Tyndall Talks

Our episode today is about aviation and shipping emissions. Aviation emissions have become a hot topic recently, thanks to the revelation that celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Taylor Swift have been using their private jets even for short trips – apparently as short as a three minute flight! This has caused some uproar, especially as climate researchers and activists have been pushing for a reduction of emissions in the aviation sector. Over the years, with cheaper tickets available to the public for air travel, aviation emissions have skyrocketed. According to data from Oxford University, flying accounts for 2.5% of the world’s emissions. The UK Research Institute released a study that shows aviation could consume ⅙ of the remaining temperature budget to limit warming to 1.5C. Similarly, the shipping industry is responsible for around 940 million tonnes of CO2 annually, which is at least 2.5% of the world’s total CO2 emissions. Why is aviation and shipping problematic and what solutions can we implement to solve this problem? 

Our guest are James and Asha, post-doc researchers at the University of Manchester whose research focus is on aviation and shipping.

(Royalty Free Music by Benjamin Tissot)

This episode is about the real world feasibility and consequences of two greenhouse gas removal approaches: first, large-scale afforestation, and second, biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). They both play the largest roles of any greenhouse gas removal approaches in future low emission scenarios that keep global mean temperature increase to below 1.5 °C and 2 °C.

We have three guests for this episode Nem Vaughan, Clair Gough and Diarmaid Clery from the FAB-GGR team or the Feasibility of Afforestation and Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage for Greenhouse Gas Removal.

Clair is senior research fellow at the University of Manchester where she has worked for many years on carbon capture storage, looking at everything from the social and political aspects to its role in decarbonising industry and removing carbon dioxide.

Diarmaid is a research associate at the University of Manchester, and previously worked at the University of East Anglia. His background is in engineering, working on technical aspects of  biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), but now working on more social aspects of greenhouse gas removal, and industrial decarbonisation.

Nem is an associate professor at the University of East Anglia where she works on greenhouse gas removal methods, from an earth system perspective through to public and policy.

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Adapting to climate change means taking action to prepare for and adjust to current and predicted effects of climate change. Adaptation plays an important role in managing past, present and future climate risk and impacts. However, there is an ‘adaptation gap’ where the distance  between existing adaptation efforts versus adaptation needs is widening. Tracking national adaptation plans is deemed critical to support future decision-making and drive future actions.

Our guest today is Katie Jenkins. Katie has created an Adaptation Inventory of adaptation actions happening based on official records of adaptation projects being implemented by both public and private sector here in the UK.

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Our episode this month is about energy justice. The energy price crisis in the UK and beyond, means many more households will find themselves in fuel poverty - meaning they find it unaffordable to heat their homes to a safe and healthy level. In 2019, 3.5 million households in the UK were considered fuel poor and this is likely to have increased significantly as a result of the pandemic and energy crisis. How do we address this from a justice perspective? Our guests for this episode is Sarah Becker and Prof. Aimee Ambrose.

(Royalty Free Music by Benjamin Tissot)

Interested in starting a PhD at the Tyndall Centre? In this episode, hosts Charlotte Brown and James Mason interview three PhD researchers at Tyndall Manchester to shine some light on the PhD world. How do you apply for a PhD? What do you research? Why choose Tyndall? Have a listen to find out more!

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This episode is about wildfires. We have seen wildfires happening more frequently in recent years – In the US, Brazil, Indonesia, and Australia, for example. How do wildfires start, does climate change make them worse? How do they impact communities and what can we do to prevent them? 

Our guest for this episode is Dr. Rachel Carmenta, environmental social scientist and Tyndall Lecturer in Climate Change and International Development. Her expertise is in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of environment and development, environmental risk and the relationship between place and well-being. For over a decade she has focused on tropical fire - its governance, management and the impacts of landscape flammability for the lives and livelihoods of rural traditional farmers. Rachel’s work is focused in Brazilian Amazon and Indonesian peatland frontiers.

(Royalty Free Music by Benjamin Tissot)

To start this year, we have the Science Brief team to talk to us about their work and why accessible scientific evidence is important in this time of climate crisis. How do we filter quality science and evidence?  What makes a good data visualisation? How can we make sure that the information we share is backed by good science?

We have Adam Smith, Anthony De-Gol, and Corinne Le Quere, the core team of Science Brief, joining us for this episode.

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How does resilience look like for drought and water security? How do we put to this to work? How do we define resilience in different parts of the world?  This episode is a conversation among experts about what resilience means and how it looks like when we deal with drought and water security.

This is part of a recorded seminar led by Tyndall Centre’s Adaptation and Resilience theme.

(Royalty Free Music by Benjamin Tissot)

In this episode we are going to talk about cities and live music. With the UK’s goal of Net Zero by 2050, we need different sectors to do their share of actions to ensure a low-carbon future. Today, we will focus on two sectors: cities and live music. Cities account for more than 50% of the global population, 80% of global GDP, two-thirds of global energy consumption and more than 70% of annual global carbon emissions. How can cities in the UK follow the trajectory of net zero by 2050?

Next, we will talk about one of the things we missed during COVID -- live music. Live music is something many of us  enjoy but, like every sector it has to consider how it can significantly reduce its emissions and become ‘net zero’. 

We have Carly McLachlan, Sarah Mander, and Chris Jones from Tyndall Centre Manchester to talk to us about these two topics.

(Royalty Free Music by Benjamin Tissot)

The UK will be leading the 26th meeting of countries this November, six years after the Paris Agreement was signed. Why is this year’s conference important? What do we need for countries to commit to this year? How can we say that the COP is a success? And how do we expect the UK to lead the conference? We have Dr. Annela Anger Kraavi of the Climate Change Policy Group at the University of Cambridge as a guest for this episode.

(Royalty Free Music by Benjamin Tissot)