Climate change campaign to get under way
The University is to launch a pioneering campaign to influence and inform the global debate around climate change.
‘Edinburgh Action for the Climate’ will harness the expertise of the University’s many academics currently conducting ground-breaking research into areas such as carbon capture and storage and renewable energy.
The University’s aim is to become a hub within the wider city for the exchange of ideas and opinions about how best to tackle one of the world’s great global challenges.
The launch of the campaign is the next step in a programme of substantial action to support the University’s first climate strategy and its ongoing review of its investments portfolio.
As part of its commitment to responsible investment, Edinburgh recently divested from three of the world’s biggest coal and tar sands companies - Shell, RioTinto and BHP Billiton.
As a leading research-intensive university, Edinburgh is blazing the trail in the fight against climate change. We have world-leading academics working on research aimed at tackling this major international challenge, examining everything from carbon management through to wind and wave technology. With the launch of ‘Edinburgh Action for the Climate’ we now seek to position ourselves as a centre for creative debate around the issues affecting our climate and a source of expertise at the highest level.
Ongoing research
As well as hosting facilities such as the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation - a state-of-the-art energy efficient hub for low-carbon knowledge - the University is also home to the FloWave Ocean Energy Research facility, a unique wave tank where marine energy systems can be tested and refined.
The University’s staff, students and alumni between them already support a wide range of action and the campaign will harness and apply that energy to identify new ways of working and new opportunities.
We have a lot to offer to inform the debate around climate change as well as in providing solutions. We want to reach out to anyone interested in that debate – whether from within the University community or outside of it – to join us and shape the future on action for the climate.
An early focus for the campaign will be the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris later this year- the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The University is sending a delegation of staff and students to the conference, whose objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, from all nations of the world.
More information on the Edinburgh Action for the Climate campaign can be found on the University’s Social Responsibility and Sustainability website.