Alice Larkin: Why and how shipping matters for climate change – interviewed by Kevin Anderson

Interview with Alice Larkin December 12, 2023, by Kevin Anderson at CEMUS, Uppsala University.

Blog in The Conversation on Wind Propulsion for Ships, published 2023: https://tinyurl.com/shipwindblog

Paper on Wind Propulsion behind the blog above, published 2023: https://tinyurl.com/Shipwindfull

Improving shore power project economics: Aberdeen case-study, published 2023: https://tinyurl.com/SPAberdeen

Summary of alternative fuel options for ships, published 2023: https://tinyurl.com/LCABTfull

Barriers and solutions for UK shore-power, published 2023: https://tinyurl.com/UKshorepower

Stronger climate targets for international shipping, published 2021: https://tinyurl.com/IMOclimate

The need for action on existing fleet of ships this decade, published 2020: https://tinyurl.com/CommittedShips

Alice Larkin is a Professor in Climate Science & Energy Policy as part of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the School of Engineering. Alice trained as an astrophysicist at the University of Leeds, did her PhD in climate modelling at Imperial College, then worked in science communication. She returned to academia in 2003 joining the interdisciplinary Tyndall Centre to research conflicts between climate change and aviation. In 2008 she was appointed as a lecturer to direct projects on international transport and food supply scenarios within a climate change context, and was Director of Tyndall Manchester between 2013 and 2016. In 2017 Alice became the Head of School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, and then from 2019 to 2023, the Vice-Dean and Head of the newly formed School of Engineering. Alice has led numerous research projects, including the EPSRC funded High Seas project in 2010 and was the lead Manchester investigator on a large consortium project funded by the EPSRC entitled ‘Shipping in Changing Climates’. She was also PI on a large EPSRC consortium project on the Water-Food-Energy Nexus, a Co-I on the UKERC project RACER and PI on a UKERC project on decarbonising shipping and aviation fuels. Her research interests continue to focus on the decarbonisation challenges surrounding aviation and shipping, and connections with carbon budgeting and the wider energy system more generally.

Kevin Anderson is professor of Energy and Climate Change, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at the University of Manchester. He was the second Zennström visiting professor in Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University, now visiting professor at Uppsala University and adjunct professor at the University of Bergen. Kevin is a well-known and established researcher within climate change science who engages frequently with policy-makers, the private sector, civil society as well as the media. He has pioneered research on carbon budgets and pathways to acceptable mitigation levels, and worked on the technical, social and economic interactions involved in the transformation of energy systems, the mitigation and adaptation to climate change.