Staff:
Lazarus, M.
Date: 2012-ongoing
Client/Funder: INFRAS / Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment (I&M) and Federal Office of the Environment (FOEN), Switzerland
Research Area(s):
Climate Mitigation Policy
; Emissions Trading & Offsets
Description: SEI staff are supporting INFRAS in assessing the status and potential outcomes of ongoing UNFCCC negotiations on “a framework for various approaches” and the new market mechanism
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Staff:
Lazarus, M.
Date: 2012-ongoing
Client/Funder: UNEP / Global Environment Facility
Research Area(s):
Climate Mitigation Policy
; Emissions Trading & Offsets
Description: SEI staff are providing support to the PMR, a forum for collective innovation and action and a fund to support capacity building to scale up climate mitigation. We are leading expert feedback teams in support of the development of market readiness proposal in several countries (Costa Rica, Mexico, Indonesia), and helping to develop a guidance document on baselines.
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Staff:
Kartha, S.
;
Kemp-Benedict, E.
Date: 2011-ongoing
Client/Funder: Sida
Research Area(s):
Climate Equity
Description: This project is built on the notion that an equitable framework is a precondition for an effective climate regime. Without developmental justice, it will not be possible to win the earnest engagement of the developing world, which is necessary for a successful global response to the climate problem. This project will continue and extend the work of the ongoing Greenhouse Development Rights project. It aims to instill a perspective of developmental equity into the climate discourse and negotiations, by providing an appropriate framing and the necessary technical, analytical and political substantiation.
More information
External Link
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Staff:
Lazarus, M.
;
Kollmuss, A.
;
Erickson, P.
;
Lee, C.
;
Kartha, S.
Date: 2007-ongoing
Client/Funder: U.S Environmental Protection Agency
Research Area(s):
Emissions Trading & Offsets
Description: SEI conducts research on the design and implications of various regional, national, and international offset programs. We evaluate elements of existing and proposed offset programs, from the comparison of project methodologies to the evaluation of program infrastructures.
Related Publication(s):
Discounting Offsets: Issues and Options
A Review of Offset Programs: Trading Systems, Funds, Protocols, Standards and Retailers
Maximizing the Positive: Interactions between Offset Programs and Other Climate-related Policies
Key Issues in Benchmark Baselines for the CDM: Aggregation, Stringency, Cohorts, and Updating
Evaluation of Benchmarking as an Approach for Establishing Clean Development Mechanism Baselines
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Staff:
Kartha, S.
;
Kemp-Benedict, E.
;
Athanasiou, T. (EcoEquity); Baer, P. (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Date: 2006-ongoing
Client/Funder: IPS (Sida) , Mistra Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, International Center for Human Rights Policy
Research Area(s):
Climate Equity
Description: The Greenhouse Development Rights (GDRs) Framework, developed by SEI and Ecoequity, presents a burden-sharing framework based on a straightforward accounting of national responsibility and capacity that requires those who consume and emit more to carry a larger share of the global cost of an emergency climate program. Relatively wealthy people who have produced higher levels of emissions can thereby protect the right to development of the world's poor. The GDRs framework could potentially be used to design a solution to the burden-sharing problem at the heart of the climate negotiating impasse. It could provide the basis for ambitious mitigation globally to avert a climate disaster, while safeguarding the right to development in the global South.
More information
External Link
Related Publication(s):
The Right to Development in a Climate Constrained World: The GDRs Framework Second Edition
The GDRs Framework: Drawing Attention to Inequality within Nations in the Global Climate Policy Debate
Capacity According to the GDRs Framework
Towards An Equitable Framework For Global Climate Policy: 'Greenhouse Development Rights'
Calculations for the Greenhouse Development Rights Calculator
Tiempo: Greenhouse Development Rights
The Greenhouse Development Rights Framework
The right to development in a climate constrained world: The Greenhouse Development Rights framework
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Staff:
Sieber, J.
Date: 1990-ongoing
Client/Funder: Several funders listed on the WEAP site
Research Area(s):
Water Resources
; Sustainable Futures
Description: SEI continues to develop WEAP, a tool for integrated water resources planning, initially created in 1990. The allocation of limited water resources between agricultural, municipal and environmental uses requires the full integration of supply, demand, water quality and ecological considerations. WEAP integrates these issues into a practical, user-friendly and robust tool for integrated water resources planning.
External Link
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Staff:
Lazarus, M.
;
Chandler, C.
Date: 2012-ongoing
Client/Funder: UNEP / Global Environment Facility
Research Area(s):
Climate Mitigation Policy
Description: The Global Environment Facility Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel has commissioned SEI and the consultancy Synapse Energy Economics to revise GEF's methodology for calculating the greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits of its energy efficiency projects. SEI and Synapse are developing a spreadsheet model and accompanying documentation that will improve the robustness and consistency of GHG abatement estimates.
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Staff:
Lazarus, M.
;
Lee, C.
;
Heaps, C.
;
Clark, V.
