UCL Climate Action Unit - a 2024 update

Hello, and happy new year from the team at the UCL Climate Action Unit. For those who haven’t come across us, we are an interdisciplinary group that draws on insights from neuroscience and psychology to help overcome the human barriers preventing action on climate change.
 
Earth Sciences & the MAPS Faculty have provided solid foundations for our work since we launched in July 2021, and several of our staff are affiliated with the Department including our Chair Prof. Chris Rapley, and our Directors Dr Kris De Meyer and Dr Lucy Hubble-Rose.

As 2024 begins, the Unit is busy at work on several projects to change how scientists, policymakers, businesses, media and civil society organisations engage with each other about climate change. This includes:

• An ESRC-funded project which coordinates climate action initiatives between local government umbrella organisations and universities
• The EU Horizon-funded ‘Learning Ventures for Climate Justice’ project, which explores the effectiveness of local learning ecosystems to engage communities in climate-related activities
• The Cohort 2040 project with the Institute of Public Policy & Research which helps future decision-makers embrace the uncertain impacts of climate system tipping points in their approach to risk assessment
• The DESNZ-funded Climate Science for Net Zero project which provides structures and processes for IPCC scientists to properly engage with the needs of policymakers. 

Beyond our project work, we’ve also been putting the Climate Action Unit’s thinking out into the public arena. Notably, in late 2023 Kris gave a compelling TEDxLondon talk challenging the conventional approach to climate communication. In it, Kris explains how actions play a more pivotal role in shaping beliefs and emphasises the power of narratives that inspire others to initiate their own action.

We’ve also been creating content to engage with the private sector. Our two-part course for the website Sustainability Unlocked (which launches in 2024) covers what needs to change for the financial sector to more comprehensively account for the risks climate change poses to businesses. 

If it sounds like we’re an unconventional beast to sit in a university, that’s probably because we are. But one of our underpinning aims is to ensure that science delivers benefit for society, and that’s something we’re doing by bringing our skillset and tools into several research projects at UCL. 

To find out more about how we work or to connect with us, you can reach out to us on LinkedIn or via email at climateactionunit@ucl.ac.uk.