From dismal green weeks to carbon-creating investors, College has given its students multiple grounds for their recent accusations of greenwashing – the act of using misleading claims to make an organisation seem more environmentally friendly than it is. To combat this damaging accusation, College seems to have just one remaining saving grace: the Climate+ Co-Centre. So what is this centre and how will it improve College’s place in the race against climate change?
“Researchers from a wide range of disciplines in these partner institutions will work together to find novel ways to help mitigate the damage done on our climate, water quality, and biodiversity levels.”
The Climate+ Co-Centre is an environmental research facility headquartered by College in partnership with 13 other research and academic institutions across the UK and Ireland, those being Queen’s University Belfast, University of Reading, Newcastle University, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Ulster University, University of Limerick, Atlantic Technological University, University College Dublin, Dublin City University, University College Cork, University of Galway and Maynooth University. The centre comes from a €41.3m grant from the Irish Government, the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and UK Research Innovation on the basis that over an initial 6 years, researchers from a wide range of disciplines in these partner institutions will work together to find novel ways to help mitigate the damage done on our climate, water quality, and biodiversity levels.
Immediately, there appears to be one familiar controversy. The centre will receive more than 30% of its funding from over 30 industry partners who have not yet been publicly named. However, it is intended for College to assist these stakeholders, whoever they may be, to “identify and validate the innovations needed to thrive in a climate, nature and water-friendly world”, according to College itself. There are even 4 specific areas that are going to be addressed with these industry partners: “1. Sustainable agri-food transitions; 2. Sustainable communities & livelihoods; 3. Assessing risks & opportunities; and 4. Investing in carbon & nature, in forestry, peatlands, grasslands and coastal habitats.” It seems then that College may combat any further accusations of greenwashing by intending to make real progress and having some achievable, worthwhile goals.
Not only are there plans for research and innovation across these areas of concern, but researchers also intended for policy development to stem from this. Amy Taggart, the leader of College’s Climate+ grant application team, mentioned in a press release that one of the main ambitions of the centre would be the introduction of a Rapid Policy Response Unit. Taggart also manages the All Island Climate and Biodiversity Research Network (AICBRN), who will assist Climate+ to “respond rapidly to policy within Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain”.
“If the study of biology tells us one thing, it is that everything is connected and that absolutely nothing can survive on its own, not even humans.”
This is all essential research, as even the most selfish will agree that handing a broken planet down to future generations will ultimately lead to their demise. If the study of biology tells us one thing, it is that everything is connected and that absolutely nothing can survive on its own, not even humans. As Professor Yvonne Buckley, professor of zoology at College and co-director of the centre puts it: “It is clear from the scientific evidence that business as usual is no longer an option.” So what stage are the researchers currently at?
The centre was officially announced in November 2023, with activities formally commencing in January this year. It is still early days in terms of research, so no papers or findings have yet been published and there hasn’t been any updates on what exactly is being done. However, stakeholders in the form of researchers, investors and academics gathered in person for the first time in May for two days to network and strategise. As mentioned in a College press release, project leads discussed some research themes, including “projections; monitoring; enabling fair transformations; evidence discovery and integration; sustainable agri-food transitions; sustainable communities and livelihoods; investing in carbon and nature”.
To the untrained eye, these topics seem like groundbreaking new ideas that are unique to this research team, but that isn’t exactly the case. While of course it is very important to keep discussing and debating these important topics, they are ones that have already been mentioned in countless conferences, brainstorms and popular nature shows, from COP28 to any recent David Attenborough documentary. It’s clear then that the focus of this research centre should not be on trying to reinvent the wheel, but on adapting the information that already exists to tailor specifically to Ireland, the UK, and the partner industries that the Climate+ researchers intend to work with.
It has been suggested by the award-winning grant team’s introductory article that the intended Rapid Policy Response Unit will comply with both the findings and suggestions of the most recent IPCC report and the Kunming-Montreal biodiversity framework, the former being a study from the section of the UN that assesses climate change and all the science that goes with it, and the latter being a document from 2022 that sets out in detail the goals we should work towards within certain time frames to halt biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. It is a very positive and encouraging sign that these seem to be the inspiration of Climate+. Even the timeframes work out well, with one of the Kunming-Montreal goals being to have 30% of our land and oceans to be conserved by 2030, 6 years from the opening of the centre, which will be funded, as mentioned above, for 6 years.
“Research on how much stress we can put on our planet before its tipping point may be interesting to some, but regulating and even preventing the activities that would put us there in the first place would be much more beneficial in the long run. “
All of the science tells us that this is the decade in which we must act; there is no more room for apathy. College should be proud that it was active in this hour of need, however there is still much work to be done if real change is to be achieved in a short amount of time. Research on how much stress we can put on our planet before its tipping point may be interesting to some, but regulating and even preventing the activities that would put us there in the first place would be much more beneficial in the long run.
With the Climate+ research centre, College now has all the tools it needs to achieve something great, provided there is also the passion and diligence to achieve it before it is too late. Hopefully this collaboration across land and sea will help restore our planet in the best way our university knows how: by the power of academia.