I've worked for over two decades on decarbonisation strategies, including the UK's first commitments to serious action on climate change and renewable energy, and various designs for the C40 when it was set up.
The International Public Policy Observatory (@ippouk, covidandsociety.com) which I help run, is now working on this topic with the governments across the UK. IPPO builds on many decades of experiment with ways to make complex knowledge useful and used, including programmes for evidence-based policy, What Works Centres, evidence syntheses, peer networks, collaboratives and much more. Net Zero has prompted a vast amount of effort and innovation worldwide, from the IPCC to C40.
We will be working to connect the supply of evidence to demand from policymakers who need to know what works as they shape policies for retrofitting, transport, energy, buildings regulation, subsidies and taxes, reskilling and much else.
In this short note, I look at what already exists, including the dozens of sources of knowledge and research; how we might go about making the most of it; and how we can work with governments at multiple levels.
The note, which can be accessed here, ends with a description of a potential way of organising this ‘net zero knowledge commons’ to make knowledge as useful, used and dynamic as possible. The aim of this note is to generate inputs and ideas from others working in the space – and it will be updated periodically.
