Basque Centre for Climate Change

Prof. Anil Markandya

anil.markandya@bc3research.org

AMarkandya Prof. Anil Markandya is Director of BC3 and honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Bath. His work is in the field of resource and environmental economics. He was a lead author for Chapters of the 3rd and 4th IPCC Assessment Reports on Climate Change and has just finished contributing to the 5th IPCC Report. He was nominated by Cambridge University as one of the top 50 contributors to thinking on sustainability in the world. In 2012 he was elected the President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics and in has become a member of the Scientific Council of the European Environment Agency. In the DECCMA project Anil leads the BC3 team that is providing the economics analysis

Dr. Inaki Arto

inaki.arto@bc3research.org

Inaki Arto new Inaki Arto is a research fellow at BC3. He has a PhD in Economics, a MSc in Engineering and a degree in Economics. He has occupied research positions at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (2010-2013) and at the University of the Basque Country (2001-2010). In the DECCMA project he is contributing to the analysis of the economic impacts of climate change.

Dr. Ignacio Cazcarro

ignacio.cazcarro@bc3research.org

Ignacio Cazcarro new Ignacio Cazcarro has a BA, MA and PhD in Economics (University of Zaragoza, Spain). He worked 2 years as a post-doctoral research fellow (Department of Economics, RPI, Troy, NY, USA) participating in a National Science Foundation project. Ignacio is involved in Work Package 4, in the economic analysis, of construction of input-output tables and related models for the deltas.

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Mikel Gonzalez-Eguino

mikel.gonzalez@bc3research.org

MGonzalez Mikel Gonzalez-Eguino is a senior researcher at BC3. He holds a PhD in Economics (a degree in Engineering). His main interests lie in the fields of environmental, energy and public economics. His involvement in the DECCMA project will be related to the economic assessment of the impact of climate change in the deltas using a multi-regional CGE model.

Ignacio Cazcarro, BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change

What is your research background?

ICazcarro I carried out my BA, MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Zaragoza (Spain), where I have been a member of the research group “Growth, Demand and Natural Resources”. Within that group I was involved in several projects funded by the Ministry of Education and Science and the regional Government of Aragon, particularly focused on the analysis of the link between the economy (production, trade, technology, etc.) and the environment, especially estimating (mostly water) footprints. After that I worked for more than 2 years as post-doctoral research fellow at the Department of Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy (New York, USA) participating in a National Science Foundation (USA) grant project on Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems. The approach was similar but global in scope and although it was quite interdisciplinary, it had a specific focus on water and rivers. In particular our economic analysis consisted on building a world trade model, based on comparative advantage, in which based on the availability of all types of natural resources (also water, studied in its different qualities) we could see the changes in specialization, production and trade of the different regions in the world for different climate change scenarios and diet change scenarios.

What area of the DECCMA project are you involved in?

At the BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change we are involved in the Economic modelling. This means that we need to make the best use of the interaction with other work-packages, such as the ones involved in looking at the biophysical modelling and the vulnerability of hotspots, as well as obtaining insights on the economic variables (production by sectors, availability of jobs -by gender- and livelihoods in the deltas, changes in prices of commodities, the availability of scarce non-produced inputs such as water, land, etc.). These are also useful also for other areas of the project such as those looking at migration. Potential and actual migration patterns within the delta and outside will also be a function of relative economic opportunities in the context of climate change, and any gender-sensitive adaptation strategy will have to take account of these economic aspects. All in all, the purpose of our research is twofold: (a) providing a tool that allows policy makers to see how different climate scenarios affect the economic options in the delta and how these in turn affect vulnerability and sustainability in the region and (b) linking economic factors to the availability of jobs and livelihoods in the delta and thereby to potential migration fluxes – all in the context of climate change and its effects on different economic activities in the delta.

What excites you about the DECCMA project?

Many aspects. The project has a very focused, interesting and extremely relevant topic of research, since climate change, its expected effect in coastal areas and deltas, and in migration processes have emerged -to me, with reason- as priorities in many research and political agendas. Furthermore, the ones we study seem clearly among the main vulnerable delta regions around the world, and as far as I could see in our recent visit to the Mahanadi River Delta in India, the economies of the Delta are quite distinct in terms of the key activities developed, but also on lifestyles, so understanding, modelling and being able to help in these areas seems to me extremely worth and rewarding. The project is also allowing us to work with partners from those relatively distant regions and cultures, which is always enriching, and it is outstandingly multidisciplinary, which also enables us the understanding of such complex processes, finding that we always complement and learn from the interaction with the project colleagues and the people we are meeting during the project. If that was not enough, this project is allowing us to also learn from leading experts in the fields of sea level rise and related areas of research.

What are your interests outside of your work?

Multiple. For me it is somehow a trade-off the path of specializing in a research topic, when we see today so many interesting topics and challenges worth studying. So far I feel I have been able to keep a relatively broad perspective and study issues that interest me, finding that I often hybrid my work and leisure time. Apart from usual hobbies such as sports (e.g. cycling) and cinema (documentaries, but also social, political or science fiction movies often open our minds on envisaging our near and distant possible futures), I participate with friends in a group of sociopolitical reading, research and training. In spite of having great concerns for most conflicts, news and affairs all around the world, I particularly follow the current situation in Spain with great interest where as in some other places many social movements, parties and debate are boiling.