Reflections on the first two decades of SEI Oxford

A reflective statement by Ruth Butterfield, Director of SEI Oxford, marking the 20th anniversary of the Stockholm Environment Institute's outpost in Oxford. The document outlines the center's evolution from a small team focused on rural vulnerability to a global actor in climate change adaptation, mitigation, and policy bridging.

• SEI Oxford was established 20 years prior to 2022 by Ruth Butterfield, Tom Downing, and Kate Lonsdale, who transitioned from the University of Oxford's Environment Change Institute. The center's initial mission, defined by former SEI Executive Director Roger Kasperson, focused on examining rural vulnerability and livelihoods with a strong emphasis on bridging science and policy.
• The center adopted a core methodology of participatory engagement with stakeholders, utilizing interdisciplinary approaches to manage river basins as social-ecological systems and to coordinate experts from various professional backgrounds.
• SEI Oxford contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, with staff members Tom Downing and Anna Taylor being among the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for their contributions to the IPCC report that year.
• The center launched weADAPT, a pioneering climate change adaptation platform and network. By 2022, the platform had reached 6,000 registered users across 220 countries and territories, with user growth increasing by approximately one-third between 2020 and 2021.
• The center's scope has expanded to include international climate law, online climate negotiations, social and agent-based modelling for disaster preparedness, and the creation of a report on the global fossil fuel production gap to track discrepancies between government plans and the goals of limiting warming to 1.5°C or 2°C.

APA

Butterfield, R. (2022). Reflections on the first two decades of SEI Oxford. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sei-oxford-20th-anniversary-reflections.pdf

Chicago

Butterfield, Ruth. Reflections on the first two decades of SEI Oxford. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sei-oxford-20th-anniversary-reflections.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Butterfield |first1=Ruth |title=Reflections on the first two decades of SEI Oxford |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=September 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sei-oxford-20th-anniversary-reflections.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{butterfield2022reflections, author = {Butterfield, Ruth}, title = {{Reflections on the first two decades of SEI Oxford}}, publisher = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sei-oxford-20th-anniversary-reflections.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }