̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - fossil fuels

Cambridge research: First global bond index to address fossil fuel expansion

plc32 — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 11:48:40 +0000

This is a critical – and hugely challenging – moment for climate action. Legal and political pressures have paralysed asset managers and other financial service providers, leading to a recent wave of actors leaving investor climate coalitions. However, asset owners are increasingly seeing the need to take a leadership role in addressing climate change, which threatens the long-term future of their portfolios and the wider economy.

That’s why we are delighted to announce that Cambridge researchers based at the Department for Land Economy have selected index provider Bloomberg Index Services Limited to launch the first global corporate bond index to cover fossil fuel producers, utilities, insurance, and financing, with the aim of driving investment to reduce real-economy emissions.

You can read the ̽��ֱ�� press release here.

“We are delighted that this project has reached such a key milestone," said Professor Martin Dixon, Head of the Department of Land Economy. "As a multidisciplinary department with a focus on outstanding academic publication and teaching, this project has the potential to serve as a ‘systems demonstrator’ for ongoing research in this important area.”

Why a bond index?

̽��ֱ��launch of the bond index by an 816-year-old institution is an unusual process and a tale worth telling. It began with a peer-reviewed paper by Dr Ellen Quigley, Principal Research Associate at Land Economy, exploring the case for evidence-based climate impact by institutional investors. This was followed by an internal feasibility study based at Jesus College, Cambridge (which continues to co-host the project), and supported by several other parts of the ̽��ֱ��.

With feasibility assessed, the team went out to global index providers to explore their interest. All of the leading players were interested in building this index, yet all grappled with a lack of access to data and the complexity of assessing companies based on their activities (e.g., whether they were building new fossil fuel infrastructure), not their business classification. An extensive Request for Proposals process resulted in naming Bloomberg Index Services Limited as our provider. ̽��ֱ��project aims to provide a genuine solution for asset owners looking to align their corporate debt instruments with their climate targets and to avoid both ineffective blanket interventions and greenwashing.

̽��ֱ��central problem, on which the industry has faltered for decades, is how to manage the risk presented by a fossil fuel industry that continues to grow. Leading climate scenarios such as the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 scenario are clear that fossil fuel expansion is inconsistent with the transition to a decarbonised economy. With approximately 90% of new financing for fossil fuel expansion coming from bonds and bank loans, debt markets must be the focus of investor efforts to transition away from fossil fuel expansionism. Bonds offer a larger pool of capital than equities, and a greater proportion are purchased in the primary market, where companies gain access to new capital.

̽��ֱ��past decade has seen a significant rise in passive investment strategies and therefore an increase in financial flows into index funds, which have as a consequence become significant ‘auto-allocators’ of capital. This research project aims to study the extent to which the new bond index influences cost, volume, and access to capital among companies who are seeking to build new fossil fuel infrastructure and delaying the phase-down of their operations. Bond markets are not just a key part of investor action on climate change: they are the very coalface of fossil fuel expansion, i.e. new gas, oil, and coal extraction and infrastructure.

“This is an enormously impactful project which showcases the high-quality research undertaken at Cambridge," ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Chief Financial Officer Anthony Odgers said. " ̽��ֱ��index is a game-changer for the growing number of asset owners who invest in corporate debt and understand its impact on fossil fuel expansion, particularly the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure such as coal- and gas-fired power plants which risk locking in fossil fuel usage for decades."

“Once the index launches, Cambridge expects to invest some of its own money against financial products referencing it. This will enable us to align our fixed income holdings with our institution-wide objectives,” Odgers said.

There are currently no off-the-shelf products that allow for passive investments in global corporate bond markets without financing fossil fuel expansion, through fossil fuel production, utilities building new coal- and gas-fired power plants, and through the banks and insurers that continue to finance and underwrite these activities. By supporting the development of this ‘systems demonstrator’, we will be able to conduct essential research on the efficacy of such a lever.

“Instead of linear year-on-year reductions or blanket bans by business classification, the index methodology identifies companies that present the greatest systemic risks to investors, while ensuring that those companies that meet the criteria can rejoin the bond index,” said project leader Lily Tomson, a Senior Research Associate at Jesus College, Cambridge.

