MERE group deepens interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary work

The MERE group is excited to be part of two new centers starting under the auspices of the SDU Climate Cluster!

We will be part of the tech-led Solar Energy Conversion and Storage (SOLEN) center, which will take a holistic approach to solar energy’s place in the ongoing energy transition. Amongst other questions about consumer behavior, external costs and benefits, innovation and adoption of new technologies like solar films, we expect to explore lessons from past energy transitions, including those pertaining to the integration of distribution and transmission systems as well as the drivers of (and barriers to) these systemic changes.

We will also work together with the Economics Department in Odense as the social scientists in the biology department-led Centre of Aquatic Nature-based Solutions for climate change adaptation and Mitigation (Aqua-NbS) where the aim of the center is to scale up and integrate approaches of aquatic bature-based solutions to expand the provision of multiple ecosystem services, including carbon storage, climate regulation, water filtration, coastal protection, and food-web support. We will apply cross-disciplinary approaches that span the full land-sea continuum and incorporate a comprehensive range of technological, institutional, and socio-economic settings. Aqua-NbS will investigate aquatic habitats and their valuable ecosystem services to craft inclusive, detailed guidelines on cost-effective opportunities and addressing the challenges in upscaling aquatic NbS. While there will be a Danish focus to the work, I’m excited to call back to all my work on NbS from Hawaii – when we called NbS ‘positive environmentalism ‘ ()- and the many lessons of the ahupua’a.