Calling on researchers to support the delivery of the Glasgow Climate Pact

Co-authored by Sir Patrick Vallance, Government Chief Scientific Adviser, and Alok Sharma MP, COP President

In 1988, when public awareness of climate change was in its infancy, NASA’s James Hansen sat before the US Senate Committee and warned that, “we can state with about 99 percent confidence that current temperatures represent a real warming trend rather than a chance fluctuation”. Fast forward 33 years and that prophetic advice, and the urgency of the situation, have become more acute. Recent reports by the IPCC, agreed by almost 200 countries, tell us, “it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land” by around 1.1 degrees centigrade, and that any delays risk missing “a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future”.

Last year, a survey of over a million people in 50 countries found that almost two-thirds described climate change as an “emergency”, while 100,000 people took to the streets of Glasgow to protest as nations met for the COP26 climate conference.?

The magnitude of the shift in awareness of the impacts of climate change is a seminal achievement. The work of researchers globally, has steadily collected data, tested hypotheses and challenged each other to build a raft of evidence that our climate is changing, that human activity is the cause, and that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees will significantly reduce impact.

Thanks to their careful and continued communications, public and political awareness has soared. Their innovations and insights have helped to develop solutions. And all this has helped to create the impetus and conditions for governments to act.

The global response to climate change has been too slow but we are making progress. At COP26 last year, the world forged a path towards a clean and resilient future, with the historic Glasgow Climate Pact, agreed by almost 200 countries. This requests countries to strengthen, as necessary, their 2030 emissions reduction targets this year rather than wait until 2025 to align with the Paris Agreement. It calls on governments to phase down coal power and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. And it contains ambitious language on climate adaptation, to protect people and nature from its impacts, as well as on climate finance, which supports action in developing countries.

Changes across every sector of the economy are helping to take the world towards a net zero future. And COP26 helped to accelerate that trend. Outside the negotiating rooms, countries, companies and financial institutions made commitments to halt deforestation, to clean up critical sectors like power and road transport, and to work together to drive the green transition globally. For example, 45 countries signed the Glasgow Breakthroughs, an agreement to collaborate to accelerate the development and deployment of clean technologies. Major car manufacturers pledged to speed-up the move to clean vehicles. And more than 20 countries announced they would not build new coal power plants.

These commitments are historic, and they keep alive the possibility of limiting the rise in global warming to 1.5 degrees. But unless they are translated into action, they will come to nothing. So delivery must be the priority, and researcher will play a vital role.?The responsibility for delivery rests with governments and business, but to support them we need researchers to bring existing evidence together, present it to policy makers, fill gaps in the literature, and develop innovations and solutions. Many researchers are keen to help, but we recognise it’s not always clear how to get involved. Our response has been to launch Knowledge for Glasgow. Developed over 10 months, with 135 academics across 10 countries, it sets out the ways in which researchers can help governments to deliver on their key COP26 commitments.

Knowledge for Glasgow demonstrates the breadth of expertise required, the detailed knowledge needed, and the means to get involved across four key areas: mitigation, adaptation, finance and collaboration. There are a multitude of ways in which the work of academics and other researchers can support action: from planning, to monitoring and evaluation; from mapping technical pathways, to identifying opportunities; from understanding social and cultural barriers, to ensuring a just transition, and from developing new innovations, to exploring the benefits that accompany climate action.

To take just a few examples, in an area like zero emissions vehicles, governments and manufacturers need researchers to help both reduce battery costs, find better ways to recycle and ensure equitable access to charging infrastructure. To move away from coal we need digital technologies to model decarbonised power grids, just as we need to synthesise research on the economic and health benefits of clean power. Researchers can help to deliver on adaptation and finance too. For example, by developing knowledge on best practice, on leveraging private finance for adaptation using public funds, and on stress tests for financial markets to evaluate climate risk. Knowledge for Glasgow also suggests how researchers can collaborate with policymakers and others, which initiatives to join and approaches to take.

The report is not exhaustive, nor does it pretend to be. What it offers is a guided call to action to researchers, innovators and scientists around the world on the specific challenges governments face associated with delivering on Glasgow. World leaders are rightly concentrating their efforts on Ukraine, standing with the Ukrainian people amid the horrors committed by Putin’s Russian forces. But we know the climate crisis is not going away. As the latest IPCC report shows, we need to act quickly as the situation is getting much worse.

Research has done so much to shift the climate agenda over the decades. Knowledge for Glasgow aims to build on that tradition, to support today’s researchers to help deliver on the Glasgow Climate Pact, and build the cleaner, safer, more resilient world they have shown is possible.?

Learn more about the Knowledge for Glasgow Framework