Climate Action Plan
The SPAIS Climate Action Plan identifies key climate impacts and sets out actions the school is taking to reduce emissions.
This is part of a wider Univeristy of Bristol effort to reduce carbon emissions, supporting Schools and Divisions to take action that will lead to the greatest carbon reduction and impact. Currently, over 1,000 individual actions have been committed to across the University, including at SPAIS.
About our Climate Action Plan
We are facing a climate and biodiversity crisis. The SPAIS Climate Action Plan is responding to the University's Climate Emergency Declaration from 2019, which sets out the goal to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2030 across the university. Our Plan helps deliver the University’s Sustainability Strategy and Carbon Reduction Target.
Find out more about what the University is doing to achieve carbon neutrality.
Past projects
The Climate Action Plan Working Group has successfully implemented three policies that are creating operational change towards reducing carbon emissions.
Meat-free food policy for SPAIS events
Dietary habits are one of the biggest drivers of greenhouse gas emissions and land use change, and committing SPAIS to a meat-free or vegan food policy for all catered events will reduce Scope 2 emissions.
Ethical Careers Policy
Following liaison with our students, SPAIS is proud to have an ‘Ethical Careers Policy’ which excludes oil, gas and mining companies from SPAIS recruitment opportunities and careers events.
This is part of our commitment to supporting students to access sustainable career pathways and our commitment to sustainability, social justice and decolonisation, as extractive operations are often linked to exploitation of poor, marginalised, and/or racialised communities.
Paper-free events
QR codes, online resources and similar will replace paper printouts at SPAIS events and meetings.
Current priority areas
The CAP Coordinator is liaising with the Study Abroad Office to create more European options for our SPAIS programmes that include a study abroad option, and encourage students to travel by coach/train rather than plane by providing carbon costs of the different options.
This complements other efforts by the University’s Sustainability Team, who are providing financial support for low-carbon travel options. As part of this, they are promoting the RouteZero website, which makes planning more sustainable routes easy.
Get involved
The Climate Action Plan is developed by the CAP Working Group, which is made up of students and staff.
The group is led by a CAP coordinator, who is responsible for using the online planning tool to firstly develop a plan, and then to gather evidence of action. The SPAIS CAP Coordinator is Dr Katharina Richter.