Climate Action Hub

The Science Communication Unit’s Climate Action Hub brings together students and researchers with communities for climate action. It was set up out of a desire to harness the existing passions and entrepreneurial mindset of UWE Bristol researchers and students for collaborations focused on addressing the climate and ecological emergency, and to empower communities to act on things that matter to them.

UWE Bristol is already doing some fantastic work at addressing these issues on campus, with a Sustainability Committee and Green Team leading the way on policy and behavioural change. Researchers are working collaboratively to bid for projects on ‘a changing climate’ and there is a Network dedicated to embedding the SDGs within the curriculum.

The Climate Action Hub builds on these efforts to create a space for staff and students to connect with (local) communities for climate action specifically, and to make visible the work that is already underway. The Hub draws inspiration from the Science Shop model where academics apply for research grants together with community partners and/or students conduct the co-designed participatory research as part of their studies.

Its first offering, the Youth Climate Communications Toolkit, funded by the UKRI Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) for knowledge exchange and now Enterprise Educators UK, is providing training and resources on climate communications and social action, co-developed with and for young people. 

The Youth Climate Communications Toolkit to accompany the training (see below) can also be used independently, either as part of an educational project or to support youth groups with their campaigning. The project has already directly engaged over 200 young people in communication skills that they can then use to have more effective conversations and develop more impactful climate action projects. It has further engaged more than 300 adults (e.g., teachers/educators) and reached an additional 5,000 young people. Learn more about the co-design phase on our blog and read the HEIF report.

To keep up-to-date on developments, follow the Hub on Instagram @climate.action.hub.

For more information, or to get involved, please contact Sophie Laggan (Sophie.Laggan@uwe.ac.uk).