Partnerships

UCL people are collaborating with policymakers, entrepreneurs and local citizens to tackle the climate emergency across disciplines, sectors and communities.

Meeting a problem of the scale and complexity of the climate crisis will take unprecedented collaboration — and imagination.

Whether it’s transforming the spoils of our daily caffeine intake into clean energy through UCL start-up BioBean, or developing urgent pan-university efforts to build a fair COVID-19 recovery, we work with policymakers, entrepreneurs and local communities to address the climate crisis.

Explore below:

Public engagement and policy｜Entrepreneurship｜Industry partnerships｜Global partnerships｜Climate change and London

Public engagement and policy

Building the consensus for change

UCL takes its responsibility to sharing knowledge with the wider world seriously. We are researching more effective ways of communicating the risks of climate change to the general public, empowering people with information and tools they need to take action in their own lives, and building the consensus for change.

The 1.5˚C Charter

Support the 1.5˚C Charter – a call on governments to make the human and economic cost of climate change a key consideration when tackling global heating.

UCL Climate Action Unit

The Climate Action Unit runs interventions with policymakers, professions and organisations to help them achieve effective climate action and respond to climate change risks.

UCL and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) join forces to drive sustainability

UCL has entered a new collaboration with UNEP to help achieve a sustainable world in a generation - through a range of activities focused on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UN report co-chaired by UCL academic warns of dangers to human health

Damage to the planet is so dire that people’s health will be increasingly threatened unless urgent action is taken, according to the UN’s sixth Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-6).

New £40 million Clean Growth Fund to supercharge green start-ups

As part of an initiative suppored by a UCL academic, the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and CCLA Investment Management have announced a £40 million fund to invest in the UK's most promising early stage clean growth ventures.

UCL experts advise UK's Committee on Climate Change

UCL chaired working groups fed into the UK's Committee on Climate Change's latest report ‘Net Zero – The UK’s Contribution to Stopping Global Warming’ and informed key recommendations.

Net Zero Innovation Programme

UCL has teamed up with the Local Government Association to address climate challenges at the local level and deliver on councils' net zero commitments.

Innovation for a European green transition

Through the New Innovation Paradigms project, UCL’s IIPP works closely with partners at EIT Climate-KIC, on innovative paradigms for whole systems redirection towards a green transition in Europe.

Working with cities towards mission-led clean growth

UCL’s IIPP is working closely with Greater Manchester to demonstrate, at city level, the Mission Oriented Innovation approach to clean growth developed at UCL IIPP.

Entrepreneurship

Climate-smart innovation

There are no quick fixes to the climate crisis. But bold ideas can help us to adapt. UCL has a strong track-record in helping people within our community create and spinout companies translating their ideas into real-world innovations. Our spirit of entrepreneurship is powered by people from across the organisation, like the UCL students behind the £1m Hult Prize-winning social enterprise Rice Inc, which is tackling global food insecurity.

Turning used coffee grounds into clean energy

UCL start-up bio-bean, co-founded by UCL graduate Arthur Kay, turns used coffee grounds into clean energy, helping companies reduce their methane gas and CO2 emissions and preventing thousands of tonnes of waste each year.

Fast Forward 2030

Fast Forward 2030 is a network of entrepreneurs hosted by the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) at UCL. The network fosters the development of innovations that address the causes and consequences of environmental degradation, economic inequality and social injustice, with a special focus on climate change.

Helping to alleviate food poverty

Supported by UCL Innovation & Enterprise, four UCL prizewinning students are aiming to reduce food poverty in Southeast Asia through their social enterprise, Rice Inc., by improving the yields of rice farmers.

Scaling down eco-tech for small farms

Converting farm waste into renewable fuel and fertiliser is usually done on a mammoth scale for costly agricultural operations. A UCL entrepreneur has scaled down the technology to make it accessible to all.

Supporting zero-emission technology

Hydrogen fuel cell company Bramble Energy - supported by UCL Business (UCLB) and the UCL Technology Fund - is launching a zero-emissions portable power product range, which can replace diesel generators.

