Climate action 2022
The University has adopted a Ten-Point Climate Action Plan, focused on delivering carbon neutrality on Scope 1/2 by 2030, and Scope 3 by 2045. The Plan covers work on the University’s estate, digital infrastructure, teaching & learning, research, campus environment, travel strategy, and approaches to offsetting.
Further, researchers across the University are working with governments and NGOs to address climate change impacts. For example, the Global Disaster Resilience Centre has hosted a meeting of the European Science and Technology Advisory Group (E-STAG) for European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR); and the Centre was also successful in the Newton Prize in 2019, for work on tsunami risk, community awareness and preparedness in Indonesia. More recently, Profs Dilanthi Amaratunga & Richard Haigh of the Global Disaster Resilience Centre worked with partners in Sri Lanka on a programme on the development of societal resilience to disasters. Led by Huddersfield, the project includes other academic partners and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC), IOC/UNESCO and the Federation of the Local Governments Association in Sri Lanka
This type of work may include local campaigns of awareness raising and education on climate issues. Colleagues from the University’s Geography department are active in current projects to enable participation in work on water habitats and wildlife, under the Ofwat Innovation in Water Challenge, and very locally to work with farmers and others in the Holme Valley
Among the environmental education measures supported by the University, it works with its own students on the Global Professional Award, a compulsory programme for all undergraduates that includes, among other strands of work, a focus on sustainability.
The Global Disaster Resilience Centre was successful in the Newton Prize, for work on tsunami risk, community awareness and preparedness in Indonesia.