Stories

Last November the University of Cambridge launched its first global festival, dedicated to raising awareness of climate change and decarbonisation through engagement between academic and broader communities. This year we will build on this achievement by focusing on the important work our communities are doing in the run-up to COP26, the United Nations international climate change conference taking place in Glasgow.

Join us from the 15th-20th October! https://climatechangefestival.zero.cam.ac.uk

If you want policymakers to ‘get’ climate risk, link the hazard you research to concerns they already understand. These could be issues like jobs, economic growth, or national security.

Insights from psychology and neuroscience suggest individuals engage with a risk most effectively when it speaks to their ‘inner elephant’: the part of the brain responsible for our intuitive, automatic thinking.

AU4DM is a community of researchers and professionals from policy, industry, and academia, seeking to improve decision-making under uncertainty. The core of our work is decision science. At the same time, we have discovered the value of sparkling interdisciplinary collaboration across the social sciences and arts and humanities. On 1 October 2021, AU4DM teamed up with Climate Action Unit to host a special workshop on Communicating Climate Risk, supported by Cambridge Zero and the COP26 Universities network.

Global cities share recommendations on how to strengthen urban resilience and embed adaptation into wider city processes and systems

Increasingly frequent and destructive extreme weather and climate events are already tearing apart the socio-economic fabric of our civilisation. A look at extreme event attribution in humanitarian, financial and legal contexts.

Preparedness and response to compound dry-hot extreme events. What is being done? What more is needed? A roadmap to reduce impacts, based on scientific evidence and professional experience, aimed at empowering individuals and communities.

Tipping Points are critical thresholds beyond which a system reorganizes, often abruptly and/or irreversibly. The probability of crossing such critical thresholds in the climate system may be low, but the impacts of triggering a tipping point could be catastrophic and far-reaching.

Expert panellists identify the need for interdisciplinary action and improved modelling tools to help reduce public scepticism in future coastal flood hazard assessments.

Risk cascades from climate impacts are severe, already occurring and must be incorporated into risk assessments. While predicting such chain reactions is difficult, building resilience against them fortuitously means reducing inequalities

Engage for Change is a twelve-week programme for students at the University of Cambridge who want to learn to make change happen.You will design, implement and evaluate your own environmental sustainability-related intervention, aligned with the University's Environmental Sustainability Vision, Policy and Strategy.

A new paper by leading UK scientists sets out key solutions and policy actions that should be implemented now, as well as priority research areas for the next decade, if the UK is to reach its net zero target by 2050.

The University of Cambridge is carrying out a consultation with staff and students to gain feedback on a draft Sustainable Business Travel Policy. We invite you to share your views through the consultation questionnaire, open until 3pm on Friday 29 October.

We would like to invite all students at the University of Cambridge, postgraduates, and undergraduates alike, to fill out this 6-minute survey so we can better understand your needs and wants within climate change education and sustainability. Deadline: 16th August 

As part of the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC), Cambridge Zero co-hosted this virtual conference 29-30 June 2021. Watch the presentations on-demand here.

Bitcoin is now generating more carbon emissions than a mid-size European country as the world’s largest cryptocurrency has soared in value over the past several years, according to research recently published in Nature Communications.

Climate Exp0 is taking place May 17- May 21, 2021. This even takes place at a critical juncture in the COP26 pre-meetings and negotiations, and is part of the All4Climate Italy 2021 official pre-COP26 initiatives.

To avoid environmentally and economically devastating climate breakdown, quick action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is essential. Dr. Magda Berecka describes exiting new research that showcases an economically viable way to implement CO2 conversion reactors through their integration into an existing chemical production process.

“I am not alone in my journey; there are so many others who are worried but also impassioned, who are determined to educate themselves and then, most importantly, to act.”

Professors Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger and Ilaria Espa examine the important and evolving role of International Law in providing coherent and effective systems for the sustainable management of natural resources.

Utilising environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics in investment decisions has seen spectacular growth. Companies’ carbon footprints are under particularly close scrutiny, which has led to an increase in corporate divestiture. But what is the real impact?

The COVID-19 lockdown meant a significant reduction in emissions from transport, industry, and aviation. This improved air quality in many regions, but did it impact climate? Read more about a recent study to investigate.

In his annual address, Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen J Toope today announced that the University of Cambridge aims to divest from all direct and indirect investments in fossil fuels by 2030 as part of its plan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2038.

Cambridge Cleantech are supporting climate-positive businesses in this difficult period through online support programmes on topics such as access to finance, new grant funding schemes and contract opportunities with corporates.

COVID-19 has led to a resurgence in plastic use across society, from PPE to the likes of Starbucks no longer accepting reusable cups. At CirPlas, there is hope that this plastic renaissance will inspire more holistic thinking about plastics and their lifecycle.