University alliance takes climate crisis 'action'

Emily Muir recently went to the COP26 negotiations and said more education institutions should be coming together to fight climate issues

Experts from four universities have come together to form a regional alliance to tackle climate change.

The GW4 Climate Alliance has been formed by researchers from universities in Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter.

Alliance officials said they want to draw on the area's unique knowledge on environmental issues to create a regional response to the global crisis.

University students have said they hope it inspires other universities to come together to fight the climate crisis.

The new group said it would deliver specialised climate science to help shape policies.

Isabel Townsend said she wanted to see less "greenwashing" and more people taking action in the way the new alliance has done

Bristol University third-year Geography student Isabel Townsend, said the new group is a "step in the right direction".

"I hope that other universities follow their lead. We need to see more actions and less pledging," she said.

Emily Muir recently went to the COP26 negotiations and said more education institutions should be coming together to fight climate issues

Emily Muir, also at Bristol University, said she was happy social sciences would be included in their research.

"People forget to think about the human impacts on people, their culture and their communities when it comes to climate issues," she said

"If we don't come together with our knowledge, things aren't going to happen."

Dr Joanna Jenkinson said the alliance was "uniquely placed" to address climate change

GW4 Alliance Director Dr Joanna Jenkinson MBE said the west of England had more climate-related expertise than any other region worldwide.

"The GW4 Climate Alliance is uniquely placed to address the global challenge of climate change, due to both our regional 'ecosystem' and the complementary critical mass of expertise across the GW4 institutions," Dr Jenkinson said.

"This launch is part of our commitment to connecting practitioners, industry, policy makers, researchers, and community groups, and to support the climate research leaders of the present and future."

University of Exeter professor Tim Lenton said interdisciplinarity research was "vital to solving the climate crisis".

"It's being caused by humans and then it manifests both in natural systems and in human systems," he said.

"So, if you can't bring together an understanding of those natural systems and those human systems and what motivates us as humans, there's no chance of credible solutions."