Several years of close collaboration with leading global asset owners such as California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), Swiss Federal Pension Fund PUBLICA and the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) provided input and technical market expertise that underpins the index. Alongside the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, the index will be used at launch by investments from the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund.

“Finally, large asset owners around the world have an index for this market that aims to discourage the expansion of fossil fuels,” said Pedro Guazo, Representative of the Secretary-General (RSG) for the investment of the UNJSPF assets.

Rules-based engagement: a lever for behaviour change

Debt benchmarks have a key role to play in any real efforts to tackle the expansion of fossil fuels. This project is innovative because it focuses on exclusions and weightings of companies based on their current corporate activity, instead of using an approach that relies on blanket exclusions by business classification (which does not generate incentives to change behaviour). For example, a company might be classed as a fossil fuel company, but if it stops expanding new fossil fuel operations and aligns to an appropriate phase-down pathway, the company has an opportunity to be included in the index and gain access to capital via funds which use the index, as a result.

Across the project, we are using data sources that have never previously been used to build an index – for example, the Global Coal Exit List (GCEL) and Global Oil and Gas Exit List (GOGEL) from Urgewald. We are taking a novel approach that focuses investor attention on those actors that our framework considers ‘edge cases’: companies close to reaching, or moving away from, alignment with the index. Companies have the option of being (re-)included in the index if they change their behaviour to align with the rules of the index. Academic literature suggests this is a lever for behaviour change in equities, but as an approach it is new to debt market indices. This is one of many key hypotheses that this project tests. We are convening a community of leading global academics who will support the creation of this new form of rules-based bondholder engagement.

This bond index project is one of a suite of actions rooted in academic research and collaboration that have been developed by the collegiate ̽��ֱ��. Alongside 74 other higher education institutions, Cambridge is delivering a parallel project focused on cash deposits and money market funds. We will continue to conduct research as the associated new products begin to operate through 2025.

At a time when climate damage is growing rapidly and is visible in news stories around the world, many actors across investment markets are looking for a clear path to take necessary action. As an academic institution and a long-term investor, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is committed to supporting evidence-based research and action on climate change.

̽��ֱ��bond index will be launched later this year. If you are interested in finding out more about the project or the team’s research, contact us here: bondindex@landecon.cam.ac.uk.

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge researchers based at the Department for Land Economy have selected index provider Bloomberg Index Services Limited to launch the first global corporate bond index to cover fossil fuel producers, utilities, insurance, and financing, with the aim of driving investment to reduce real-economy emissions.

This is an enormously impactful project which showcases the high-quality research undertaken at Cambridge

Anthony Odgers, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Chief Financial Officer

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Attribution

News article or big oil ad?

sc604 — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 16:43:33 +0000

In the battle against climate disinformation, native advertising is a fierce foe. A study published in the journal npj Climate Action by researchers from Boston ̽��ֱ�� (BU) and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, evaluates two promising tools to fight misleading native advertising campaigns put forth by big oil companies.

Many major news organisations now offer corporations the opportunity to pay for articles that mimic in tone and format the publication’s regular reported content. These ‘native advertisements’ are designed to camouflage seamlessly into their surroundings, containing only subtle disclosure messages often overlooked or misunderstood by readers. Fossil fuel companies are spending tens of millions of dollars to shape public perceptions of the climate crisis.

“Because these ads appear on reputable, trusted news platforms, and are formatted like reported pieces, they often come across to readers as genuine journalism,” said lead author Michelle Amazeen from BU’s College of Communication. “Research has shown native ads are really effective at swaying readers’ opinions.”

̽��ֱ��study is the first to investigate how two mitigation strategies — disclosures and inoculations — may reduce climate misperceptions caused by exposure to native advertising from the fossil fuel industry. ̽��ֱ��authors found that when participants were shown a real native ad from ExxonMobil, disclosure messages helped them recognise advertising, while inoculations helped reduce their susceptibility to misleading claims.

