Awards 2021 Winner’s Spotlight: Action 2030

Global Climate Change – Strengthening Understanding of the Economic Impacts of Climate Change

Dialogue Matters working with Grantham Institute, Oxford University and BEIS

This award was sponsored by

Recognising the urgent need to improve understanding of the potential economic impacts of climate change and links with biodiversity decline, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) commissioned Dialogue Matters, the Grantham Institute and Oxford University to bring together global experts on the physical, social and economic impacts of climate change for the first time.

Experts were gathered for an intense five-day online workshop (transitioned from in-person in response to the COVID-19 pandemic), that sought to strengthen understanding of the economic impacts of climate change, discuss effective communication and key messages for citizens and policy makers, explore opportunities for funding crossdisciplinary work, and form a new supra- disciplinary international community of global experts. The 57 participants were from different disciplines, countries, perspectives, and time zones and included people from the insurance industry, senior officials, global experts, and young leading research pioneers.

In bringing these influential people together and sharing evidence of the physical, ecological, and social impacts of climate change to inform economic impacts, this workshop’s impact extends far beyond the immediate discussions. The new knowledge gained will be incorporated into scenarios that are being developed by the global financial sector, including the G20 Financial Stability Board and the central banks that are members of the Network for Greening the Financial System, to assess how climate change might affect the stability of the global financial system. It will also inform ongoing international analyses ahead of the COP15 United Nations summit on biological diversity, global reviews of the risks of climate change such as the Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and national level decision-making as the discussion was captured in a 154-page report of recommendations for BEIS.

New collaborations and research is already underway from the connections made at the workshop, and initiatives are already working directly with policy makers to streamline and speed up the adoption of new evidence and information into policy. It is also hoped that evidence that the potential economic impacts of climate change will be larger and quicker than is currently appreciated by many decision-makers, will persuade governments to submit more ambitious pledges for climate action ahead of the COP26 United Nations climate change summit, which is due to take place in Glasgow in November 2021.

Over the last few weeks, we have been posting further information on each of the 2021 CIEEM Awards Winners over on our blog. Further details on each project/individual is set out in our 2021 CIEEM Awards Booklet.