Join the GSI for a talk with researcher and campaigner Dr Aaron Thierry, Cardiff University, to discuss the important role and responsibilities climate scientists possess within our climate crisis.
Climate scientists hold consolidated knowledge of catastrophic risk while operating within institutions that have repeatedly failed to generate commensurate political response. What does it mean to live and work within that contradiction, and what does it reveal about the role of scientific expertise in a declared emergency? This talk presents findings from qualitative research interviewing climate scientists across a spectrum of engagement with the climate emergency movement, exploring how they make sense of the crisis they study, how they experience the weight of knowing, and how they navigate the gap between understanding and action.
The research develops the concept of the "Cassandra condition" and asks uncomfortable questions about scientific responsibility, neutrality, and advocacy, questions that are deeply personal and professional for earth system scientists working at the boundary between knowledge production and planetary crisis. This talk aims to open an honest conversation about what the scientific community owes the public, what it owes itself, and whether the inherited norms of the profession are adequate to the moment.
This talk will take place in person in Streatham Court LTB with refreshments provided, please use this form to register: https://lnkd.in/e-gmr7U7
#GSIExeter #ClimateChange #ClimateActivism
We are delighted to announce the introduction of two new core modules for 2026/27 on our MSc Global Sustainability Solutions programme. These modules relate to key dimensions of the GSI’s work. First, GEOM188 Systems Thinking and Positive Tipping Points (convened by Professor Tim Lenton) will bring groundbreaking research on positive tipping points (and how that thinking can be applied) to the fore, enabling students to engage first-hand with leading systems thinking experts. Second, in GEOM189 Energy and Climate Policy (convened by Dr Femke Nijsse), students will engage in evidence-based policymaking, learning from members of Exeter’s recently launched Exeter Climate Policy unit.
These new modules reflect the GSI’s commitment to real-world change, evidenced by the University of Exeter being ranked 10th in the World in the influential Times Higher Education Impact Rankings (2024) for its pivotal research, action and progress towards delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
To learn more about our flagship MSc programme (which can be studied full- or part-time) and how to apply, please visit the MSc Global Sustainability Solutions website: /masters-degrees/msc-global-sustainability-solutions/
#GSIExeter #Sustainability #ClimateChange
Join us at the University of Exeter or online to hear from a powerhouse panel of experts as part of our 'Economic Policy to Navigate Climate Risks: from Tipping Points to Green Swans' roundtable.
Featured Speakers & Panelists:
Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva (CETEx (Centre for Economic Transition Expertise), LSE): On systemic financial instability and the limitations of standard risk models.
James Dyke (Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter): On the science of Earth system tipping points and their societal implications.
Femke Nijsse (Exeter Climate Policy): On socio-technical tipping points and non-linear economic change.
Theresa Löber (Bank of England/ Met Office): On integrating extreme climate events and tipping points into macro-prudential risk frameworks.
The event will be moderated by Jean-Francois Mercure (Exeter Climate Policy) and Etienne Espagne (Agence Française de Développement)
🗓️ Event Details:
• Date: March 18, 2026
• Time: 4:30pm – 6:30pm
• Location (In-person): Forum Alumni Auditorium TLT, University of Exeter
• Online: Register here: https://lnkd.in/erZq5mVe or scan the QR code below.
The event will discuss how to translate interdisciplinary research into actionable approaches for integrating climate and socio-technical "tail risks" into the heart of financial and fiscal decision-making.
Hosted by: Exeter Climate Policy, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter and the Agence Française de Développement.
#GSIExeter #ClimateChange #TippingPoints
Join us for our next GSI talk with nature author and science communicator Sophie Pavelle who will be sharing insights from her exciting new book on relationships in nature.
Award-winning author and science communicator, Sophie Pavelle, takes us deep into the world of symbiosis. Her acclaimed new book, To Have or To Hold: nature’s hidden relationships, examines nature’s intricate, astonishing interactions that sustain life. From tidal pools to temperate rainforests, she explores eight remarkable alliances, as glamorous as they are grotesque, revealing how they regulate ecosystems and offer urgent lessons for a planet in crisis; and showcasing the power in science-based storytelling in sharing the mystery and magnitude of life on Earth.
Travelling low-carbon across the British Isles, we meet nature’s frauds, fortune-tellers, misfits, and cheats, asking a provocative question: in our relationship with the wild, are we partners...or parasites?
Please email [email protected] to confirm your place in person in Laver LT3 or online on Wednesday 11th March 14:30-15:30.
#GSIExeter #ClimateChange #Nature
As part of the GSI’s transdisciplinary events series, our Lightning Talks provide early career researchers, as well as PhD and MSc students, with the opportunity to give a short 10-15 minute lightning talk about their research to the GSI’s community. Join us to discover the work being conducted by those early in their research careers from across our institute and its many research areas.
This term’s topics include narrative building through the climate crisis, measuring the impacts organisations have on biodiversity, and balancing the development of offshore wind farms with their environmental impacts on marine protected areas.
Speakers & titles:
Zoe James - Dialogues with Earth: Ways to Tell the Unfolding Climate Story
Maria E. Correa Cano - Measuring Nature: How Organisations Can Assess Their Biodiversity Impacts
Saba Mokhtari - Balancing Offshore Wind Energy Development with the Conservation of Marine Protected Areas in England: Justifying Environmental Harm on the Grounds of Public Interest
Please email [email protected] to confirm your attendance on Wednesday 4th March 14:30-15:30 in Laver LT6 and online.
#GSIExeter #ClimateAction #EarlyCareerResearch
🌍 Join the GSI & Sustainability Team for a Climate Fresk Workshop!
📅 Wednesday 18th February
⏰ 13:00–16:00
📍 Laver 320
Join the Global Systems Institute & Sustainability Team for an engaging workshop and deepen your understanding of climate change 🌱
Climate Fresk is an internationally acclaimed climate literacy training that has already activated over 2 million people worldwide to respond to the climate emergency.
In just 3 hours, this interactive, collaborative experience will deepen your knowledge of climate science and related social issues, sparking meaningful conversations 💬
You will leave with greater confidence in your understanding of our changing climate and with clear ideas about how you can make a difference! ✨
📝 To register for this event, please complete the form in our bio (limited capacity!).
Join the GSI next week for our talk with Dr Jenny Hatchard and Dr Steve Guilbert who will be sharing their research and work from the ACCESS Network, focusing on developing capacity for climate and environmental social science.
Dr Jenny Hatchard & Dr Steve Guilbert will share insights from the ACCESS Network, a University of Exeter-led, ESRC-funded collaboration with the University of Surrey and the UK's Nature Agencies. Now at the start of its fifth 5th year, the ACCESS team are thinking about the legacy and impact of their co-produced work programme to communicate the value of social science for environmental policy and build capacity in this boundary spanning space.
Highlights include: taskforces on key policy issues - net zero, nature recovery, and climate resilience; the 'ACCESS guiding principles' - a multi-pronged inclusive, sustainable and co-produced approach to research practice; and investment in Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fellows as key roles in this interdisciplinary programme.
Please email [email protected] to confirm your place in person with refreshments provided or online. This event will be taking place on Wednesday 21st January 14:30-15:30 in Laver LT3.
#GSIExeter #ClimateAction #universityofexeter
Join the GSI for our final talk of the year with GSI Assistant Director Dr James Dyke who will be discussing both the failure of governments to limit global warming to 1.5°C and the consequences of exceeding such planetary boundaries.
If the aim of the 2015 Paris Agreement was to limit warming to well below 2°C, then it has failed. A decade ago there was a narrow window in which warming could be stabilised. That would have required actions to phase out fossil fuels. This did not materialise. Carbon dioxide emissions in 2024 were at an all-time high, while the 12 months of the year were warmest ever in the instrument record, likely warmest for at least 125,000 years.
We are now overshooting into dangerous climate change. Climate-related loss and damages, morbidity, and mortality will increase. Rising economic, political and wider social disruption is to be expected. This includes degradation of the institutions and norms that underpins collective action.
Policy makers and academics must go beyond exhortations to act, and propose measures that will address the consequences of past failures.
Please email [email protected] to confirm your place in person or online. This talk will be taking place on Wednesday 10th December 14:30-15:30, Streatham Court Lecture Theatre C & online.
