| Post: | Lecturer in Geography |
| Other posts: | Lecturer in Geography (Geography) |
| Location: | Arts C C253 |
| Email: | D.G.Ockwell@sussex.ac.uk |
| Telephone numbers | |
| Internal: | 3018 or 7238 |
| UK: | (01273) 873018 or (01273) 877238 |
| International: | +44 1273 873018 or +44 1273 877238 |
Biography
BSc 1st Class Hons in Environmental Economics and Evaluation (York); MSc Distinction in Environmental Assessment and Evaluation (LSE - ESRC funded); PhD in Environment and Politics (York - NERC/ESRC funded)
My background is strongly interdisciplinary having trained, worked and published across both the social and natural sciences. I have worked in the private sector and academia providing environmental policy advice to a large number of public, private and not-for-profit organisations and have managed and participated in a diverse range of research projects in Southeast Asia, East Africa, Australia and Europe.
My research focuses on transitions to a low carbon economy. Current work includes managing a UK-India collaborative study on low carbon technology transfer to developing countries funded by Defra and the Government of India, and ESRC funded work on discourse and framing effects in energy policy, the role of communication in effecting low carbon behaviour change, and work on the economics, politics and ecology of fire management in Cape York, Australia.
Role
I am a Lecturer in Geography, a Research Fellow in the Sussex Energy Group at SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research), an Honorary Fellow in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and a Fellow in the Sussex Climate Change and Development Centre. I may also be suffering a mild identity crisis.
Research
UK-India Collaboration to Identify the Barriers to the Transfer of Low Carbon Energy TechnologyLow carbon technology transfer to rapidly developing countries has a central role to play in mitigating carbon emissions from future economic growth. Despite the high profile of technology transfer within international negotiations, both bilaterally and under the auspices of the UNFCCC, very little empirical evidence exists upon which to base policy. Whilst technology transfer per se has long been a topic of research, the different stages of development of low carbon technologies, from R&D through to commercial diffusion, introduce new and unique barriers and policy challenges which are not yet properly understood. This is confounded by the need to achieve the diffusion of low carbon technologies at a rate fast enough to avoid dangerous climate change.
At Gleneagles in July 2005, the G8 highlighted the importance of strengthening technology cooperation between developed and developing nations to develop and deploy low carbon energy options globally. Many developing countries pressed for a new approach to international cooperation in the area of clean energy technologies. As a follow-up to this, the UK Government and the Government of India decided to collaborate on a study to assess the barriers to the transfer of low carbon energy technology between developed and developing countries.
The Sussex Energy Group (SEG) at the University of Sussex, in partnership with TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute, India) and IDS (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK) were jointly commissioned by Defra and the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests to undertake this study.
The aim of the study is to facilitate technological co-operation between developed and developing countries. It is envisaged that the study will help to inform intergovernmental discussions about the development and transfer of low carbon energy technologies. Of particular importance are discussions under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Gleneagles Dialogue on Clean Energy, Sustainable Development and Climate Change. The study focuses primarily on technology transfer to India. It is, however, hoped that the insights provided by the study can usefully inform more general discussions on low carbon technology transfer to developing countries.
Phase I of the study analysed five case studies of low carbon technologies at different stages of development. This highlighted a series of key considerations for informing policy aimed at facilitating low carbon technology transfer.
The Phase I findings were officially launched at the Gleneagles Dialogue meeting held in Mexico and the World Sustainable Development Summit in Shirakawa, Japan in October 2006. Following this the findings of the report were promoted at a side event at the UNFCCC COP in Nairobi. This event was chaired by Dr Pachauri (chair of the IPCC) and included opening representations from the Secretary of State, David Miliband MP and Shri Namo Narain Meena (Indian Minister for Environment). Both ministers gave the study their full endorsement and were forthright in calling for more work focussing on the areas that the report highlighted.
More details and the Phase I report can be found here; http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexenergygroup/1-2-9.html
Phase II will look in more depth at three key areas in order to develop concrete policy tools and recommendations. These are:
1. Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)
To what extent and under what circumstances are IPRs a barrier to low carbon technology transfer? If IPRs are a barrier what is the most effective policy to overcome this?
2. Collaborative research, development, demonstration and deployment (RDD&D) initiatives
What characteristics of collaborative RDD&D initiatives make them most effective for developing technological capacity within developing countries? Is there a role here for overcoming IPR related issues?
3. A taxonomy of barriers to low carbon technology transfer
Is it possible, on the basis of generic characteristics (e.g. stage of technology development or sector), to develop a practical framework for policy makers that sets out specific barriers and policy implications thereof that are likely to be encountered in relation to low carbon technologies?
