cc: , , , , , , , , date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 09:40:50 -0000 from: "Graham Bentham" subject: Re: UEA and the Carbon Trust to: , "Trevor Davies" Trevor, It sounds very well worthwhile to carrying on talking to the Carbon Trust about this or other possibilities. There would be the the obvious benefits of high profile research that could give us some excellent publicity. This could also be an excellent vehicle for establishing stronger working relationships with industrial partners who are carbon tax payers. These could well lead to some significant opprtunities for commercialising research. Another thought that crosses my mind is that the Carbon Trust might be persuaded to put in some capital (maybe as a contribution to ICER?). Graham Professor Graham Bentham Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, England Telephone 01603 592735 Fax: 01603 507753 e-mail: g.bentham@uea.ac.uk ----- Original Message ----- From: Trevor Davies To: Cc: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Sent: Friday, February 02, 2001 4:27 PM Subject: UEA and the Carbon Trust > The advance guard of the Carbon Trust visited today. > > Mike Hulme and I speculated with them thus:- > > UK Gvt is "down" after The Hague, and is looking to re-inject momentum into > the CO2 reduction scene in order to retain UK's perceived lead in this area. > > One of the real challenges for Carbon Trust type of work is integration > between serial projects, and into the real world. > > What about a demonstration/R&D project which will address two points above? > > That is, take UEA as an experimental community. But not totally > disconnected from the real world. So also consider transport (local > authorities will need to be involved). And take (say) 20 "representative" > staff households, as deep connections into the rest of the world. Then do > a total carbon audit. Then, over a period of 10 or so years, reduce > global-UEA emissions by x%. Our starting point is that x should be 60. > Sixty per-cent because this is the value which will start to make a > difference in climate terms. > > UEA is good for a number of reasons, including mix of retro-action- where > we need to do serious work on 40 yr old buildings anyway, and we are > entering a major building phase. (We are also struggling with a tranport > policy). As far as the Carbon Trust (& Gvt) is concerned, here is the > "perfect" demonstration R&D project which will give some substance to what > many people regard as the abstraction of Kyoto - conciousness-raising, how > feasible/painful, what is involved, do we need to revise our ambitions etc. > > The Carbon Trust wants to continue to talk about this. > > This would be of significant worldwide interest (BBC have already booked > their seats). > > Clearly, absolutely everything depends on amount of support. If the Carbon > Trust confirms that it wants to run with this, then there will have to be a > long period of negotiation. In the meantime, we need to remain very > circumspect and low-key. > > Now the crunch - is UEA prepared to try to ride this horse? Mike's & my > view is that this is a FANTASTIC potential opportunity for UEA. Clearly, > the only commitment at this stage is to talk. > > > Trevor > > > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > Professor Trevor D. Davies > Dean, School of Environmental Sciences > University of East Anglia > Norwich NR4 7TJ > United Kingdom > > Tel. +44 1603 592836 > Fax. +44 1603 507719 > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ >