January Forum: Shale Gas: A Golden Age or a Gilded Cage?

January Forum: Shale Gas: A Golden Age or a Gilded Cage?

27 January 2014

16:00 – 17:00

Room: 4.214, University Place

Speaker: John Broderick, Research Fellow in Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester

Following the previous NRN presentation on economic methods for accounting for time in health care policy, this forum will discuss what policy researchers can learn from the case of shale gas and the tools used to assess its impact, and vice versa.

The International Energy Agency has heralded the 21st Century as a “Golden Age of Gas” due to recent unconventional resource discoveries and new extraction technologies. As a lower carbon fossil fuel, gas is presented as a “transition” energy source although this perspective neglects the rate, scale and extent of decarbonisation required to give a good chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. This is illustrated through a cumulative emissions budget approach looking at energy policy to 2050.

Persistently low gas prices and weak EU ETS caps also have the potential to undermine the UK and EU transition to renewable energy sources and jeopardise climate mitigation targets. Using simple net present value calculations, we estimate that 7GW of gas CCS powerstation capacity, plus shale gas well infrastructure, would require the same investment as 12GW of offshore wind capacity or 21GW onshore. 

This event is open to all PGRs and Postdoctoral researchers to attend. There is no need to register. Just turn up and feel free to pass this onto anyone who may be interested in attending.

We look forward to seeing you at the event.

Kind regards,

The NRN coordinators

Going 'Beyond Measurement' at the SIAA Annual Conference in Paris - 9-10th December 2013

Going 'Beyond Measurement' at the SIAA Annual Conference in Paris - 9-10th December 2013

In December LCSV PhD candidate Rachael Morgan attended the annual Social Impact Analysts Association (SIAA) conference in Cergy-Pontoise, Paris. The theme of the conference was  'What, Why and How to' go Beyond Measurement? The conference was held at the ESSEC Business School and attended by a range of analysts, consultants and social organisations from across the international community. Rachael attended the conference in her dual capacity as a social investment researcher and a Social Value and Impact Consultant (SROI).

From the introductory session offering differing perspectives from Andreas Richart, Jess Daggers, John Gargani and Kate Ruff to the five workshops areas and the afternoon hotspots the cross-cutting theme of 'Beyond Measurement' was addressed.

Jeremy Nicholls, the SROI network, addressed the theme by suggesting that going Beyond Measurement involves a commitment to recognising that in a time of tight resources it is 'not enough to just measure if we are achieving our purpose', there is a need to ask 'are we doing as many good things as we can with our resources?'.

Rachael Morgan hosted a hotspot where she addressed this cross cutting theme by asking participants to give their views on developing a common outcomes framework across the international community. In particular views were sought on the emergence of the Social Progress Imperative's work on a Social Progress Index (http://www.socialprogressimperative.org).

Going Beyond measurement in this sense involves a normative commitment to establishing a set of international values against which progress towards specific outcomes can be made. Rachael is including a critical analysis of this approach in her current research and data collected at this event will be used to inform her fieldwork.

At two workshops given within the theme of The Communication of impact measurement Nic Bolto from the Difference Magazine, Australia and John Gargani, Gargani inc USA, both offered their perspectives on the matter. 

For Bolto going Beyond Measurement involves communicating the difference made by an organisations activity as for him 'unless the comms piece works, then nothing works.' For Gargani Going Beyond Measurement involves finding the balances between accuracy and clarity in communicating impact.

 Whilst we wait for conclusions to be published from SIAA on what, why and how to go Beyond Measurement perhaps an interesting question to ponder is whether going Beyond Measurement was the right question to ask? What questions do you have about impact measurement and social valuation? 

http://www.siaassociation.org/events/conference-2013/