The Hub

The Net Zero Regulation and Policy Hub (‘the Hub’) is a research initiative based at the University of Oxford.

Launched in October 2023 with a strategic funding grant from the Oxford Martin School, the Hub is a collaboration between the Blavatnik School of Government and the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, and part of the Oxford Net Zero strategic cluster. The Hub aims to build the evidence base and capacity to advance effective, rigorous, and equitable net zero regulation and policy. It does so through four intertwined workstreams: 

• The Climate Policy Monitor
• Research on key dilemmas holding back effective regulation for net zero
• Collaboration with governments to advance the frontier of best practice
• Education and capacity-building

The Climate Policy Monitor

A detailed understanding of how rules and policies align to climate goals is essential for creating a level playing field and enabling environment to smooth the path to net zero. But building detailed, comparable, accurate understandings of complex, diverse policy tools across multiple jurisdictions and domains is challenging but critical.

The Monitor provides an open-access mapping and expert assessment of net zero regulations in key domains across key economies. The Monitor is distinctive in four ways:

• An in-depth framework for assessment. The Monitor collects up to 265 individual datapoints for each instrument. It organizes this information into a framework that examines a regulatory domain’s ambition, comprehensiveness, and stringency.
• Powered by technical and contextual expertise. The practical effect and meaning of a given regulation are highly dependent on domestic conditions. Therefore, technical on-the-ground legal experience is critical for understanding and analysing policy and law. To meet this challenge, the Monitor is powered by the Legal Expert Network, a global pro-bono network of top-tier law firms providing local expertise in each jurisdiction we cover.
• Assesses both regulatory domains and the individual instruments within them. Understanding the actual effect of regulations often requires an assessment of a combination of various instruments, both those that target climate change specifically and those that do not.
• Comparable information. The rich, granular nature of the Monitor’s data, collected within a single cohesive format, allows users to make substantive comparisons between jurisdictions.

Team

Thomas Hale

Co-Director

Thom Wetzer

Co-Director

Lucilla Dias

Manager

Bhavya Gupta

Postdoctoral Researcher

Emma Lecavalier

Postdoctoral Researcher

Funders

We are grateful for the support of the Oxford Martin School and the EU Horizon ACHIEVE Project.