Topic description and stories

The climate crisis and biodiversity losses are affecting the planet at an alarming pace. Cambridge researchers are helping the response to these threats, building resilience, supporting the transition from fossil fuels to a zero-carbon future, and enabling us to act sustainably to protect the planet's precious resources and reduce waste.

The climate crisis: towards zero carbon

26 February 2020

Sir David Attenborough, Dr Jane Goodall DBE and leading Cambridge University researchers talk about the urgency of climate crisis – and some of the solutions that will take us towards zero carbon.

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Light cycles

Humanity's last invention and our uncertain future

25 Nov 2012

A philosopher, a scientist and a software engineer have come together to propose a new centre at Cambridge to address developments in human...

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Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, on the Kenya-Somalia border. The Horn of Africa frequently experiences severe drought and hundreds of thousands of people have trekked to Dadaab seeking food, water, shelter and safety.

Feeding seven billion

21 Nov 2012

With the world’s population already estimated to be over seven billion and rising fast, the challenge of how to produce enough food has never been...

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Forest

Trade-offs highlighted at UN conference on biodiversity

24 Oct 2012

Prioritising social and economic objectives alongside environmental concerns is crucial in forest management, says Cambridge researcher at the United...

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Initial ISI-MIP simulation showing the effects on vegetation productivity at the highest emissions scenario (reduction: red to yellow; increase: green to blue)

Modelling impacts of a warming world

03 Oct 2012

A community-driven modelling effort aims to quantify one of the gravest of global uncertainties: the impact of global warming on the world’s food...

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Kristen MacAskill at work in Christchurch, New Zealand

Where are they now?

13 Aug 2012

Last month graduates of Cambridge’s MPhil course in Engineering for Sustainable Development (ESD) came back to the Engineering Department from all...

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Tabular iceberg. The production of tabular icebergs is a major mechanism of mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

1.5 million years of climate history revealed after scientists solve mystery of the deep

10 Aug 2012

Study successfully reconstructed temperature from the deep sea to reveal how global ice volume has varied over the glacial-interglacial cycles of the...

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Detail from the cloud forest of Loma Alta in Ecuador, one of the conservation success stories highlighted in the book Wild Hope.

Spreading the good word from the wild

08 Aug 2012

A new book by a Cambridge professor offers an alternative to the narratives of nature’s annihilation, by shining a light on conservation success...

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Physics of Sustainability

Energy efficiency symposium - new attendees welcome

24 Jul 2012

Inaugural event will explore some of the latest in energy research.

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Thermal image of two people standing outside a building. The study found that in many European countries, including the UK, predicted energy usage in homes bears little resemblance to the amount used in practice.

The prebound effect

03 Jul 2012

Many homes with poor energy efficiency are actually consuming far less energy than predicted, new research has found. The study has implications for...

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Nuclear

A safer route to a nuclear future?

12 Jun 2012

By using thorium instead of uranium as fuel, nuclear power could be safer and more sustainable, according to new research.

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The galaxy NGC 4151. Researchers were able to use this galaxy to accumulate data about flares coming from a mysterious X-ray source close to the giant black hole at its centre.

“Echo” of light augurs new era in study of black holes

31 May 2012

A long-sought “echo” of light that promises to reveal more about supersized black holes in distant galaxies has been identified by an international...

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Tomato

Prize tomato

30 May 2012

A group of students on the University of Cambridge’s MPhil course in Engineering for Sustainable Development has devised a project that will help...

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