COP26 talks: Reflections on COP26, climate resilience and local action

Reflections on COP26, climate resilience and local action was the theme of the fourth in our series of special COP26 talks, reflecting how our world-leading research is contributing to climate policy and climate action, and how our institutional policies and actions are contributing to our community, campus and local environment.

Professor Bill Collins from Meteorology and Professor Tim Dixon from Built Environment joined Caroline Knowles, Head of Research Communications and Engagement, for the session.

Introducing the session, Caroline said, “Bill Collins is one of the authors of the IPCC report, which fed into the COP processes and all the discussions. Tim Dixon focuses on sustainability in the built environment and he does a lot of work in the local area, with the town and with different lobby groups in the town”.

Professor Bill Collins’ started his presentation with a reflection on the contribution of climate science to COP26. He said, “A report came out in this summer from IPCC, which six of us from Reading contributed to – and behind this, of course, is not just the six people who contributed but the decades of work from the Department of Meteorology here at Reading, and also the National Centre for Atmospheric Sciences in Reading.”

Professor Tim Dixon spoke about the importance of action at local level in dealing with the changing climate.He said, “As a result of COP23 and the 2018 report, we saw a huge wave of emergency declarations across the world. Here in the Thames Valley region too, pretty much all the local authorities except one have declared a climate emergency. It is also worth noting that across the Berkshire region carbon emissions have reduced. Reading itself has reduced its emissions by nearly 50% from 2005 to 2019.” 

A video recording of the event can be accessed below: 

 The video can also be accessed directly on Microsoft Stream

If you missed the previous sessions, you can access the video recordings and a summary of COP26 talks: climate science, policy and education, COP26 talks: Green curriculum and balancing biodiversity and COP26 talks: Changing the way we live on the Staff Portal.