Climate and sustainability

As the UK continues to experience extreme weather conditions caused by climate change – along with continued economic and geopolitical tensions – CSaP’s Fellowships programmes and roundtable discussions have provided opportunities for policy makers to deepen their understanding of complex climate and sustainability challenges.

Engaging in policy through the Cambridge Zero Policy Forum

CSaP works with Cambridge Zero to run the Cambridge Zero Policy Forum. The Forum is a multidisciplinary community of academics contributing evidence and expertise to public policies for the transition to a sustainable, inclusive, and resilient net zero society. This year, the Forum has convened discussions on a number of topics including local authority action plans that contribute towards the national net zero target; the Global Biodiversity Framework; and the geopolitics of climate change in the Arctic. The Policy Forum also supported a multidisciplinary response to the call for evidence for Chris Skidmore MP’s independent review into the delivery of net zero climate commitments.

Land use planning

Working with the Centre for Landscape Regeneration, our workshop on land use planning in the Cambridgeshire Fenlands brought together stakeholders from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Climate change seminar series: practical politics for the 2020s

This year, our annual climate seminar series was hosted in collaboration with Christ’s College and the Cambridge Zero Policy Forum. The seminars discussed a range of policy solutions to address the climate change challenge from harnessing global financial markets to new approaches to strategic land use planning. A final seminar included the launch of Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change, a book written by Simon Sharpe, a former Policy Lead for COP 26 in the Cabinet Office.

What's brilliant is having access to such a broad range of academics. It enabled me to broaden my horizons and thereby deepen my understanding of complex climate issues.”

Vedantha Kumar, Climate Manager, Children's Investment Fund Foundation

Understanding the role of place in environmental sustainability

CSaP Policy Fellows joined a discussion hosted by the British Academy exploring key messages from a series of projects on sustainability.