“As fossil fuel companies invest in disguising their advertisements, this study furthers our understanding of how to help readers recognise when commercial content is masquerading as news and spreading climate misperceptions,” said co-author Benjamin Sovacool, also from BU.

“Our study showed that communication-led climate action is possible and scalable by countering covert greenwashing campaigns, such as native advertising, at the source,” said co-author Dr Ramit Debnath from Cambridge’s Department of Architecture. “ ̽��ֱ��insights we’ve gained from this work will help us design better interventions for climate misinformation.”

̽��ֱ��research builds on a growing body of work assessing how people recognise and respond to covert misinformation campaigns. By better understanding these processes, the researchers hope that they can prevent misinformation from taking root and changing people’s beliefs and actions on important issues like climate change.

‘ ̽��ֱ��Future of Energy’ ad

Starting in 2018, readers of ̽��ֱ��New York Times website encountered what appeared to be an article, titled “ ̽��ֱ��Future of Energy,” describing efforts by oil and gas giant ExxonMobil to invest in algae-based biofuels. Because it appeared beneath the Times’ masthead, in the outlet’s typical formatting and font, many readers likely missed the small banner at the top of the page mentioning that it was an ad sponsored by ExxonMobil.

̽��ֱ��ad, part of a $5-million-dollar campaign, neglected to mention the company’s staggering carbon footprint. It also omitted key context, ̽��ֱ��Intercept reported, like that the stated goal for algae-based biofuel production would represent only 0.2% of the company’s overall refinery capacity. In a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Massachusetts cited the ad as evidence of the company’s “false and misleading” communications, with several states pursuing similar cases.

Putting two interventions to the test

̽��ֱ��researchers examined how more than a thousand participants responded to “ ̽��ֱ��Future of Energy” ad in a simulated social media feed.

Before viewing the ad, participants saw one, both, or neither of the following intervention messages:

An inoculation message designed to psychologically ‘inoculate’ readers from future influence by broadly warning them of potential exposures to misleading paid content. In this study, the inoculation message was a fictitious social media post from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reminding people to be wary of online misinformation.

A disclosure message with a simple line of text appearing on a post. In this study, the text “Paid Post by ExxonMobil” accompanied the piece. Studies have shown that more often than not, when native ads are shared on social media, this disclosure disappears.

Bolstering psychological resilience to native ads

̽��ֱ��team found that the ad improved opinions of ExxonMobil’s sustainability across the study’s many participants, regardless of which messages they saw, but that the interventions helped to reduce this effect. Some of the key findings include:

̽��ֱ��presence of a disclosure more than doubled the likelihood that a participant recognised the content as an ad. However, the participants who had seen a disclosure and those who had not were equally likely to agree with the statement “companies like ExxonMobil are investing heavily in becoming more environmentally friendly.”

Inoculation messages were much more effective than disclosures at protecting people’s existing beliefs on climate change, decreasing the likelihood that participants would agree with misleading claims presented in the ad.

“Disclosures helped people recognise advertising. However, they didn’t help them recognise that the material was biased and misleading,” said Amazeen. “Inoculation messaging provides general education that can be used to fill in that gap and help people resist its persuasive effects. Increasing general awareness about misinformation strategies used by self-interested actors, combined with clearer labels on sponsored content, will help people distinguish native ads from reported content.”

Reference

Michelle A Amazeen et al. ‘ ̽��ֱ��“Future of Energy”? Building resilience to ExxonMobil’s disinformation through disclosures and inoculation.’ npj climate action (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44168-025-00209-6

Adapted from a Boston ̽��ֱ�� story.

A sneaky form of advertising favoured by oil giants influences public opinion with climate action misperceptions, but researchers are studying potential solutions.

rob dobi vai Getty Images

Fueling the Fire of Misinformation - stock photo

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Emissions and evasions

plc32 — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 15:58:09 +0000

How Big Oil influences climate conversations on social media.

