Net zero and climate change

Our global environment is changing due to both natural long-term processes and human activity, with the latter forcing change at unprecedented rates. Our research focuses on a wide range of the associated challenges, including those related to climate, ocean acidification, ecosystems, biodiversity and pollution.

We are studying these issues using cutting edge observational, analytical and modelling tools, not just to describe them, but also to understand how to limit, manage and adapt to them.

• International student mobility and climate change
  Estimating the environmental costs associated with the internationalisation of higher education.
• Building more inclusive collaborations between universities and communities
  Supporting universities to forge research partnerships with communities – especially those who face barriers to participation in research.
• Inclusive walking for Bristol’s transport planning and public health
  Walking is a convenient and free form of exercise, and a carbon neutral mode of transport. In Bristol there are both reasons and opportunities for walking to both improve people’s health and to address local transport issues.
• Informal governance and achieving sustainability – the next steps for Bristol Pound
  Launched in 2012, the Bristol Pound (£B) is the UK’s largest local currency, operating in both digital and cash forms. It aims to create a more resilient and sustainable independent business sector in Bristol, and a fairer and more inclusive local economy by changing how individuals and organisations behave financially.
• Helping East Africa get earthquake-ready
  It’s taking tens of millions of years, but the African continent is splitting in two. As plates slowly shift, the threat of major earthquakes rises too.
• Preventing tick-borne disease through awareness
  The largest study of ticks on dogs ever undertaken in the UK provided the science behind a successful and high profile campaign, endorsed by TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham, to raise awareness of tick-borne diseases and how to protect against them.
• Making 'snow' greener
  Collaborating with industry leaders has helped to reduce both the environmental impact and cost of artificial snow.
• Could disappearing glaciers threaten food security?
  Historians don’t usually find themselves climbing glaciers 3,500 metres above sea level, but that’s just what Dr Dan Haines has been doing in Himalayan Nepal.
• Protecting Nepal’s next generation from earthquakes
  The devastation caused by the 2015 earthquake was immense: 9,000 lives lost, 3.5 million people left homeless, and entire neighbourhoods flattened. How do we stop that happening again?
• Ensuring Bhutan stays happy – and safe
  Unlike its neighbours, Bhutan hasn’t experienced a major earthquake for some while. But is the clock ticking?
• Understanding the cost of war on dryland environments
  If you watch the news and wonder how wars impact environments and the people living in them, you’ll recognise the importance of this project.
• Reducing urban landslide risk in developing countries
  A new process of slope water management has helped develop a cost-effective means of reducing landslide risk for whole communities.
• Aiding development of high-yield, disease-resistant wheat
  Research helps the wheat-breeding industry - vital for global food security - become better able to respond to climate change and population growth.
• Pattern recognition systems for animal identification
  Automated computer vision applications help zoologists identify individual great white sharks and African penguins, without the need for manual tagging.
• Heathrow pods - a new form of personal rapid transit
  A new form of fast, reliable and low-cost driverless personal transport is now being used by thousands of passengers every day at Heathrow Airport.
• Analysing limestone to improve oil extraction
  Studies of modern limestone have led researchers to develop a model exploring the behaviour of carbonate reservoirs, reducing the inherent uncertainties in oil and gas extraction.
• Open network solutions
  Complex networks have to connect huge numbers of diverse devices, operated by multiple vendors, with a mixture of protocols. A new open networking solution aims to reduce costs and dramatically improve network performance while simplifying their management and operation.
• Monitoring greenhouse gases
  Using a combination of atmospheric measurements and complex modelling technology, Bristol researchers routinely verify the UK’s estimated greenhouse gas emissions.
• Improving water quality and ecosystem infrastructure
  The development of new assessment tools has led to major changes in ecosystem infrastructures in the UK and Ireland, with estimated financial benefits of £200 million.
• Averting avalanches
  Communities around the world are now protected from the devastation of avalanches thanks to research by mathematicians at the University of Bristol.
• Cracking graphite extends nuclear power station life
  Using advanced materials analysis to help extend the lifespan of nuclear power reactors, with substantial financial and environmental benefits.
• Protecting subglacial environments in Antarctica
  Research into Antarctica's network of dynamic subglacial lakes helped shape a Code of Conduct, enabling scientific discovery without compromising these unique habitats.
• Tackling climate, crime and salmon
  The statistical methodology that's helping solve commercial, social and scientific problems around the world.
• Chemistry research improves teaching
  Research underpinning climate change science is also transforming the quality and impact of chemistry teaching in the UK and overseas.
• Harnessing fungi's medicinal and agicricultural potential
  The Basidio Molecular Toolkit enables the global agricultural and pharmaceutical industry to make dramatic breakthroughs in crop production and antibiotic research.
• Cost-effective flood hazard information
  SSBN is translating research into cost-effective global flood hazard information, helping the insurance industry and others assess risk in regions with little information on flooding.
• Improving environmental remediation
  Researchers at the University of Bristol have developed a nano-filter which may help decrease costs associated with the remediation of contaminated sites as well as reduce risks to human health and the environment.
• Tracing the evolution of genes sheds light on origins of life
  Looking at how genes function across different species is helping to answer questions about human origins as well as how we view life on Earth.
• Making sense of uncertainty in complex systems
  Using statistical analysis to address the uncertainty inherent in complex systems, such as climate change models, helps bring scientific evidence into policy-making.
• Evaluating risk in an earthquake event
  Understanding how the immediate catastrophic impacts of earthquakes spread across society, becoming indirect losses and distress, can help reduce the aftermath of a disaster.
• Monitoring the world’s forgotten volcanoes from space
  When Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 2010 it left millions of travellers stranded and cost airlines an estimated €900 million. Now geophysicists are using satellites to provide advance warning of eruptions from other forgotten volcanoes.
• Cretaceous Sediment Investigations (CSI) of the Deep Biosphere
  Buried deep within the sediments at the bottom of the ocean – up to a kilometer below the seafloor – there are organisms that we know little more about than had we discovered them on Mars. But thanks to Bristol researchers, we are learning more each day.
• Carbonate reservoirs
  Scientists are studying the chemical composition of modern limestones and how water interacts with them to help understand the development of porosity in ancient carbonate builds-up through time. The research is helping to develop a model that is being applied by industry to predict the quality of carbonate oil reservoirs.
• Ice Pigging
  The ice Pig (pipeline inspection gauge) is transforming the way drinking-water pipes are cleaned and maintained.