What are we doing about it?
The case for urgent climate action is clearer than ever before. So what are we doing about it? Find out how we play a vital role in climate research and action worldwide, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
It's 'unequivocal' that humans are responsible for the climate crisis and the chaos that global heating is unleashing on the world.
Climate change now affects every content, region and ocean on Earth, including the weather.
We are already experiencing rapid changes such as sea-level rise, melting polar ice and glaciers, heatwaves, floods and droughts - with the worse yet to come.
But not all hope is lost. Only drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions this decade can prevent us from rising global temperatures to a disastrous extent.
The time to act is now
As one of the world's leading universities, we play a vital role in tackling the numerous complex climate challenges.
We've provided just a few highlights of how we are driving research, innovation and action worldwide, plus some more details below.
Our researchers:
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What is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?
The IPCC is the leading international body for assessing climate change.
Every five to seven years, the IPCC produces Assessment Reports. These are the most comprehensive scientific reports about climate change produced worldwide. Each Assessment Report has fed directly into international climate policymaking.
We are among the world-leading scientists who have made crucial contributions to the IPCC Assessment Reports and the Special Reports, guiding policies around the globe.
In addition, IPCC has exclusively selected several of our researchers as Lead Authors, Contributing Authors and Expert Reviewers for the reports. Each of the selected scientists, specialists and experts are exclusively chosen from nominations by specialists, governments and organisations worldwide because of their world-leading expertise.
Our impact on the IPCC
Find out about our researchers and contributions to the IPCC reports.
You can access the information on the reports under each drop-down menu below:
In August 2021, the IPCC published the first instalment, 'The Physical Science Basis', of its long-awaited Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).
It made news headlines around the world and responses from key figures, including global political leaders.
Crucially, this report will be used to inform the discussions of world leaders at the UN climate change talks (known as COP26) in November 2021.
It is eight years since the IPCC's fifth assessment of climate science (AR5). Therefore the new report benefits from almost a decade of work of additional research, observations and technological progress.
Our contributions
The report recognised and cited numerous works by our researchers, including several key figures. Our researchers also fed into the assessment process by the IPCC.
In addition, several of our researchers were exclusively selected as Contributing Authors and Expert Reviewers due to their world-leading expertise.
Contributing Author
Dr Andrew Schurer was selected as a Contributing Author for 'Chapter 3: Human influence on the climate system'.
He was responsible for providing text and expert opinion about the climate of the last millennium. This included a figure that demonstrates human influence on large-scale precipitation patterns.
Expert Reviewer
Professor Gabi Hegerl was specifically selected as an Expert Reviewer for the report and was involved in discussions across the IPCC Working Groups on attributing causes to observed changes. In this role, she was responsible for addressing review comments for the chapter drafts, including how well sections were reviewed and ensuring the team addressed any major controversies.
Researchers
The IPCC recognised and cited the work by nineteen of our researchers throughout this report.
You can find out more about their research under each of their profiles below:
View the report
We've provided highlights on the latest report:
Starkest warning yet - what our research and latest IPCC (AR6) report reveals
Many of the findings in earlier reports have been strengthened and sharpened in this report. Importantly, the need for a limited carbon budget and transition to net-zero emissions has been confirmed, and the uncertainty around the climate sensitivity narrowed.
This report also shows some new ideas and important innovations, focusing more on climate risks than possible in earlier reports. It confirms impressively to what extent we are already experiencing changes in extreme weather and climate extremes, from heat waves to heavy rainfall to drought. It shows with ever more clarity that the more we limit global warming by rapidly transitioning to net-zero emissions, the more we avoid moving into a dangerous world.
Unless we transition to net zero, we will see increasingly more damaging events.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) prepares comprehensive Assessment Reports about climate change, its causes, potential impacts and response options. In addition to the comprehensive Assessment Reports, the IPCC also produces Special Reports, which assess a specific issue.
The IPCC has produced three Special Reports:
- Global Warming of 1.5 degrees C (2018)
- Climate Change and Land (2019)
- Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2019)
Our researchers have made significant contributions to Special Reports, which are guiding policies around the world.
In addition, IPCC exclusively selected several of our researchers as Lead Authors, Contributing Authors and Expert Reviewers due to their world-leading expertise.
Global Warming of 1.5 degrees C (2018)
Following the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change requested advice from the IPCC to limit climate warming to 1.5 degrees C. The 2018 landmark IPCC Special Report on 'Global Warming of 1.5 degrees C', referenced our work, with findings applied directly in calculating future emissions allowable without exceeding 1.5C warming. The report's findings underpin the subsequent strengthening of climate change targets worldwide, and has guided climate change policies across the globe.
- Dr Vivian Scott was selected as an Expert Reviewer
- Professor Dave Reay was selected as an Expert Reviewer
The IPCC recognised and cited the work by our researchers throughout this report.
You can find out more about their research under each of their profiles below:
| Dr Vivian Scott | Professor Gabi Hegerl | Professor Simon Tett |
| Professor Stuart Haszeldine | Professor Dave Reay | Dr Peter Alexander |
| Dr Simon Shackley | Dr Mark Wilkinson | Professor Dan van der Horst |
Climate Change and Land (2019)
This IPCC Special Report addresses greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in land-based ecosystems, land use and sustainable land management in relation to climate change adaptation and mitigation, desertification, land degradation and food security.
It was a landmark study by 107 experts from 52 countries and broke new ground with more authors from developing countries than authors from developed countries. In addition, it brought together authors not only from the IPCC's traditional scientific communities but also those from sister UN organisations.
- Professor Mark Rounsevell was selected as a Lead Author
- Dr Peter Alexander was selected as a Contributing Author
- Professor Gabi Hegerl was selected as a Expert Reviewer
- Professor Dave Reay was selected as a Expert Reviewer
The IPCC recognised and cited the work by our researchers throughout this report.
You can find out more about their research under each of their profiles below:
| Professor Mark Rounsevell | Dr Peter Alexander | Professor Gabi Hegerl |
| Professor Dave Reay | Professor Marc J Metzger | Dr Simon Shackley |
| Professor Stuart Haszeldine | Professor Dan van der Horst |
Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2019)
This 2019 Special Report assessed new knowledge since the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) and the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR15).
It provides an assessment of how the ocean and cryosphere have, and are, expected to change with ongoing global warming, the risks and opportunities these changes bring to ecosystems and people, and mitigation, adaptation and governance options for reducing future risks.
- Professor Murray Roberts was selected as Contributing Author for 'Chapter 5: Changing ocean, marine ecosystems and dependent communities.'
- Dr Sebastian Hennige was selected as Contributing Author for 'Chapter 5: Changing ocean, marine ecosystems and dependent communities.'
- Professor Peter Nienow was selected as a Expert Reviewer for 'Chapter 3: Polar regions.'
The IPCC recognised and cited the work by our researchers throughout this report.
You can find out more about their research under each of their profiles below:
The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) was released in instalments through three Working Groups throughout 2013 and 2014.
Thirty of our researchers made significant contributions to AR5. The report provided the scientific foundation for the Paris Agreement and is guiding policies around the world.
In addition, IPCC exclusively selected several of our researchers as Lead Authors, Contributing Authors and Expert Reviewers due to their world-leading expertise.
Pioneering climate science
Professor Gabi Hegerl's seminal work has pioneered the method to detect the 'human fingerprint' in anthropogenic climate change through combining observations and climate model simulations.
Her method has become one of the central pillars of climate science.
Since then, our researchers have played a significant role in determining critical relationships between greenhouse gas emissions and climate warming. We made crucial contributions to estimating the 'human fingerprint' in the climate system from observed change. This also included methods for estimating climate sensitivity, which is how much greenhouse gas emissions warm the climate.
We achieved this through world-leading analysis synthesising multiple sources of evidence, including:
- observed warming in the pre-and post-industrial period paleoclimate
- instrumental records
- physical understanding derived from worldwide modelling approaches.
This led to the quantification of the Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS) – a key climate metric showing how how much greenhouse gas emissions warm the climate.
Our work was used as evidence in the IPCC Fifth Assessment (AR5) reports which underpinned the Paris Agreement.
The IPCC exclusively selected Professor Hegerl for the Core Author Team of the AR5 Synthesis Report, the overarching and top-level document of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report. She also led the section on observed emissions and changes in the climate in the report.
In addition, Professor Hegerl led the Guidance Paper on the attribution of observed climate change and impacts to causes for use across the IPCC's working groups. It was widely used and cited in the overarching IPCC 5th Assessment Report and is still used today, including the latest Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).
At the Approval Plenary for the report involving all the United Nations country delegations, Professor Gabi Hegerl presented the keynote presentation on climate sensitivity. It was one of only four key science presentations given to directly communicate the report's findings to the full plenary session of government representatives.
