About Us
About AVOID 2
AVOID 2 is a UK government funded climate change research programme involving a multi-disciplinary consortium of UK research organisations. The programme will run from February 2014 to March 2016. It follows on from the first AVOID programme which took place from 2009 to 2013.
The research being undertaken will provide scientifically-robust, policy-relevant answers to questions directly related to the Ultimate Objective of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is to ‘prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’.
The multi-disciplinary consortium is led by the Met Office and includes the Grantham Institute (Imperial College London), Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and Walker Institute (University of Reading). There are 12 other organisations in the AVOID network.
AVOID is 'an impressive demonstration of successful collaboration between academia and government... [delivering] concrete outcomes'.
- Ed Davey, former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change'The AVOID 2 programme is helping to answer vital questions on climate change that will inform our international climate negotiations'
– Greg Barker Minister of State at the Department of Energy & Climate ChangeResearch and purpose
The AVOID research programme focuses on three key questions:2014/2015 is a critical period in the international climate change negotiation process, in which the long-term climate goal will be discussed and the scale of greenhouse gas mitigation ambition and structure of a global agreement will be shaped. AVOID 2 will help to provide Government analysts and climate negotiating teams in both the UK and internationally with the scientifically robust and policy relevant science needed to inform their decisions.
What did AVOID 1 achieve?
AVOID 1, which ran from 2009 to 2013, supported the UK's international engagement and informed its position at international climate change negotiations, including contributing to the UN's Environment Programme with credible, targeted and timely research, and supporting the setting of the UK’s carbon budgets. Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change recognised this in a speech at the final AVOID 1 symposium where he said it was "an impressive demonstration of successful collaboration between academia and Government. …[delivering] concrete outcomes.” See more of the outputs from AVOID 1 here
