The UN’s climate change conference (COP26) in Glasgow last year was recognised as the world’s last chance to ‘keep 1.5°C alive’ – the temperature increase limit beyond which climate change becomes increasingly dangerous for the planet and society. With new findings indicating that the chances of breaching 1.5°C in one of the next five years are almost 50:50, the University is leading the vital research needed to help ensure that this ambition to limit global warming remains a possibility.
The University has joined many others in declaring a climate emergency. It has created the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action (BISCA) and, most notably, delivered recommendations from our 'Keeping 1.5 Degrees Alive' report to the House of Lords in May.
Helping leaders meet our climate change goals
This new report takes urgent research into the real world and offers clear and actionable recommendations to help policymakers and business leaders make informed decisions across three key themes:
- Making the change from fossil fuels to clean energy, including Birmingham’s research on air pollution
- Leveraging University research to understand climate change and its impacts today, and to project future scenarios
- How the University itself can be a living lab, helping deliver real change through testing and trials, and by educating future generations
Birmingham aims to give stakeholders the evidence and tools they need to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and to encourage a shift in human behaviour across politics, business and wider society. Read the report in full.
BISCA: Turning science into solutions
Led by David Hannah (Professor of Hydrology, UNESCO Chair in Water Sciences and one of Reuters top 1,000 most influential climate scientists), BISCA aims to take climate action by helping translate scientific evidence into practical policies, with key findings on everything from renewable energy, clean transport and nature-based solutions, to applying greener approaches across business, finance and law.
University research plays an essential role in building the evidence base to understand the evolving realities of climate change - translating evidence into policies and other actions, analysing the effectiveness of policies, and prototyping and assessing innovation and technologies for a net zero future.
Find all the medals throughout the autumn 2022 edition of Old Joe to enter our Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games competition.