In this month's newsletter:

• Remembering Dr Kirk Hamilton

• Key Messages from Climate Science for Economists

  • Watch Emily Shuckburgh's envecon 2024 keynote

• DRUID Project Stated Preference Survey: Call for Feedback 

  • Research on cultural ecosystem services provided by insects in the UK

• 25th Annual BIOECON: Call for Papers

  • Submissions due by April 29. Conference Sept 4 - 6

Remembering Dr Kirk Hamilton

This month, we were saddened to hear the news that Dr Kirk Hamilton has passed away. 

Kirk was a friend, mentor, and inspiration to many of us at UKNEE. Through his time in academia and as Lead Economist in the Development Research Group at the World Bank, Kirk made major contributions in understanding the links between poverty and the environment, greening national accounts, and the economics of climate change. He joined us for envecon in 2003, co-presenting a paper with Giles Atkinson titled 'Sustainability, Green National Accounting, and Deforestation'.

Kirk's other lifelong passion was photography. He spent many decades capturing images of wildlife in Africa's national parks and reserves. In tribute to his passing, Kirk's friends have created Kirk Hamilton's Africa to showcase his work: we highly encourage you to take a moment of your day to browse these extraordinary photographs.

If you wish to honour Kirk's memory, please make a donation to his favourite charity: the International Rescue Committee.

Key Messages from Climate Science for Economists

Watch the envecon 2024 keynote from Prof Emily Shuckburgh OBE

In what is becoming an unofficial tradition, we were so pleased with our keynote speech at this year's envecon that we have decided to share it for free. 

You can watch the keynote on our site here. In this speech, Emily gives a stark and up-to-date overview of current climate science, highlights the key aspects of climate science that economics should be addressing, and gives an example of her recent transdisciplinary work in which economists have been valuable in connecting multidisciplinary perspectives. 

The rest of UKNEE's recordings of envecon 2024, as well as all envecons and webinars since 2021, are available to members. Existing members will be sent instructions on how to access all envecon 2024 recordings today. If you are not a member, you can sign up easily on the website. 

UKNEE Member's News

Call for Feedback on DRUID Project's Stated Preference Survey on UK Insects

This item comes from UKNEE Member Dr Peter King:

The DRUID project is a multidisciplinary NERC-funded project. We are designing a stated preference survey to better understand cultural ecosystem services provided by insects in the UK in monetary and non-monetary terms.

For openness at the piloting stage, we're sharing a draft copy of the survey with UKNEE, but not wider yet, please, to fine-tune the design, especially the choice experiment and wellbeing sections. If you have 5 spare minutes, please leave thoughts/comments/suggestions in the document here (opens SharePoint).

All comments are welcome, and if the link expires, please contact Dr Peter King, University of Leeds (p.king1@leeds.ac.uk) for more. We hope to share the results soon; thanks all. 

25th Annual BIOECON: Call for Papers

Submissions due by Monday April 29

The Twenty-Fifth annual BIOECON conference will focus on the theme of Economic Development, Population Dynamics and Biodiversity Conservation. 

The call for papers is currently open, with submissions due by Monday, 29th April, 2024. For full submission details, click here. 

This year, BIOECON will be hosted at King's College, Cambridge, from the 4th to the 5th September. Keynote speakers will be Professor Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson (Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment) and Professor Paul R. Armsworth (Department of Ecologic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee).