Marina Friedrich receives Veni grant for climate research
Econometrician and candidate fellow Marina Friedrich from the School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam receives a Veni research grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for project 'Climetrics: Bringing together econometrics and climate sciences'. Friedrich wants to make econometric methods more suitable and accessible for climate researchers, to study climate problems.
To combat climate change, it is important to understand developments of and relationships between climate data, such as greenhouse gas emissions and temperature. Econometric methods could be of great value in this process, but they are often not accessible for climate researchers and they are not always directly applicable to climate data. With her research, Friedrich, assistant professor of Econometrics, wants to make econometric methods more accessible and suitable for climate research.
“Climate researchers trying to use econometric tools currently face two challenges,” says Friedrich. “Firstly, not all analytical tools are suitable for climate data. Secondly, these methods are often not publicly accessible.” Friedrich will solve these issues by developing a new method for the analysis of relationships that are subject to structural change, such as climate change, and by making existing methods available through open-source and user-friendly software.
Applying econometrics in climate sciences opens endless opportunities. “To give one example: together with colleagues from the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), I will study the relationship between crop yields and climate variables, and how this relationship changes as a result of climate change. That is important to know with regards to food security.”
Another example is Friedrich’s research into the greenhouse gas ethane, for which they collaborate with geophysicists. They are keen to expand that collaboration in the future. “By working together, we can learn from each other and create synergies,” says Friedrich. The research aims to understand global developments in atmospheric ethane, mostly caused by humans through oil and gas production. “Knowing how ethane behaves in the atmosphere over time will also give a better picture of the fraction of the greenhouse gas methane which is caused by humans.”
News item is reposted from the website of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Find the original item here.
About the Veni Grant
The NWO Veni grant, of up to 320.000 euro, is awarded to excellent researchers who have recently obtained their PhD, to conduct independent research and develop their ideas for a period of three years. Laureates are at the start of their scientific career and display a striking talent for scientific research.
Four fellows of Tinbergen Institute have received a Veni grant during this round: Thomas Douenne (University of Amsterdam) on the interaction of inequality and climate policy, Marina Friedrich (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) on climate research, Albert Jan Hummel (University of Amsterdam) on labor-market policies, and Matthijs Korevaar (Erasmus University Rotterdam) on rental housing policies. All laureates of the 2023 round have been published here.