About Climate Action
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Our work on SDG Goal 13: Climate Action
We work towards the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 13 - Climate Action, to create a better and fairer world.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted in 2015 by all United Nations member states. It provides a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.
Find out more about our work across all the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
Research
UNICEF Child Climate Risk Index
Led by Professor Lena Dominelli and Dr Irena Connon from the Faculty of Social Sciences, this report has been compiled as part of the Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI) Project for UNICEF.
Its purpose is to provide a descriptive overview of the findings of the Systematic Literature Review from which a Diagram of Linkages between Climate Risk Factors and their Importance for Child Health Outcomes and a Child-Centred Iterative Loop Framework for Action was developed.
The report found that, as children are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change, it is fundamental for them to be positioned at the centre of all developments in research, policy, decision-making, and practice, and for them to be recognised as agents capable of determining their own futures as envisaged in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
Forth Environmental Resilience Array (Forth-ERA)
The Forth Environmental Resilience Array (Forth-ERA) is the first of its kind - a digital observatory of the Firth of Forth's catchment. The project uses near and real-time data flows from sensors, satellites and models to provide a one-stop-shop for environmental data. This enables the Forth catchment’s diverse organisations, from heavy industry to national parks, to take data-led, evidence-based decisions and plan for a sustainable and just transition to a net zero future.
The project helps Scottish Water implement innovative cost-cutting solutions to monitor drinking water quality by providing access to real time data flow and provides early warning information to SEPA, Scotland's principal environmental regulator, on floods and drought in areas at risk of coastal, river and flash flooding.
Forth-ERA is a multi-million-pound investment programme through Scotland’s International Environment Centre, funded as part of the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal.
Learning and teaching
Fostering environmentally committed and 'antifragile' citizens: tackling climate anxiety through skills-based learning
Young people, women, left-leaning, and environmentally-engaged individuals are at higher risk of developing climate anxiety, which can lead to both increased distress and reduced climate action.
In the Faculty of Natural Sciences, these demographics make up a significant portion of our student body. In this study, we aim to quantify climate anxiety among our students to assess its prevalence as well as their environmental commitment (through questionnaires). We will then develop a new teaching framework, partly digital and partly in-person, to help alleviate climate anxiety. This can then be implemented beyond the University of Stirling.
Since cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), is effective in alleviating clinical anxieties, we hosted a workshop with psychology and sustainability practitioners and academics, as well as individuals who have benefited from CBT to identify key skills for addressing climate anxiety.
These skills will feed directly into a new teaching framework which will provide students with the skills necessary to improve their climate anxiety. The resulting teaching framework combines personal and cooperative skills to build psychological antifragility, the concept that exposure to manageable stress can foster increased emotional strength if one has the skills to cope.
Finally, we will re-assess students' climate anxiety and degrees of environmental commitment after their engagement with the framework to validate our model. If successful, the framework will be successful in alleviating climate anxiety and increasing climate action. The project is funded by a British Ecological Society Pedagogical Research Grant.
Global Climate Justice
Global Climate Justice and Intersectional Climate Action and Justice are both one-of-a-kind modules for their level in Scotland. These cross-disciplinary modules run at honours and Masters level respectively as optional courses for students interested in the impacts and actions to combat anthropogenic climate change.
While climate science, and most climate change modules, focus on the study of the physical science behind climate change, these two climate justice modules are centred on ethical and social issues that prioritise equity and human rights in the context of the climate emergency.
Both modules provide critical overviews of the concept of climate justice and help facilitate students’ understanding of, and critical thinking on, the key issues that underpin the term. Apart from providing them with a strong theoretical grounding on climate justice, these modules are designed to cover climate justice as it relates to a wide array of social, political, economic, and environmental issues.
This includes the climate justice social movements; efforts to achieve a just transition; international climate governance and finance; migration and displacement; the health implications of climate change; climate colonialism; the climate crisis in cities; and the ways in which experiences of climate change are shaped by individuals' gender, sexuality, race, class, among other factors.
Unlike modules which flatten the impacts of climate change - as a global issue, it 'impacts everyone' -, the modules place a strong emphasis on experiences of countries, communities, and people in the Majority World (or Global South) who disproportionately bear the brunt of climate change and possess less resources to mitigate and adapt to it, while contributing the least to global emissions.
University operations
Sustainability Plan 2022 - 2028
The University’s Sustainability Plan 2022-28 details the actions we seek to take as an institution to deliver a net zero carbon university by 2040, and to address the many environmental and sustainability challenges we face as a university.
The plan provides an overview of our ambitious sustainability agenda, its key objectives and interim milestones. By investing in campus energy infrastructure and upgrading the energy efficiency of buildings, the University has achieved a continuous reduction in carbon emissions since 2007/08 and between 2007/08 and 2019/20 water consumption has reduced by approximately 30%.
Green Week
Green Week takes place every year at the University and is an interactive week focused on sustainability, active travel, biodiversity and waste reduction. Throughout the week, there is a range of different events taking place which help staff and students to find out how to reduce our carbon footprint.
Civic engagement
Stirling Net Zero Support
Funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) to support Small and Medium Enteprises (SMEs) to reduce their carbon impacts to help Scotland meet the net zero 2025 targets, this project will help realise city and region goals of supporting 300 organisations to reduce their carbon emissions.
Building on the cities and region methodology, the project provides Stirling-based businesses bespoke support to provide appropriate solutions for their organisations’ Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions to create a low-carbon region. The project will act as a regional demonstrator for intensive carbon reduction SME support.
Satellite Emergency Monitoring Service (SEMS)
Partnering with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), University of Stirling scientists have launched a lifesaving satellite emergency mapping system.
The service assists emergency responders during extreme weather events and revolutionises the way Scotland responds to emergencies such as floods, wildfires, landslides, and oil spills.
SEMS uses state-of-the-art satellite imaging technology to deliver real-time, high-resolution data and insights that will enhance decision-making capabilities and enable faster, more efficient response efforts when disasters strike.