Stories

ActNowFilm – an official COP26 Universities Network project - will be shown in the Green Zone at COP26. ActNowFilm was produced by student volunteers, Cambridge Zero and the University of Bath Institute for Policy Research (IPR), in partnership with GAUC. It showcases the views of 16-30 year olds, and is drawn from films submitted by over 140 young people from 32 countries.

This summer, Cambridge Zero’s Rosa Prosser produced six short films which showcase current and future careers necessary to achieve net-zero by 2050. With COP26 and associated protests ongoing in Glasgow, it is clear a green recovery is necessary, and that young people are motivated to be a part of it. Providing the right information is pivotal to ensuring those at the beginning of their careers feel empowered to make their employment contribute to tackling the climate crisis.

This summer, Cambridge Zero’s Rosa Prosser produced six short films which showcase current and future careers necessary to achieve net-zero by 2050. Each episode is organised by theme, highlighting roles ranging from nature-based solutions to public policy. Read here how to stream them from COP26, watch in person at Wolfson Hall or watch them virtually on youtube!

After a busy COP26 day 2, read highlights from world leaders' statements and negotiations. Also, hear Cambridge’s Professor Laura Diaz Anadon’s thoughts on the opening ceremony.

A series of briefs written by the US-UK Youth Coalition on Climate Policy offers insights on UK and US shared interests. The authors, including Cambridge Marshall scholars, produced recommendations for the US and UK at COP26 and beyond, spanning domestic and international policymaking. Across themes of global security, lands and ecosystems, just energy transitions, and youth mental health, these include recommendations for adapting to and mitigating climate change within COP26 negotiations.

The ‘Futures We Want’ project - coordinated by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Deloitte, and Cambridge Zero - brought together teams from around the world and across disciplines to develop ideas for feasible, desirable futures to present at the upcoming COP26 climate conference. Hear about the eight Cambridge-based postdocs' experiences of being involved in the process.

Numerous festival discussions are available on-demand and showcase COP26 relevant research and work carried out across Cambridge and its wider global community. Here we highlight three of the many available discussions and signpost other events occurring across the Cambridge community.

In association with the COP26 Universities Network, a new paper from a group of UK University Students including multiple Cambridge authors urges policymakers to look beyond the horizon of 2050 and consider policies' impacts across future generations' lifetimes.

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.