IED Newsletter 12 – March 2012

IED PhD Projects

Consumer demand for voluntary carbon offsetting – Buying one’s way out of the “green guilt”?

In an ongoing PhD project, IED member Julia Blasch investigates into consumer demand for voluntary CO2 compensation payments (carbon offsets). More »

PhD Abstracts

• Detailed estimation of price and income elasticities of food in Switzerland
• Examining individuals’ preferences for preferential trade agreements
• Smart grid strategies: the role of ICT firms in sectoral transformation

More »

Research Highlights

AFEE: Irrigation Water Policies and their Impacts on Swiss Farms’ Income and Water Consumption

Results indicate that an increasing water demand in agriculture due to CC can be effectively reduced by the introduction of water quotas or by increasing the water price for irrigation. Thus, policy makers should consider these options to cope with climate change which is expected to increase the Swiss farms’ water demand. More »

Project News

OFF4FIRMS accepted as Climate-KIC Innovation Project

Off4Firms – Employer-led CO2 and Energy Reductions by Employees”, a project initiated by Prof. Renate Schubert, has recently been accepted as Climate-KIC Innovation Project. More »

Awards

• Prof. Bernauer receives ERC Advanced Grant from EU
• Michael M. Bechtel receives SNSF Professorship

More »

Previous Events

The Durban Experience: IED/ETH at the Climate Change Negotiations

Carola Betzold, PhD student at the Chair of International Relations, describes her experiences made at the COP17. More »

PhD Colloquium on Climate Change – Science, Economics, and Policy

The first UZH/ETH joint PhD Seminar on Climate Change – Science, Economics, and Policy took place on two afternoons in January/February 2012. More »

9^th Annual ITdNet Meeting, at the Leuphana Sustainability Summit

The meeting was co-organized by NSSI and focused on the core expertise of the network. More »

4^th Global TraPs Workshop, El-Jadida, Morocco

From the 16th to 18th of March 2012, the Global TraPs community met in El-Jadida, Morocco, for the project’s latest milestone, the 4th Global TraPs Workshop. More »

New IED Lecture Course on Energy Issues – A Great Success

More than 200 students are inscribed for this course. Lively discussions during the first weeks of the semester covered topics like efficient mobility, smart grids or renewable energy technologies. More »

Upcoming Events

SRA-Europe Conference 2012, June 18–20 at ETH Zurich

The Consumer Behavior group within IED is organizing the SRA-Europe 21st Annual Conference. The special theme of this conference will be “Risk and Society: Decisions & Responsibilities,” to reflect the fact that the analysis of risk is inextricably linked to the social context. Registration is now open. More »

PhD seminars, workshops, academies, winter and summer schools offered by IED or related institutions

Several seminars, colloquia, workshops, academies, summer or winter schools are regularly or occasionally organized by IED, IED Chairs or related institutions and provide PhD students the opportunity to present and discuss their research with other PhD students and researchers working on similar topics. More »

Short News

• IED has 60 PhD students
  
• 14 dissertations completed at IED in 2011
  
• 10 “NSSI professors” in 5 countries
  
• IED chairs are affiliated to new Departments D-HEST and D-USYS
  
• Prof. Scholz talks at the Royal Professors’ Symposium on Global Sustainability
  
• Zurich Carbon Market Association (ZCMA) Annual General Meeting
  
• IED-Newsletter well accepted
  

More »

IED Publications News

The Journal of Risk Research has published a special issue (Issue 3, 2012) with papers coming out of the 2010 conference ‘Environmental Decisions: Risks and Uncertainties’ organized by the IED. More »