Date: 2012-ongoing
Client/Funder: SEI Core
Research Area(s):
Climate Mitigation Policy
; Energy Modeling
Description: Current bioenergy accounting approaches have led to a "critical climate accounting error" in the treatment of greenhouse gas emissions from biomass combustion. SEI is conducting research to identify suitable analytical approaches to better account for bioenergy impacts in GHG mitigation analyses, and to incorporate one or more approach into SEI's LEAP energy planning software.
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Staff:
Lazarus, M.
;
Erickson, P.
Date: 2012-ongoing
Client/Funder: UNFCCC
Research Area(s):
Emissions Trading & Offsets
Description: SEI is researching the net climate mitigation impact of the Clean Development Mechanism and contributing to a report being developed for the CDM Policy Dialogue. The research focuses on evidence that particular CDM project types have not been additional (a project is additional if it would not have happened without the incentive provided by the CDM) as well as on evidence that certain project types have been issued more or fewer credits than actual emissions abatement achieved
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Staff:
Escobar, M.
;
Fencl, A.
;
Flores, F.
;
Purkey, D.
;
Davis, M.
Date: 2012-ongoing
Research Area(s):
Water Resources
Description: This project applies a WEAP model to the Piura páramo in Peru as a pilot for modelling páramos in other Andean countries, aiming to enhance understanding of páramos' ecological functions in the context of mountain hydrology. Despite páramo (moorland) ecosystems' importance as water sources, their hydrology has not been adequately studied. The meteorological and hydrological data for páramo areas are almost nonexistent, and scientific literature is scarce.
More information
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Staff:
Schipper, L.
;
Fencl, A.
;
Mehta, V.
;
Escobar, M.
Date: 2012-ongoing
Research Area(s):
Adaptation & Vulnerability
Description: This project will evaluate climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation issues in the Quito, Ecuador, region to provide key information and guidelines to support adaptation planning and implementation. The goal is to increase the resilience of the Metropolitan District of Quito to the effects of climate change and enhance the sustainability of livelihoods and ecosystems, especially for the most vulnerable sectors, by gathering solid, verifiable information.
More information
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Staff:
Mehta, V.
;
Kemp-Benedict, E.
;
Briggs, J.; Wang, D.
Date: 2011-ongoing
Client/Funder: SEI IPS funds
Research Area(s):
Water Resources
; Sustainable Futures
Description: The objective of this project is to develop a systems perspective of energy, water and material flows in Indian cities, and to provide information and deliberative modeling to the public via a geospatial web-based service. In collaboration with Indian Institute of Management and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the researchers seek to understand and communicate the socio-economic drivers of consumption in Indian cities.
More information
External Link
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Staff:
Kemp-Benedict, E.
;
Kartha, S.
;
Stanton, E.A.
;
Fencl, A.
;
Olson, K.
;
Davis, M.
;
Dawkins, E.; Matin, N.
Date: 2011-ongoing
Research Area(s):
Sustainable Futures
Description: While a privileged few enjoy unprecedented levels of wealth, a large share of the global population still lacks access to basic resources. This project seeks to understand how different kinds of inequality – between individuals, groups, and countries – affect the prospects for long-term sustainability, and to apply that knowledge to practical, policy-relevant questions.
More information
Related Publication(s):
Political Regimes and Income Inequality
Inequality, Trust, and Sustainability
The Tragedy of Maldistribution: Climate, Sustainability, and Equity
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Staff:
Purkey, D.
;
Forni, L.
;
Joyce, B.
;
Sieber, J.
Date: 2011-ongoing
Research Area(s):
Water Resources
Description: SEI is collaborating with the University of California–Davis to link an agricultural production model based on water valuation for irrigation water, SWAP (State Wide Agricultural Production Model), with SEI's WEAP (Water Evaluation and Planning System). The model is used for an economic assessment of climate change for the entire Central Valley in California under three land changes scenarios of agricultural land based on population growth projections. The outcome of this work is a series of climate change and population projections to 2100.
More information
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Staff:
Purkey, D.
;
Joyce, B.
;
Sieber, J.
;
Heaps, C.
;
National Center for Atmospheric Research; Pacific Gas and Electric Company; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Date: 2010-ongoing
Client/Funder: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); California Energy Commission (CEC)
Research Area(s):
Water Resources
; Energy Modeling
Description: This project involves linking SEI's Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) and Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning (LEAP) systems to create an integrated platform to explore water and energy interactions and feedbacks. It builds on work done in a 2010 case study of the American River Watershed in California. It is estimated that nearly 20% of California's energy consumption is associated with moving, lifting, treating, and using water. For this project, SEI has partnered with the state Department of Water Resources, which is responsible for guiding California's water future; the California Energy Commission, the coordinating agency to address climate change and reduce greenhouse emissions; and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which provides natural gas and electric service to millions in northern and central California. We will link water management options, such as reuse, reservoir re-operation, demand-side management, land use changes, etc., as represented in the WEAP portion of the tool, to models of the electric utility serving the water utilities, as represented in LEAP. In addition to a new decision support tool, the results of this case study will be used to develop a final report on the Northern California's water future and its implications for energy demands.
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