Public perceptions of climate change
I am currently researching this area as part of an ESRC/NERC post-doctoral fellowship. Changing public behaviour is central to tackling climate change, but encouraging behaviour change is an inherently problematic and historically slow process. Drawing on insights from the existing literature on behaviour change and game theory, together with recent empirical research on environmental politics under New Labour, this work looks to reorient research effort in a direction that might better ensure behaviour change within the timeframe that climate science demands. Instead of guiding government approaches to problematic communication campaigns that seek to influence people's behaviour, perhaps research could be better directed towards understanding how to influence people's perceptions of the need for strong, direct government regulation of their behaviour, or, in other words, preparing people to be forced to be green?
New Labour, New Environment? Analysing the Labour Government's Policy on Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss
This work was commissioned and partly funded by Friends of the Earth. Working with Dr Neil Carter from the Centre for Ecology, Law and Policy (CELP) at the University of
York, we reviewed the most up-to-date science on climate change and biodiversity loss and assessed the Labour Government's performance in tackling these issues since it came to power in 1997. This served to highlight the actions that Labour, under the new leadership of Gordon Brown, still needs to take in order to avoid the catastrophic future impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Executive summary and Full report
Fire in the wet-dry tropics of Australia
Anthropogenic burning in tropical regions is of increasing global concern in terms of deforestation, biodiversity loss, decreased soil fertility and global warming from greenhouse gas emissions and the loss of carbon sequestration potential. Continuing research initiated by Jon Lovett in 1997, I am coordinating an on-going research project investigating the ecological, economic, social and policy implications of anthropogenic fire in Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia.
Recent developments in this research have included an investigation of the implications of missing markets for carbon sequestration in determining land use choices between fire-assisted pastoralism and sustainable forestry. A comparison of changes in the biodiversity of woody biomass across different burning regimes has also been undertaken as has a study based on Q Methodology which seeks to reveal existing stakeholder discourses on the use of fire in Cape York.
This topic awas the focus of my doctoral research. Funded jointly by the ESRC and NERC, the research is also supervised jointly by Dr Jon Lovett in the Environment Department at the University of York and Dr Neil Carter in the Politics Department. As Chair of my Thesis Advisory Committee, Dr John Parkinson of the Politics Department provides additional supervision.
For further details see http://www.york.ac.uk/res/celp/webpages/projects/fire/fire.htm
Discourse analysis
Discourse analysis provides a powerful tool that can facilitate emancipatory access to the ontological and epistemological assumptions that policies and policy makers' claims and arguments are based on. Working in collaboration with Professor Yvonne Rydin UCL, I have conducted research into the value of different approaches to discourse analysis and the implications of such analysis for a normative project for improving the policy making process itself.
Working with Ivan Scrase at the University of Sussex I have also recently conducted a disocurse analysis of the framing of the UK government's policy stance on new nuclear power.
Q Methodology
Q Methodology provides a powerful tool for revealing existing public discourses. Based on a purely operant, subjective approach to analysis, Q goes beyond traditional questionnaire-based approaches by enabling systematic investigation that minimises researcher influence, providing a subjective view of the world from the perspective of the respondant.
I have used Q to reveal existing stakeholder discourses on fire in the wet-dry tropics of Australia. This will provide policy makers with essential insights into the needs and opinions of Cape York stakeholders thus enabling them to develop more effective, responsive environmental policy solutions.
For more information on Q Methodology see Barry, J. and Proops, J. (1999) Seeking sustainability discourses with Q methodology. Ecological Economics 28: 337-345, or visit:
http://www.rz.unibw-muenchen.de/~p41bsmk/qmethod/
Common Pool Resource (CPR) management
CPRs are defined as communally accessible resources. They are distinct from 'open access' resources in that the majority have a defined set of users and a management system in place. The income generating opportunities associated with natural resource CPRs represent an important link between CPR management and poverty alleviation. By rendering inadequate, or undermining traditional management regimes, changes in underlying and external economic, environmental and social pressures frequently lead to the degradation of CPRs. This is accompanied by other problems such as inequitable distribution of CPR benefits across different income groups or changes in management regimes such as privatisation that may exclude some users.
A priority for practitioners such as NGOs and meso-level policy makers is to gain an understanding of the underlying processes that are causing problems in CPR management. They also need to understand how to respond effectively in facilitating the implementation of new management regimes.
I recently worked with the UK Department for International Development's (DfID) Natural Resources Systems Programme (NRSP) on a scoping study to review the Programme's work on CPRs and draw out the key contributions to existing knowledge and empirical evidence on CPR management.
Strategic promotion of the regional benefits of woodland and forestry
The past two decades have seen growing recognition of the broad range of economic, social and environmental benefits of trees, woodlands and forests. Innovative new forms of forest management and woodland initiatives have emerged addressing areas as diverse as rural and urban skills development, health, micro-business development, tourism, regeneration, renewable energy and social inclusion. A key concern for policy makers is to understand and develop these benefits in line with wider social, environmental and economic policy.
