News
2024 broke global summer heat records, as 2023 had before it. Billions felt the direct impact of climate change in their day-to-day lives, whether through heat, rain, or the multitude of knock-on impacts, from cancelled trains right through to large-scale crop failure.
Governments and societies face an immense challenge: to limit and halt emissions to prevent further (catastrophic) warming, at the same time as adapting to the change already wrought. Meanwhile, they are buffeted by immediate urgent issues like conflict, migration, economic woes, and energy shortages – all of which divert short-term attention from climate change, but have been (and will be) worsened by it.
No wonder, then, that climate change was a major focus for many in the Blavatnik School community during 2024, with our faculty, researchers, students, alumni and wider community showing drive and optimism.
Much of our work clustered around two key moments on the global calendar: the UN General Assembly in September and COP29 in November.