Researchers unravel the complex reaction pathways in zero-carbon fuel synthesis

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 11:54:46 +0000

When the eCO2EP: A chemical energy storage technology project started in 2018, the objective was to develop ways of converting carbon dioxide emitted as part of industrial processes into useful compounds, a process known as electrochemical CO2 reduction (eCO2R)

While eCO2R is not a new technique, the challenge has always been the inability to control the end products. Now, researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have outlined how carbon isotopes can be used to trace intermediates during the process, which will allow scientists to create more selective catalysts, control product selectivity, and promote eCO2R as a more promising production method for chemicals and fuels in the low-carbon economy. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Catalysis.

̽��ֱ��project was led by Professor Alexei Lapkin, from Cambridge’s Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES Ltd) and Professor Joel Ager, from the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS Ltd). Both organisations are part of the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation.

In the 1950s, Berkeley’s Melvin Calvin identified the elementary steps used in nature to fix carbon dioxide in photosynthesis. Calvin and his colleagues used a radioactive form of carbon as a tracer to learn the order in which intermediates appeared in the cycle now named after him, work which won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1961.

̽��ֱ��eCO2EP team found that with a sensitive enough mass spectrometer, they could use the small differences in reaction rates associated with the two stable isotopes of carbon, carbon-12 and carbon-13, to perform similar types of analyses.

First, a mixture of products such as methanol and ethylene were generated by a prototype reactor that was built to operate under industrial conditions. To detect both major and minor products in real time as the operating conditions were changed, high-sensitivity mass spectrometry was used.

Since high-sensitivity mass spectrometry is more commonly used in biological and atmospheric sciences, co-authors Dr Mikhail Kovalev and Dr Hangjuan Ren adapted the technique to their prototype system. They developed a method to directly sample the reaction environment with high sensitivity and time response.

̽��ֱ��researchers used the difference in reaction rates of carbon-12 and carbon-13 to group a product such as ethanol and its major intermediates sharing the same pathway, to deduce key relationships in the chemical network.

̽��ֱ��researchers found that there are substantial differences in the mechanisms at work in smaller reactors versus larger reactors, a finding which will enable them to better control product selectivity.

̽��ֱ��team also discovered that the reaction used less of the heavier carbon-13 isotope than carbon-12. This difference in usage was found to be five times greater than that observed in natural photosynthesis, where carbon-13 is fixed at a slower rate than carbon-12. This is inspiring efforts in Professor Ager’s lab to better understand fundamental physics and the chemical origins of this large and unanticipated effect. An international patent application has also been filed.

“ ̽��ֱ��set-up of the project within CREATE Campus allowed Joel and I to create an environment of creativity and ambition, to enable the researchers to excel and to target the really complex and interesting problems,” said Lapkin. “ ̽��ֱ��monitoring of multiple species in such a complex reaction is, by itself, a significant breakthrough by the team, but the ability to further dig into the mechanism by exploring the isotope enrichment effect has made all the difference.”

“This work required an interdisciplinary approach drawing on expertise from both Cambridge and Berkeley,” said Ager. “CREATE campus provided an ideal environment to realise this collaborative research with a skilled and motivated team.”

̽��ֱ��eCO2EP project was funded by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme.

Reference:
Hangjuan Ren et al. ‘Operando proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry of carbon dioxide reduction electrocatalysis.’ Nature Catalysis (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41929-022-00891-3.

Adapted from a story posted on the CARES website.

Researchers have used isotopes of carbon to trace how carbon dioxide emissions could be converted into low-carbon fuels and chemicals. ̽��ֱ��result could help the chemical industry, which is the third largest subsector in terms of direct CO2 emissions, recycle its own waste using current manufacturing processes.

yorkfoto via Getty Images

Chemical plant drone view

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Can aviation be sustainable?

sc604 — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 16:28:40 +0000

Air travel is one of the major contributors to global warming. Cambridge scientists are working with leading energy companies to help develop sustainable aviation fuels, which could reduce the industry’s carbon emissions by up to 80%.

Opinion: Russian gas will fund Putin’s war

sc604 — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 14:02:09 +0000

Would Europe cutting off Russian oil and gas imports be enough to convince Putin to stop the war on Ukraine? According to Dr Chi Kong Chyong from the Energy Policy Research Group at Cambridge Judge Business School, the global nature of energy markets means that stopping the flow of Russian oil and gas into Europe may not be the ‘hammer blow’ that Western countries are looking for.