#GSIExeter #ClimateAction #Overshoot
Join the GSI for our next talk with Dr Kelly Thornber, Research Fellow in Sustainable Development and CEO of the Pharma Pollution Hub, to discuss the impacts of the pharmaceutical industry on the environment and how we develop new pharmaceutical systems that are resilient to our global challenges.
The health and economic benefits of pharmaceuticals are enormous. However, the societal systems that underpin their supply, use and waste management are not environmentally sustainable. Pharmaceutical pollution of water and land environments is a major component of the environmental footprint of pharmaceuticals yet is not being mitigated by policies and practices across the pharmaceutical life cycle. This is threatening the long-term resilience of our healthcare and life sciences sectors.
How can we find solutions to mitigate environmental damage whilst protecting the health and economic benefits of pharmaceuticals? The Pharma Pollution Hub (PPH) is a new cross-sectoral think tank dedicated to finding pragmatic solutions through a systems-based, stakeholder engagement approach.
In this GSI talk Kelly will outline the challenge of pharmaceutical pollution and the societal risks that this poses in an ever-changing global landscape. Kelly will then present our systems analysis of UK healthcare pharmaceutical usage, in which we worked with 50 stakeholders from across the healthcare pharmaceutical life cycle to identify 37 leverage points for transformational change towards a sustainable, resilient future. Finally, Kelly will explain why she believes independent transdisciplinary organisations such as the Pharma Pollution Hub are vital for translating research into action when seeking to address these types of complex sustainability issues, and how we propose to take the PPH forwards as a new charitable think tank.
Please email [email protected] to join us in person in Laver LT3 with refreshments provided or online at 14:30 on Wednesday 3rd December.
#GSIExeter #ClimateAction
For the first time in the history of UN Climate Conferences, planetary science took center stage in the negotiations. The Planetary Science Pavilion welcomed over 6,800 visitors, hosted 59 sessions, and featured 335 speakers in an intense week of programming.
The initiative was led by Planetary Guardians and the Potsdam Institute, with support from Instituto Arapyaú and a network of national and international institutions committed to science and climate action.
By placing scientific knowledge at the heart of decision-making, the Pavilion reinforced the urgency of integrated, evidence-based solutions grounded in international cooperation. __
Pela primeira vez na história das conferências climáticas da ONU, a ciência planetária ganhou um espaço central nas negociações. O Planetary Science Pavilion recebeu mais de 6.800 visitantes, promoveu 59 sessões e contou com a participação de 335 painelistas em uma semana de intensa programação.
A iniciativa foi liderada pelo Planetary Guardians e pelo Potsdam Institute, com apoio do Instituto Arapyaú e de instituições nacionais e internacionais comprometidas com a ciência e a ação climática.
Ao trazer o conhecimento científico para o centro das decisões, o pavilhão reforçou a urgência de soluções integradas, baseadas em evidências e na cooperação internacional.
#Arapyaú #InstitutoArapyaú #Filantropia #DesenvolvimentoSustentável #PlanetarySciencePavilion #COP30
Join the GSI for our debrief on this year’s COP with a panel of University of Exeter delegates who will share their experiences and views on how this year’s conference has played out, its outcomes, and the impact research from Exeter has had on negotiations.
Whilst COPs have served as an opportunity for global cooperation and progress in countering our climate crises, the context of this year’s COP30 in Belém, Brazil has strained ambitions for meaningful outcomes from negotiations at the conference. As such, this debrief will allow for discussion from both our panel and the audience on the merits and critiques of COP30, as well as how future conferences might take shape in a challenging global context.
This panel will include Dr Thais Michele Rosan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Global Carbon Budget, and Dr Marcos de Oliveira Jr, Research Impact Fellow in the Nature & Climate Impact Team, who will both share their insights from this year’s COP, alongside Alex Morrison, Senior Press and Media Manager, who will be facilitating the panel discussion.
Please email [email protected] to confirm your place on Wednesday 26th November, 14:30-15:30 in Streatham Court Lecture Theatre C with refreshments provided & online.
If you have been involved in this year’s COP and would also like to join the panel, please do get in touch with [email protected] to get involved.
#COP30 #GSIExeter #ClimateAction
