Heat is on at Climate & Nature Research Showcase

By Molly Tooher-Rudd and Paul Casciato

Cambridge Researchers shrugged off the hottest June day on the UK record books to pack out the University's first Climate and Nature Research Showcase.

A Cambridge finale to London Climate Action Week, the event, organised by Cambridge Zero, brought together more than 250 academics, students and professionals for a day of high-level lectures, three-minute lightning talks, posters and interactive stalls, which showcased University projects around the globe.

Headline talks from senior speakers at all six University Schools highlighted projects, which ranged from global food security and the net zero energy transition, to sustainable healthcare and the urgent conservation efforts to stop the decline in pollinating insects. 

The evening saw a public talk from Planetary Health expert Prof Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood, Executive Director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in Malaysia.

Breaking out of silos and working together towards solutions was a key theme of the day. Welcoming participants with an opening video, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research Professor Sir John Aston told the audience the Showcase was key to highlighting the importance of research and collaboration that cuts across disciplines and borders.

"The challenges facing us do not respect boundaries," Aston said.

The morning sessions began with Cambridge Zero Director Professor Emily Shuckburgh sharing a poignant personal moment, revealing her father was in hospital after a heat-related stroke the day before. 

"Climate change is costing lives today and across the world," said Shuckburgh, who is a mathematician and climate scientist by training and a new Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government's Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). 

Her speech set the tone of determination for the six School speakers in the packed main auditorium, who demonstrated how collaboration is a vital part of addressing the interconnected global climate and biodiversity crises.

Professor Lynn Dicks, Professor of Ecology, Department of Zoology & Conservation Research Institute, from the School of Biological Sciences, described the alarming global decline of insect pollinators.

"There is an intrinsic link to insect populations and human wellbeing," she explained.

Pollinating insects underpin food production worth an estimated $200 billion annually. Despite describing the UK as "of the most nature impoverished countries in the world," Professor Dicks pointed to encouraging progress in conservation efforts.

"The declines in insects in the UK are slowing or stopping. It shows if we put the work in, we can do it," she said.

From the School of Technology, Professor Jonathan Cullen, Professor of Sustainable Engineering, Department of Engineering, drew attention to the growing demand for critical minerals needed for batteries and the energy transition.

"In the 20th century power and money relied on access to oil," he said. "In the 21st century net zero world, it's about access to these critical minerals."

Prof Cullen warned that fragile global supply chains and unequal mining practices could become major obstacles to achieving net zero and ensuring a just climate transition if not carefully considered.

Facilitating just climate action for all requires input from all disciplines. "Climate change is a legal problem," said Professor Harro van Asselt, Hatton Professor of Climate Law, Department of Land Economy from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

"The role of law is not just regulating climate change - it can also be complicit in creating and perpetuating problems," he said.

Representing the School of Physical Sciences, Professor Alex Archibald, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, spoke about his research on understanding the chemistry of our atmosphere and the impact that has on the planet.

"We are facing unprecedented environmental problems with record temperatures. The introduction of different gases into our atmosphere has really disrupted the climate," he said.

Professor Archibald drew attention to the harmful impacts that human induced air pollution is having on our health, setting the tone for the following speaker, Dr James Smith, a Public Health Doctor representing the School of Clinical Medicine.

His work on planetary health looks at the interdependence of human wellbeing and the state of the earth. Dr Smith noted that healthcare itself contributes to 4-5% of global emissions. 

"We don't want a healthcare system that has high impact on the natural systems we depend on for our health," he said.

From the School of Arts and Humanities, Professor Sonja Amadae, Director of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk closed the morning of keynote lectures. 

"Our global systems are generating catastrophic risk to all the intertwined biological and ecological systems," she said. "How do we turn our promising solutions into action?" 

An afternoon of poster sessions, lightning talks and networking followed, giving researchers the opportunity to share their work and collaborate with peers. 

The event also celebrated research making a tangible difference with its own Climate and Nature Impact Awards.

"I really enjoyed this celebration of impact, it's fantastic to celebrate those projects driving real change for people and systems across the world," said Professor Dicks.

Recognising projects delivering benefits for people, policy and the planet, the awards championed initiatives from sustainable tourism schemes in the Galapagos and forecast systems that warn against fungal crop disease, to AI projects allowing members of the public to have educational conversations with animal species in museums.

"In Cambridge we all work in our little bubbles and we don't do enough talking to each other. Events like this are really important, I've met people working on similar problems in different domains, it's fascinating," said Professor Cullen.

The showcase concluded with an evening lecture from Prof Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood, who said human health and the health of the planet can no longer be treated as separate issues.

"If the heat we have experienced this week isn't a code red, I don't know what would be," she said.

Drawing on examples of air pollution in Malaysia and the UK, including the death of London schoolgirl Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, Prof Tan Sri Dr Mahmood said the evidence linking human health to environmental degradation has long been clear, but action has lagged behind.

"The knowledge was there. This was not a failure of science, but a failure of institutional design," she said.

Again, the importance of making real-world impact was highlighted. She urged universities to bridge the gap between research and policy making. 

"We should be judged by the decisions we change, not just by the papers we publish," she said.