UEA’S CLIMATE ACTION PLAN

ctions have consequences. Collectively, the actions of our species have set in motion a chain of events that will do untold damage. Changing conditions will make landscapes inhospitable and ways of life unrecognisable. Extreme weather patterns will become more common. The world will struggle with the challenges of desertification, sea-level rise and species loss. Our global ecosystem will tilt until it collapses.

Unless, that is, we can take decisive, positive action before it is too late. We must limit global temperature rises to 2°C before the critical decade is out.

Our philanthropic community is gathering behind UEA’s practical manifesto to tackle our climate emergency. This four-point plan will provide world-leading scientific leadership that equips governments, organisations and individuals with the tools we need to make a difference.

The 2020s must be our decade of action. This is the first decade in which the disastrous effects of climate change are becoming visible to the naked eye and the last in which we can act to reverse it.

UEA is ideally placed to deliver on this ambitious plan. Our University established the UK’s first climatic research unit nearly 50 years ago. We have made the most substantial and sustained contribution of any university to the evidence base of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The Power Of Data

UEA will establish an Observatory for Climate Recovery to gather verifiable data about climate change and determine what must be done. Building on the existing expertise in the UEA Tyndall Centre, we will look at ways that human behaviour can be adapted where possible and its impact mitigated where not.

The world needs objective evidence on rainfall, temperature change, carbon emission levels and air composition. We will exploit the modern-day explosion of data – whether from container ships, submarine exploration, satellites or the phones in our pockets.

UEA teams are already talking to Google about using their extraordinary quantity and history of GPS data to understand how forest fires start and spread. We’re partnering with the authorities in cities like Milan to examine precisely what happens to emissions after a transport policy shift from motor vehicles to walking and cycling.

Understanding The Evidence

Weather patterns and natural disasters that were previously once-in-a-generation events are now occurring with chilling regularity. To plan for potential crises, authorities will need u u access to peer-reviewed evidence and the latest science base.

Our vision is for ScienceBrief to become an ambitious, comprehensive platform led by an outstanding team of researchers, analysts, science communicators and technicians to translate data for politicians, businesses and individuals in charge of public action and policy. Whenever there is a hurricane, drought, forest fire, flood or climate-related health emergency, this new platform will be the cited authority on the science of change.

The ScienceBrief team is led by Professor Corinne Le Quéré CBE, who was awarded the Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences for her research.

New Thinking For Fragile Ecosystems

The risk of climate change to global ecosystems is well documented. But what if environmental protections for at-risk species and landscapes could also be used to help in the fight against climate change?

The joined-up thinking necessary for naturebased climate solutions is only possible through coordination and collaboration. This is the task of the new Research Centre for Ecosystems and Climate Sustainability.

Our team will work to better understand the specific pressures that ecosystems face, before developing solutions in partnership with organisations across the world.

For example, our marine environment has been subjected to a poisonous cocktail of acidification, temperature rise, overfishing and plastic pollution. As water covers around 70% of the planet, and oceans play an important role in absorbing carbon, investing in their health has enormous potential. UEA is already working with colleagues at the UK Government’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science to better model the increasing instability of our seas. We are also studying natural sea defences such as sand dunes and marshes in place of solutions like concrete walls.

On land, our future will depend on the health of the rainforests. Led by Professor Carlos Peres, a winner of Time Magazine’s Environmentalist Leader for the New Millennium Award, we are researching how the ability of rainforests to act as a carbon sink is being threatened. The sooner that funding for this new Research Centre is provided, the sooner we can influence policymakers, avoid catastrophic damage and, crucially, begin to reverse our losses.

Left ScienceBrief will become a comprehensive platform to share peer-reviewed evidence and the latest science base on climate change, including sea level rise.

Right

The Research Centre for Ecosystems and Climate Sustainability studies the specific pressures that ecosystems face.

Protecting Our Poles

Finally, and in some ways, most importantly, we’ll focus on the place where climate change is manifesting most dramatically – in the UEA Polar Initiative. Summer sea-ice cover has shrunk by more than half in the past 40 years. Climate models predict the remaining half could be gone in the next 30 unless carbon emissions are rapidly reduced. Melting sea ice exposes dark ocean surfaces that absorb rather than reflect sunlight, accelerating warming in the polar regions.

Sea ice also lies at the interface between the ocean and the atmosphere. As well as providing a unique habitat for a variety of microorganisms, sea ice modifies the Earth’s energy balance, surface water properties and gas exchange processes. Understanding these processes is key to the polar climate.

The Roland von Glasow Air-Sea-Ice Chamber is a specialist sea ice laboratory built on the UEA campus to replicate conditions in polar regions. We will study how ice forms and melts, the life of microbes under the surface and the interaction of melting ice and snow particles with ozone and halocarbons. This will allow us to understand the role of sea ice loss in driving climate change and help us conserve these specialised ecosystems.

UEA is also sending autonomous vehicles to the inhospitable Thwaite’s Glacier in West Antarctica, which is on the brink of collapse, to study ice loss mechanisms. By learning more about temperatures and salinity under the glacier, we will provide vital information about its potential to cause a portent rise in sea level.

Philanthropists Hold The Key

We all need to play our part. Scientists. Policymakers. Technicians. Engineers. Lawyers. Environmentalists. Writers. Politicians. Journalists. Business leaders. The public. And philanthropists. At UEA, we will all come together from different fields to innovate, collaborate and make a difference.

With the right support and a practical agenda, change is possible. Our supporters are helping our teams analyse data, inform policymakers and educate the public to decarbonise our planet. A limit in global temperature rise to 2°C, widely seen as the threshold we should not cross, remains achievable in the critical decade.

Our work will address pressing and future challenges and end climate inaction once and for all.

Thank you to the generous philanthropists who have already supported climate change research at UEA.

An Enduring Legacy

In 2019, UEA received a wonderfully generous gift to the Pioneer Fund in the will of our late alumnus Neil Pettifer (EUR75). Neil was a dedicated and active member of UEA’s alumni community and organised regular UEA reunions in Spain, where he lived and owned his own property business. Neil’s love of his time at the University and the community he was a part of lives on through his legacy gift. Investing his donation in the Pioneer Fund means his generosity will generate returns that make a difference for many years to come.

The interest generated on Neil’s gift will be used wherever the need is greatest. However, donors can also choose to support a specific area or goal, such as scholarships or research. If you would like to discuss a gift to the Pioneer Fund, please contact the Development Office using the contact details on the back cover.