Low-cost imaging technique shows how smartphone batteries could charge in minutes

sc604 — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 15:00:00 +0000

Using the low-cost technique, the researchers identified the speed-limiting processes which, if addressed, could enable the batteries in most smartphones and laptops to charge in as little as five minutes.

̽��ֱ��researchers, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, say their technique will not only help improve existing battery materials, but could accelerate the development of next-generation batteries, one of the biggest technological hurdles to be overcome in the transition to a fossil fuel-free world. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the journal Nature.

While lithium-ion batteries have undeniable advantages, such as relatively high energy densities and long lifetimes in comparison with other batteries and means of energy storage, they can also overheat or even explode, and are relatively expensive to produce. Additionally, their energy density is nowhere near that of petrol. So far, this makes them unsuitable for widespread use in two major clean technologies: electric cars and grid-scale storage for solar power.

“A better battery is one that can store a lot more energy or one that can charge much faster – ideally both,” said co-author Dr Christoph Schnedermann, from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. “But to make better batteries out of new materials, and to improve the batteries we’re already using, we need to understand what’s going on inside them.”

To improve lithium-ion batteries and help them charge faster, researchers need to follow and understand the processes occurring in functioning materials under realistic conditions in real time. Currently, this requires sophisticated synchrotron X-ray or electron microscopy techniques, which are time-consuming and expensive.

“To really study what’s happening inside a battery, you essentially have to get the microscope to do two things at once: it needs to observe batteries charging and discharging over a period of several hours, but at the same time it needs to capture very fast processes happening inside the battery,” said first author Alice Merryweather, a PhD student at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge team developed an optical microscopy technique called interferometric scattering microscopy to observe these processes at work. Using this technique, they were able to observe individual particles of lithium cobalt oxide (often referred to as LCO) charging and discharging by measuring the amount of scattered light.

They were able to see the LCO going through a series of phase transitions in the charge-discharge cycle. ̽��ֱ��phase boundaries within the LCO particles move and change as lithium ions go in and out. ̽��ֱ��researchers found that the mechanism of the moving boundary is different depending on whether the battery is charging or discharging.

“We found that there are different speed limits for lithium-ion batteries, depending on whether it’s charging or discharging,” said Dr Akshay Rao from the Cavendish Laboratory, who led the research. “When charging, the speed depends on how fast the lithium ions can pass through the particles of active material. When discharging, the speed depends on how fast the ions are inserted at the edges. If we can control these two mechanisms, it would enable lithium-ion batteries to charge much faster.”

“Given that lithium-ion batteries have been in use for decades, you’d think we know everything there is to know about them, but that’s not the case,” said Schnedermann. “This technique lets us see just how fast it might be able to go through a charge-discharge cycle. What we’re really looking forward to is using the technique to study next-generation battery materials – we can use what we learned about LCO to develop new materials.”

“ ̽��ֱ��technique is a quite general way of looking at ion dynamics in solid-state materials, so you can use it on almost any type of battery material,” said Professor Clare Grey, from Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, who co-led the research.

̽��ֱ��high throughput nature of the methodology allows many particles to be sampled across the entire electrode and, moving forward, will enable further exploration of what happens when batteries fail and how to prevent it.

“This lab-based technique we’ve developed offers a huge change in technology speed so that we can keep up with the fast-moving inner workings of a battery,” said Schnedermann. “ ̽��ֱ��fact that we can actually see these phase boundaries changing in real time was really surprising. This technique could be an important piece of the puzzle in the development of next-generation batteries.”

Reference:
Alice J. Merryweather et al. ‘Operando optical tracking of single-particle ion dynamics in batteries.’ Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03584-2

Researchers have developed a simple lab-based technique that allows them to look inside lithium-ion batteries and follow lithium ions moving in real time as the batteries charge and discharge, something which has not been possible until now.