I have managed research projects for the UK Forestry Commission, Countryside Agency and the regional development agencies (RDAs) Advantage West Midlands and the Northwest Development Agency. The research focussed on analysing and economically quantifying the contribution of forestry and woodland and their related activities to quality of life in the West Midlands and the Northwest of England. Importantly, the research also developed strategic policy and investment priorities and an action plan to enhance this contribution within the context of the respective Regional Economic Strategies and other regional policy drivers and priorities.
See http://www.advantagewm.co.uk/downloads/growing-resource-woodland-and-forestry-west-midlands.pdf for an overview of the outputs of some of this work.
Teaching
I convene a course entitled "An Introduction to Environmental Economics" for 2nd year undergraduate students in Life Sciences.
Publications
PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
David G. Ockwell, Alexandra Mallett, Raudiger Haum and Jim Watson (in review) "Intellectual property rights and low carbon technology transfer: the two polarities of diffusion and development", Global Environmental Change
David G. Ockwell (in review) "Brief encounters of the HE kind: reflections from outside the HE research community" Harvard Educational Review
Ivan Scrase and David G. Ockwell (in review) "Energy discourse and policy change", Energy Policy
David G. Ockwell, Lorraine Whitmarsh and Saffron O'Neill (2009) "Reorienting climate change communication for effective mitigation - forcing people to be green or fostering grass-roots engagement?" Science Communication 30: 305-327
David G. Ockwell, Jim Watson, Gordon MacKerron, Prosanto Pal and Farhana Yamin (2008) "Key policy considerations for facilitating low carbon technology transfer to developing countries", Energy Policy 36 (11): 4104-4115
David G. Ockwell (2008) "Energy and economic growth: grounding our understanding in physical reality", Energy Policy 36(12): 4600-4604
David G. Ockwell (2008) "'Opening up' policy to reflexive appraisal: a role for Q Methodology? A case study of fire management in Cape York, Australia", Policy Sciences 41(4): 263-292
David G. Ockwell and Yvonne Rydin (2006) "Conflicting Discourses of Knowledge: understanding the policy adoption of pro-burning knowledge claims in Cape York Peninsula, Australia", Environmental Politics 15(3): 379-398
Jon C. Lovett, Claire H. Quinn, David G. Ockwell, Robbie Gregorowski (2006) "Two cultures and the tragedy of the commons", African Journal of Ecology 44 (1): 1-5
David G. Ockwell and Jon C Lovett (2005) "Fire assisted pastoralism vs. sustainable forestry - the implications of missing markets for carbon in determining optimal land use in the wet-dry tropics of Australia", Journal of Environmental Management 75: 1-9
David G. Ockwell (2005) "Empirically analysing the implications of discursive democracy for environmental sustainability", International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability 2, Common Ground open access peer reviewed journal
Beverly La Ferla, James Taplin, David G. Ockwell, Jon C. Lovett (2002) "Continental scale patterns of biodiversity: can higher taxa accurately predict African plant distributions?" Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 138(2): 225-235
BOOKS AND BOOK CHAPTERS
Ivan Scrase and David G. Ockwell (in press) "Energy issues: framing and policy change", in Ivan Scrase and Gordon MacKerron (Eds.) Energy for the future, a new agenda, Palgrave, Basingstoke
Francis McGowan, David G. Ockwell, Gordon MacKerron, Jim Watson, Markku
Lehtonen and Ivan Scrase (in press) "Global energy solutions?" in Ivan Scrase and Gordon MacKerron (Eds.) Energy for the future, a new agenda, Palgrave, Basingstoke
Jon C Lovett and David Ockwell (Eds) (in press) A Handbook of Environmental Management. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham
Ockwell, D., and Y. Rydin. (in press) "Analysing dominant policy perspectives - the role of discourse analysis", in Jon C Lovett and David Ockwell (Eds) A Handbook of Environmental Management. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham
Claire H. Quinn and David G. Ockwell (in press) "The link between ecological and social paradigms and the sustainability of environmental management: A case study of semi-arid Tanzania", in Jon C Lovett and David Ockwell (Eds) A Handbook of Environmental Management. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham
CONFERENCE AND SEMINAR PAPERS
August 2008. Department Seminar at Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, USA
Presented paper "Reorienting climate change communication for effective mitigation - forcing people to be green or fostering grass-roots engagement?"
July 2008. Defra/FCO funded 923rd Wilton park Conference, UK - Energy and Climate Security Post Bali: From recognition to practice
Presented paper "Key policy considerations for facilitating low carbon technology transfer to developing countries"
June/July 2008. Seminar with policy makers and land managers in Cape York, Australia to promote policy briefing note based on PhD findings
Presented policy briefing note "Stakeholder views on fire management in Cape York, Australia"
Feb 2008. Department Seminar, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK
Presented paper "Reorienting climate change communication for effective mitigation - forcing people to be green or fostering grass-roots engagement?"
