UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 20 May 2008 -- The London School of Economics and Political Science has recently received over £12 million from philanthropists Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham to establish the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

The Institute will be chaired by Professor Nick Stern, author of the 2006 Stern Review. He holds the IG Patel Chair at the LSE. He served as the Chief Economist at the World Bank for a number of years.

The Institute will bring together international expertise on economics, finance, geography, the environment, international development and political economy as part of a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research and training in climate change and the environment.

The Institute at the LSE, once established and running, will work closely with the Grantham Institute for Climate Change which is housed at Imperial College, London.

The Institute at Imperial College was set in motion last year - also with a donation of £12 million from the Grantham Foundation. A common advisory board will oversee the work of both Institutes.

The combined investment commitment of £24+ million from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment is recognized as one of the largest private donations to climate change research.

According to Professor Nick Stern, “it is crucial that social scientists take a lead in the building of policy”. The Grantham Institute will seek to produce policy-relevant research alongside a range of outputs that are designed to support policy development, raise public awareness and contribute to private-sector strategy formation.

The Institute housed at the LSE will collaborate with the engineering, scientific, medical and technological expertise of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial in order to build links between the natural and scientific study of and policy towards climate change and its effects.

The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE will act as an umbrella body for the school’s contribution to the critical challenge of climate change and its impact on the environment. It will include the work of the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy which will be established at LSE this year with £5 million of funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.

The ESRC Centre is a partnership between Leeds University and LSE. It is managed by Professor Judith Rees and Dr Andy Gouldson.

With the collective funding from the Foundation and the Research Council, the LSE will work with its partners in Imperial and Leeds to provide global leadership on the important topic of climate change policy.

Serving as a kind of networking base among academics, business leaders, policy-makers, media, general public and other interest groups, the Institute will generate:

• Policy-relevant research on the economics of climate change, specifically on international target-setting carbon markets, international technology support, and the economics of deforestation and bio-fuels;

• Conferences, seminars, public lectures and workshops that focus on topical issues related to the economics of climate change with the goal of increasing awareness among policy-makers and the corporate sector;

• Regular communication focused on the economics of climate change in order to better engage the general public and raise awareness around the world about this important topic;

• Interactive dialogues and programs that involve national governments, and those international NGO’s, and private businesses crucial to the economic mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.

According to Professor Brian Hoskins who serves as the director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College, the new institute at the LSE will open the door for collaborations between Imperial College’s science, engineering and healthcare experts and LSE’s social and economic specialists in order to tackle some of the biggest issues facing our planet today including the global water challenge.

Labels: United Nations, U.N., MaximsNews WATER, water, London School of Economics, LSE, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, Nick Stern, climate change, Kathy Shandling, international development, environment, water news, water sustainability, water resource, water management, global water crisis, sustainable development

 

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