Greenhouse Gas Removal Instruments & Policies Project (GRIP)

Carbon Drawdown Policy Project

The Greenhouse Gas Removal Instruments & Policies Project (GRIP)1 is a 32 month research project, which started work in summer 2016, funded by ClimateWorks and one other U.S. based charitable foundation involving researchers from InSIS and the Oxford Martin School.

In the context of the Paris Agreement, it is a study of particular policy instruments, and policy pathways (involving a series of coordinated measures)that can be used to speed up, slow down or stop work on research and development, demonstration and testing, or deployment of  a range of carbon and methane drawdown and storage techniques.

The work's initial focus is the enhancement of natural carbon sinks like forests, but, given the new ambition in Paris to restrict global warming to less than 1.5 °C, goes beyond it to consider new approaches such as direct air capture of carbon dioxide or enhanced weathering of rocks to capture carbon.

Through its main case study of the UK the project will study the potential use of policy instruments to encourage the responsible development of the widest appropriate range of carbon draw-down techniques, taking account of specific features of the UK policy culture, and make recommendations.  The research will include public engagement work to explore public perspectives on carbon drawdown proposals and their perspectives on alternative policy instruments. The objective is to provide a menu of policy instruments and to highlight the particular techniques to which they may apply.

Secondary studies of the US, India, China, Brazil, Sweden and Germany will focus on deviations from the UK case that may affect the general applicability of the study's conclusions.

The results and recommendations will be widely disseminated including at the Conference of the Parties (COP) in November 2018 that is planned to review progress with the Paris Agreement.

 

1 GRIP has replaced the old acronym CDPP, to avoid confusion with another project presenting to COP 2018.