Project Leader / Primary Investigator

Prof Cameron Hepburn


In collaboration with the sponsor – The Nature Conservancy – the primary goal of the project is to understand the options for reaching a 1.5°C or 2°C temperature target, given existing committed cumulative emissions (see Pfeiffer et al. 2015) and the potential and limitations of land-based carbon sequestration.

The research is likely to include analysis of the economics of global cumulative carbon budgets, the implications of such budgets for sequestration requirements, the economics of land-based sequestration compared to asset stranding, more rapid deployment of zero carbon technologies and other forms of sequestration, and the evidence base for different policy instruments that might deliver sequestration commensurate with 1.5°C or 2°C targets. The research will also need to consider the context of the sustainable development goals, and specifically the potential competing demands on land, including food, habitats, and energy production, and the trade-offs and/or synergies between competing uses of land.

People: Francois Cohen, Cameron Hepburn & Kirk Hamilton