ADVENT (ADdressing Valuation of Energy and Nature Together)

英国政府致力于减少温室气体排放和保护环境。然而，实现这些平行目标涉及许多紧张局势。例如，未来的低碳能源路径依赖于通过水力压裂获得原料，这对清洁水的可获得性以及这种资源向其他工业、家庭或农业用户提供的生态系统服务都有影响。同样，设想更多风力发电场的道路对自然景观的质量和人们从这些景观的视觉享受中获得的文化生态系统服务也有影响。该项目的中心目标是探索英国未来的低碳能源途径，并量化其对自然资本存量(例如地下水和自然栖息地)和提供生态系统服务(例如灌溉、视觉便利、娱乐)的不同影响。此外，该项目将应用经济价值评估方法，以货币形式估计与不同未来能源途径相关的生态系统服务变化的价值。最终，该项目寻求为政策制定者提供工具，使他们能够以一种将能源和环境考虑纳入单一框架的方式，对能源未来采取全系统的观点。研究方案将从研讨会开始，让评估自然和能源期货研究界的成员聚集在一起。其目的将是鼓励参与者之间进行讨论，并就应作为研究基础的概念框架达成共识，并建立现有知识的基线。该知识库的一部分将描述该项目将探索的特定未来能源途径。研究小组的下一项任务将是制定每条途径的详细生命周期特征。在先前研究的基础上，该项目将确定路径的每个特定元素对生态系统服务的预期影响。并在可能的情况下，整理关于这些不同影响的估计价值的证据。然而，对于许多因素，这些影响和/或价值可能是未知的。事实上，该项目将寻求通过一系列案例研究来填补这些知识空白。这些研究将探讨生物能源、碳捕获和储存、视觉不适、对海洋娱乐的影响、生物多样性后果以及基础设施对减少能源需求的影响。根据这些结果，研究将寻求整合现有证据，以评估每条能源途径的整体环境影响。为此，该项目将在以前工作的基础上扩展两个相辅相成的建模平台。第一种是微观经济模型，允许对每条路径的影响进行空间上的分类探索。第二种方法采用宏观经济模型，以了解自然资本在不同途径中的使用如何影响经济的广泛运行，以及由此对增长、就业和贸易的影响。为了对每条途径提供全面评估，另一个工作流程将量化英国关于未来能源系统的决策对自然资本和生态系统服务的国际影响。研究结果将通过一个广泛的传播和知识交流计划提供给学者和政策制定者。此外，通过培训一批博士生，该项目寻求留下专注于能源与环境之间的接口的学术能力遗产。总而言之，该项目提供的新知识和专门知识将为确保能源和自然资本政策能够以协调一致的方式制定以最大限度地造福整个社会作出重大贡献。

The UK Government is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the environment. Delivering on these parallel objectives, however, involves numerous tensions. Future low-carbon energy pathways that, for example, depend on the sourcing of feedstocks through hydraulic fracking have implications for the availability of clean water and hence for the ecosystem services such resources provide to other industrial, domestic or agricultural users. Likewise, pathways that envisage more wind farms have implications for the quality of the natural landscape and the cultural ecosystem services people derive from the visual enjoyment of those landscapes. The central objective of this project is to explore future UK low-carbon energy pathways and quantify their differing implications for stocks of natural capital (e.g. groundwater and natural habitats) and for the provision of ecosystem services (e.g. irrigation, visual amenity, recreation). In addition, the project will apply methods of economic valuation to estimate in money terms the value of the ecosystem service changes associated with different future energy pathway. Ultimately, the project seeks to provide policy makers with tools that allow them to take a whole-systems perspective on energy futures in a way that integrates energy and environmental considerations into a single framework. The research programme will begin with workshops bringing together members of the valuing nature and energy futures research communities. The aim will be to encourage discussion between the participants and to arrive at a shared understanding of the conceptual framework that should underpin the research as well as to establish the baseline of existing knowledge.Part of that knowledge base will be a description of the particular future energy pathways to be explored in the project. The next task for the research team will be to develop a detailed life cycle characterisation of each pathway. Drawing on previous research, the project will then identify the anticipated ecosystem service impacts of each particular element of a pathway. And, where available, collate evidence regarding the estimated value of those various impacts.For numerous elements, however, those impacts and/or values may be unknown. Indeed, the project will seek to fill those knowledge gaps through a set of case studies. These will explore aspects of bioenergy, carbon capture and storage, visual disamenity, impacts on marine recreation biodiversity consequences and the impacts of infrastructure to reduce energy demand.Drawing on the results, the research will then seek to integrate the available evidence so as to assess the environmental impacts of each energy pathway in its entirety. To that end, the project will build on previous work by extending two complementary modelling platforms. The first is a micro-economic model that allows for a spatially-disaggregated exploration of the impacts of each pathway. The second employs macro-economic modelling to understand how natural capital use in different pathways impacts on the broad functioning of the economy and concomitant implications for growth, jobs and trade. To provide a holistic assessment of each pathway, a further work stream will quantify the international implications for natural capital and ecosystems services of UK decisions on future energy systems.The findings will be made available to academics and policy makers through an extensive programme of dissemination and knowledge exchange. In addition, through training a cohort of PhD studentships, the project seeks to leave a legacy of academic capacity focused on the interface between energy and the environment. Together, the new knowledge and expertise delivered by the project will provide a major contribution to ensuring that energy and natural capital policies can be developed in a coherent manner for the maximal benefit of society as a whole.