This technique could be an important piece of the puzzle in the development of next-generation batteries

Christoph Schnedermann

Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay

Batteries charging

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Cambridge vs climate change | Vice-Chancellor's blog

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 07:30:01 +0000

In July this year, staff at the Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden registered the United Kingdom’s highest ever temperature: 38.7° C. Temperatures in the glasshouses rose to an unbearable 45° C. It is clear that far from being a unique occurrence, this is part of an evolving pattern. It is widely agreed that in the future we will have to contend with increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Climate change is real, and it is happening here and now.

Today sees the beginning of a global week of action on climate change. Around the world, schoolchildren, parents, teachers, environmental campaigners and concerned citizens will be gathering to raise awareness of the dangers posed by climate change. Here in Cambridge, and with the ̽��ֱ��’s full support, students and members of staff will be among the demonstrators urging policy-makers to heed the advice of the scientific community.

Part of our responsibility as a globally influential academic institution is to take a leading role in helping our society move towards a sustainable future. As young people take to the streets, it is worth reflecting on what the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is doing to mitigate the environmental threat.

Cambridge chemists and physicists are developing next-generation batteries and solar cells – both of which are vital in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Our engineers are supporting the delivery of electric forms of transport that will be essential for the UK to meet its decarbonisation targets. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre is developing methods to eliminate plastic waste.

Flood defences

From working with local communities to improve flood defences along the eastern coast, or alerting us to the increased pace of melting glaciers, to identifying populations who are most likely to shoulder the burden of climate change, our researchers are already deeply invested in helping us better understand the multifaceted nature of the challenge.

Our researchers are not only developing greener fuels, better technologies and more sustainable materials, but addressing all aspects of a zero-carbon future: the impact it will have on what we eat, how we work, how we travel, the way we communicate, how we measure economic progress and the way our societies are organised. Crucially, they are producing the knowledge to ensure that policy decisions are based on the best available evidence.

These academic efforts – arguably the greatest contribution we can make to tackling climate change – are backed up by action within the ̽��ֱ�� itself, as we continue to implement the recommendations made by the Divestment Working Group in 2018.

We are leading by example, and demonstrating what is achievable. Our Sustainable Food Policy, launched in 2016, has already reduced food-related carbon emissions from our catering service by a third, and has been widely held up as an example for large institutions.

More recently, Cambridge became the first university in the world to announce that it has adopted a science-based target for decarbonisation, committing itself to a 75% decrease of its 2015 energy-related carbon emissions by 2030, and to reducing them to absolute zero by 2048. We are working with local authorities to plan a future that offers staff practical and affordable ways of travelling sustainably to and from work. Through our Green Impact programme we will be seeking ideas from students and staff on how we can accelerate our decarbonisation.

New initiative

Later this term, we will be formally launching a major new initiative, led by Dr Emily Shuckburgh, harnessing the full breadth of the ̽��ֱ��’s research and teaching capabilities to respond to climate change and support the transition to a sustainable future, both in the UK and globally.

̽��ֱ��new initiative will develop a bold programme of education, research, demonstration projects and knowledge exchange focused on supporting a zero carbon world. Its ambition is to generate and disseminate the ideas and innovations that will shape our future – and to equip a future generation of leaders with the skills to navigate the global challenges of the coming decades.

It is being launched only a few months after the UK became the first major world economy to legislate for net zero emissions. Eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will mean a fundamental change over the coming decades in all aspects of our economy, including how we generate energy, and how we build decarbonisation into policy and investment.

Through the initiative we will engage in active collaboration with other universities and research institutes in the UK and beyond, including the newly established Global Universities Alliance on Climate.

Unite behind the science

As the world’s leaders gather in Chile later this year for the latest round of climate change talks, the ̽��ֱ�� will be decisively setting out its stall to demonstrate how it contributes to tackling this most pressing of global challenges.

I am encouraged by the younger generations’ determination to make their voices heard on the key issue of climate change. I am especially struck by the rallying cry from that remarkable activist, Greta Thunberg, to “unite behind the science”, and to put “the best available science [at] the heart of politics”.

That is exactly what Cambridge is determined to do – not only on this day of climate action, or even this week, but for the long term.

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope, kicks off a global day of action with a discussion on the ̽��ֱ��’s efforts to tackle climate change.

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