Climate change is arguably the single biggest challenge facing the global community. The physical impacts of climate change are already being felt in most parts of the world, creating significant risks for the future of our environment and human society.
Mitigating the impacts of climate change requires major structural changes in our society, including a shift towards a low carbon economy. This, in turn, requires energy policies that transform the way in which we source, manage and use our gas and electricity.
ICF GHK works on the design, appraisal and evaluation of policies intended to secure safe and affordable supplies of energy that are also clean and sustainable. This includes a broader suite of policies designed to tackle climate change on an international, national, regional and local level. Our multi-discipline, cross-cutting approach and breadth of policy expertise helps us to manage the complexity inherent in many of the challenges presented by energy and climate change objectives.
Our project portfolio spans energy policy research, climate change mitigation and adaptation, programme governance, green jobs and skills and innovation and technology in both decarbonising our energy supplies and stimulating large scale changes in the deployment of energy efficient products.
ICF GHK is expert in the evaluation of low carbon innovation programmes. By way of example:
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In 2011, we conducted an evaluation of the £10m Bio-Energy Infrastructure Scheme (BEIS), managed by the UK Government’s Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC). BEIS was part of a basket of measures under the umbrella of the UK’s £400m Environmental Transformation Fund (ETF) which aimed to encourage the development of low-carbon energy and energy efficiency technologies in the UK, speeding up their commercial use and reducing overall demand. ICF GHK evaluated all grant awarded projects under BEIS in order to show whether the original funding objectives of producing a step change in the supply of a sustainable supply side of bioenergy materials had been met as well as the overall cost effectiveness of the programme. Insights were also obtained into on-going market barriers which is helping DECC to better align policy responses to sectoral needs;
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The Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI), an agency of the European Commission, appointed ICF GHK to undertake an evaluation of the €200m Eco-innovation initiative which focuses on applied R&D and pre-commercial demonstration across EU member states in particular around innovations to stimulate waste, water and energy reductions within the buildings and construction, food and drink processing and greening business. The programme is designed to overcome the financial and other market failures surrounding the market adoption of eco-innovations. During 2012 ICF GHK is evaluating the outcomes from 100 projects funded over the first three funding rounds, looking in particular at economic, environmental and market replication outcomes. The results will help to shape the delivery of the future Horizon 2020 programme under which this initiative will sit.