Industry partnerships

Turning high impact research into real world impact

UCL has a history of working with industry partners to translate research insights into real-world impact. How can we ensure a decarbonised system to buy and store heat and power? How can we design-out plastic packaging and create new business opportunities along the way? Partnership with UCL can enhance the competitive edge of companies and create opportunities for high impact research, while answering pressing questions about tackling global heating.

Creating replicable design models for net zero carbon buildings

UCL and architectural practice Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) are working together to develop a Model for Net-Zero Carbon design in high-density mixed-use developments and a corresponding Net-Zero Carbon Decision Support Tool.

VALUABLE: Automotive batteries

UCL academics from the Electrochemical Innovation Lab are part of a research consortium to reuse, remanufacture and recycle automotive batteries.

Can we design zero waste plastic packaging?

UCL chemists, material scientists, artists, biologists and behavioural change experts are collaborating with industry partners to design out plastic waste and create new business opportunities in the Plastic Waste Innovation Hub.

Water as an agent for change

South East and London Water Alliance links a diverse set of community experts, including water researchers, stakeholders, policymakers, industry experts and utility representatives across London and the South East.

Mobility as a service; the end for car ownership?

UCL's Mobility as a Service Lab worked with Transport for London to discover Londoner's attitudes towards car-ownership and mobility as a service (MaaS). MaaS has the potential to combat the rising traffic congestion and poorer air quality in London.

Recycling mine waste into paint pigment

The abandoned coal mines across the UK increasingly cause land and water pollution as minerals flush through them. A Slade School of Fine Art researcher has redirected the waste from the water treatment process into a sustainable source of pigment for paint.

Global partnerships

Harnessing international networks and expertise

We believe there should be no boundaries to research and innovation when tackling a planetary emergency like climate change, and that with the right mix of minds, anything is possible. As London's global university, UCL is working with partners and communities around the world to tackle the climate crisis at all scales. Research initiatives range from our collaboration with Peking University researching how China’s carbon emissions impact on climate mitigation, to the Institute for Global Prosperity’s Transforming Tomorrow Initiative, catalysing experimentation in social, cultural, economic and political fields and creating the institutions, networks, stories and policies that will move society from climate emergency to global prosperity.

Carbon content in forests: Mapping carbon content with NASA

How do you weigh a tree and why would you want to? To understand how forests help to mitigate climate change by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere via photosynthesis, we need to know how much carbon is taken up by a tree each year.

Managing the health effects of climate change

UCL scientists are part of the Lancet-Countdown - a collaboration between universities and UN agencies - that tracks how climate change affects public health. Their data makes clear how climate change is affecting our health, the consequences of delayed action and the health benefits of a robust response.

Establishing a mobile education hub for sustainable islands

Researchers from The Bartlett and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) are creating new ways of cleaning up island ecosystems.

Supporting energy policy in Latin America & UK

To advance the discussion on improving low carbon and energy performance of the commercial building stock in the UK and Brazil, the UCL Energy Institute and the Laboratory for Energy Efficiency in Buildings at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) organized a workshop, identifying priority issues and mechanisms to address them.

Exploring China’s carbon emissions to tackle climate change

A jointly-funded collaboration between UCL and Peking University (PKU) is helping to tackle global climate change by researching how China’s carbon emissions impact on mitigation.

Transforming Tomorrow

The Transforming Tomorrow Initiative's Africa Assembly brings together members of Africa’s civil society, politicians and business minds to imagine and create plausible pathways to a prosperous future, and create a network of senior leaders who want to act for a better climate.

Climate change and London

London’s global university creating change on our doorstep

UCL is London’s global university, nourished by and contributing to one of the most exciting, ideas-driven cities in the world. UCL people are making important contributions to both local and global projects: engaging with our fellow Londoners through local initiatives like Camden Citizen’s Assembly for Climate Change; co-creating knowledge with Londoner citizen scientists; and creating new opportunities for local businesses.