Working Group I: the physical science basis
This Working Group assesses the physical scientific basis of the climate system and climate change.
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Professor Gabi Hegerl was selected as:
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Draft Contributing Author (Summary)
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Lead Author for 'Chapter 10: Detection and attribution of climate change from global to regional'
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Contributing Author for 'Chapter 12: Long-term climate change: projections, commitments and irreversibility'
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Expert Reviewer
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Professor David Stevenson was selected as:
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Contributing Author for ‘Chapter 8: Anthropogenic and natural radiative forcing’
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Contributing Author for ‘Chapter 11: Near-term climate change: projections and predictability’
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Contributor to ‘Annex II: Climate system scenario tables’
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Expert Reviewer
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Dr Andrew Schurer was selected as Contributing Author for 'Chapter 10: Detection and attribution of climate change from global to regional'
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Dr Peter Alexander was selected as Contributing Author
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Professor Ruth Doherty was selected as Expert Reviewer
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Dr Massimo Bollasina was selected as Expert Reviewer
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Professor Richard Essery was selected as Expert Reviewer
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Professor Dave Reay was selected as a Expert Reviewer
Our research
The IPCC recognised and cited the work by our researchers throughout this report.
You can find out more about their research under each of their profiles below:
Working Group II: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability
This Working Group assesses the impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities of socio-economic and natural systems related to climate change.
- Professor Mark Rounsevell was selected as Lead Author
- Dr Meriwether Wilson was selected as Contributing Author for 'Chapter 23: Europe'
- Professor Marc J Metzger was selected as Contributing Author for 'Chapter 23: Europe'
- Professor Murray Roberts was selected as:
- Contributing Author for 'Chapter 6: Ocean Systems'
- Expert Reviewer
Our research
The IPCC recognised and cited the work by our researchers throughout this report.
You can find out more about their research under each of their profiles below:
Working Group III: mitigation
Working Group III assesses all relevant options for mitigating climate change through limiting or preventing greenhouse gas emissions and taking actions to remove them from the atmosphere
- Dr Saran Sohi was selected as Contributing Author for 'Chapter 11: Agriculture, Forestry and other land use.'
The IPCC recognised and cited the work by our researchers throughout this report.
You can find out more about their research under each of their profiles below:
The IPCC reports are a really big deal for climate change. So what are they? And why should we trust them?
You can learn about the role of the IPCC reports - and why the gruelling review process makes them the ultimate source of climate change information.
We must get the message across that we are living through climate change, and no matter what action we take now, the carbon we’ve already put into the atmosphere won’t go away. The best-case scenario is that climate we have now is the one we’ll have forever.
Want to know more?
We've provided some useful links for you. To see the information, simply click on each heading below:
Making a difference starts here, with our diverse undergraduate, postgraduate and research degree programmes.
Study with us, and join one of the largest and most successful groupings of geographers and geoscientists in the UK as we address the most compelling issues of our time.
You will also become part of one of the top universities in the world. We’re 16th in the most recent QS World University Rankings.
Check out our degrees and help us change the world.
Our work supports global initiatives to mitigate the effects of climate change and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.
We encourage you to read the other stories on our 'Innovation, impact and engagement' pages.
In addition, the following related stories on the University Impact website may interest you:
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Adjusting for humanity’s fingerprints Six years ago, Professors Gabi Hegerl and Simon Tett’s work to prove human-caused greenhouse gasses are warming our planet underpinned the 2015 Paris Agreement. Today they argue we still aren’t doing enough to adapt to climate change. |
Adjusting for humanity's fingerprints |
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Going underground For decades removing harmful carbon from the atmosphere and storing it safely under the sea was a mere pipe dream. Edinburgh researchers are helping make it a reality. |
Going underground |
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Signals from a drowning world Melting ice sheets and glaciers are a startling reminder of the rate of climate change. However, measuring ice loss was an inaccurate science... until Edinburgh experts helped change things. |
Signals from a drowning world |
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Uncovering the mysteries of the deep The health of the world’s oceans might be high on the political agenda, but how do we maintain their wellbeing with so much still unknown about them? Edinburgh researchers have been instrumental in a major project that has shone a light into the depths of the Atlantic. |
Uncovering the mysteries of the deep |
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Seeing the woods Getting a clear picture of how much living matter is in the world's forests and savannas - key data in managing these vital carbon stores - has always been tricky. Satellite technology is changing that. |