“We can make a fundamental change to the future of humanity and contribute to a better world.” 

Cambridge Zero's Director Professor Emily Shuckburgh is a world-leading climate scientist, who has been tracking the causes and effects of Earth’s soaring temperatures for decades. Her knowledge and insights on the urgent actions needed to combat climate change are widely sought after by governments, business, policymakers and the media. 

An education in mathematics at Oxford and Cambridge was followed by a PhD in atmospheric science in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and academic stints at the École Normale Supérieure in France and at M.I.T. Emily then spent a decade working at the British Antarctic Survey, where she focused on researching the polar oceans in a changing climate. 

A gifted science communicator, Emily has collaborated with and advised royalty, global leaders from business and finance, government ministers, celebrities, journalists and more. But there is one person who really influenced her as a Sixth Form student sitting on a beach with a book during school holidays. 

“Reading (Sir) David Attenborough’s book Life on Earth, I was struck by the beauty and wonder of the natural world, and I became fascinated with the idea I might be able to use mathematics to better understand it.” 

From that moment on, her course was set.  

“I still have the book – if you riffle through the pages, bits of sand fall out. Mathematics is valuable in its own right of course, but my passion has been using it in ways that support nature and human society.” 

In 2016, she was awarded an OBE for science communication. In 2017, she co-authored a children’s book with HM King Charles III and Natural England Chair Tony Juniper. Climate Change: A Ladybird Book was the first peer-reviewed children’s book on climate change.  

The University lured her back in 2019 to run its ambitious climate change initiative.  

Cambridge Zero was created to help the University fulfil its mission to contribute to society through the pursuit of research and education at the highest levels of international excellence, taking aim at the existential threat of climate change. 

The initiative runs workshops for climate and nature researchers, organises and supports funding calls, liaises with business, governments, U.N. bodies and other universities. It engages with students and Cambridge’s 31 Colleges, while seeking to update the curriculum in higher education and for children around the world. It also works closely with other Cambridge institutions focused on climate, conservation, sustainability, education, publishing, assessment and the University’s own operations. 

“Our work at Cambridge Zero gives us hope. We have the power to instigate significant change, yet achieving it demands unparalleled collaboration across various domains including research, education, decarbonisation, policymaking, industry and public engagement.” 

Apart from Cambridge Zero, the supervision of her PhD students in the Department of Computer Science and Technology and two school-aged daughters of her own to look after, Emily is also leading Cambridge’s Institute for Computing in Climate Science (ICCS) and is a co-lead for the Centre for Landscape Regeneration (CLR). 

The ICCS focuses on applying AI and machine learning to climate modelling. Data-driven approaches developed here will increase the accuracy of our climate models and improve the reach and reliability of forecasts for extreme weather. 

“Essential to assessing climate risks is understanding what might happen in the future to the ice sheets, ocean circulation or weather patterns, and what the wider implications are – our principal tools for doing that are mathematics and computation.”  

CLR is a University-wide collaboration, whose mission is to work with a vast number of partners seeking to regenerate the British countryside. It aims to better manage land for climate and nature, while ensuring that the people who live on it can thrive.  

The initiative navigates complicated, interconnected challenges, and requires evidence-based solutions to degradation that can be monitored at scale using the latest sensor technologies. It also needs to consider economic factors, public health and, crucially, the viewpoints of local communities, to make sure solutions work for everyone.  

Emily nurtures the ecosystem of expertise needed to make the CLR work and draws on knowledge from across the University to achieve this, leaving no stone unturned. 

“A surprising insight came from our colleagues in Archaeology. They gave us key information on how these landscapes have evolved in tandem with human societies for millennia.”  

On a personal level, Emily says that using our influence is as important as action. She is determined to drive the urgent message home that there is hope, and we do have the tools to stop climate change if we take action now. 

“In a way, the most important thing anyone can do is use their influence – in whatever spheres they act. There’s only so much you can do as an individual. Influencing wider behaviour leads to mass movement.” 

Emily Shuckburgh is the Director of Cambridge Zero, Professor of Environmental Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, and a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Published: 21 October 2024

Interview and words: Liam Morgan and Paul Casciato
Design: Alison Fair
Photography: Nick Saffell
Editor: Louise Walsh

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