a cost-effective way and promoting a dynamic, equitable and sustainable global economy, including distributional effects and impacts on incentives for investment in cleaner technologies

Four of our research themes are undertaking research relevant to the Review. These are:

• Energy Systems and Modelling, operated by the Policy Studies Institute
• Demand Reduction, operated by the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University
• Energy Infrastructure and supply, operated by the University of Manchester and Warwick Business School
• Future Sources of Energy, operated by the University of Edinburgh