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Fungible carbon

Dr Heather Lovell and Professor Donald Mackenzie
Centre for the Study of Environmental Change and Sustainability, University of Edinburgh
£166,553 over 3 years

Dr Heather Lovell and Professor Donald Mackenzie will examine the tensions in creating a single fungible (i.e. standardised and interchangeable) international unit of carbon. A crucial way that climate change is being tackled is through the construction of markets in which standard units of greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions are created and exchanged. Small differences in the rules and practices of these markets can alter substantially their environmental and economic impact, so understanding their effectiveness is of high social importance. This interdisciplinary research, drawing on ideas from economic sociology, political science and science and technology studies, will investigate how carbon is being made fungible, assessing the influence of this process on slowing increases in GHG levels in the atmosphere. The project will allow Dr Lovell to develop valuable new research skills and knowledge in carbon markets, accountancy and economics, thus adding an important dimension to her existing interdisciplinary climate change research on UK low energy housing.

Last Updated Tue, 5 August 2008