June 2008. Future Ethics Workshop on Apocalyptic Rhetoric and the Politics of Climate Change, Manchester, UK
Presented paper "Reorienting climate change communication for effective mitigation - forcing people to be green or fostering grass-roots engagement?"
Jan 2008. Defra / Planning Commission of India funded conference on CCS in India, New Delhi.
Presented paper "Key policy considerations for facilitating low carbon technology transfer to developing countries"
December 2007 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Convention of the Parties. Side event on low carbon technology transfer.
Presented paper "Key policy considerations for facilitating low carbon technology transfer to developing countries"
November 2007. Chatham House one day workshop on low carbon technology and intellectual property rights
Presented paper "Intellectual property rights and low carbon technology transfer to developing countries - a review of the evidence to date"
September 2007. Development Studies Association conference at Sussex Univesrity.
Presented paper "Key policy considerations for facilitating low carbon technology transfer to developing countries"
August 2007 Conference on India's future response to climate change funded by Defra and the Planning Commission of India, New Delhi
Presented paper "Key policy considerations for facilitating low carbon technology transfer to developing countries"
July 2007 DBERR workshop on Foresight Project on Sustainable Energy Management and the Built Environment (SEMBE)
Presented paper "Energy and economic growth: grounding our understanding in physical reality"
OTHER PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
David Ockwell 2008 Policy briefing note: Stakeholder views on fire management in Cape York, Australia available at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexenergygroup/documents/fire_policy_brief_final.pdf
Jim Watson, Gordon MacKerron, David Ockwell and Tao Wang (2007) "Technology and carbon mitigation in developing countries: Are cleaner coal technologies a viable option?" Background paper for the 2007 United Nations Human Development Report available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/papers/watson_mackerron_ockwell_wang.pdf
David Ockwell 2007 Energy and economic growth: grounding our understanding in physical reality. Scientific Review for BERR Foresight Project on Sustainable Energy Management and the Built Environment (SEMBE)
Neil Carter and David Ockwell (2007) New Labour, New Environment?
An Analysis of the Labour Government's Policy on Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss. Available at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexenergygroup/documents/full_report_final.pdf
David G. Ockwell, Jim Watson, Gordon MacKerron, Prosanto Pal and Farhana Yamin, 2006, UK-India Collaboration to Identify the Barriers to Low Carbon Technology Transfer for the UK and Indian governments. Available at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexenergygroup/1-2-9.html
David G. Ockwell, Jon C. Lovett, Claire H. Quinn, Robbie Gregorowski Common Pool Resources: Management for equitable and sustainable use Policy Briefing Note for DFID
David G. Ockwell, Jon C. Lovett 2006 Common Pool Resource Synthesis Study for DFID's Natural Resources Systems Programme (NRSP), 2006
David G. Ockwell, Jon C. Lovett 2004 Common Pool Resource (CPR) scoping report for DFID's Natural Resources Systems Programme (NRSP)
Entec UK 2003 Decoupling Natural Resource use from Economic Growth for the European Commission
Entec UK 2003 A Growing Resource. Forestry and Woodland in the West Midlands for the Forestry Commission, Countryside Agency and Advantage West Midlands
Entec UK 2003 North West Woodland and Forest Industries Strategic Study and Action Plan for the Forestry Commission, Countryside Agency and the Northwest Development Agency
Entec UK 2003 Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for REACT (Regeneration through Environmental ACTion) for the Countryside Agency
Entec UK 2003 Environmental Action Plan for Transport for London
Entec UK 2003 Regional Sustainability Indicators for Yorkshire Forward
Entec UK 2003 Sustainability Appraisal of Proposed Tourism Infrastructure Changes for Yorkshire Forward
Entec UK 2003 Affordable Rural Housing: Opportunities for Farmers and Landowners (see http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/upload/pdf/ARHFinal_web.pdf )
and Affordable Rural Housing: An opportunity for business for Business in the Community, Housing Corporation, Countryside Agency and Country Land and Business Association
Entec UK 2003 Cost Benefit Analysis of Low Flow Alleviation for the Environment Agency
Entec UK 2003 Industry-level economic and social sustainability indicators for the UK water industry for UKWIR (UK Water Industries Research), 2002
Entec UK 2002 Potential project based entry to the UK Emissions Trading Scheme for Scottish Water
Entec UK 2002 Regulatory Impact Assessment of the European Radioactive Discharges Strategy for the Scottish Executive
Entec UK 2002 Recommendations on approaches to sustainability reporting for National Grid
Entec UK 2002 Hazardous Waste Regulations Sector Prioritisation for the Environment Agency
Entec UK 2002 Availability and pricing of low sulphur marine fuel for the European Commission