Sustainability
Climate Whac-A-Mole: A personal reflection on what we should do to act on climate change
Professor Richard A Williams OBE Principal & Vice-Chancellor
Climate challenges are full of dilemmas. For every good idea for change there is a disruptor whose strong voice can explain why it is not. It’s like a game of Whac-A-Mole.
This is true of the general landscape in many nations around our world, with schisms widened through political divides, rather than healed through acts of unity, clear intent and policies.
The soundness of decisions made by some national governments, the pace of change, and the absence of long-term implementation plans and assessments of the net impact, have all been criticised in United Nations and expert Climate Change Committee reports.
The COP28 events in Dubai in 2023 presented an opportunity to go beyond assessment and step into action, and as a University with longstanding presence in UAE (over 18 years!), we have a significant role in hosting international visitors and catalysing action.
The Dubai Solar Test Site for companies in the UK, and beyond, managed by Heriot-Watt University Dubai
We are developing a free carbon literacy programme for all staff, students and alumni worldwide.”
For me this is very personal. My own motivation is best summarised by a statement of impact I have developed, along with many other staff and students across the University. My statement reads: “I am an innovator and driver of change. My purpose is to bring enjoyment and security of life to others by creating a globally sustainable society”.
So, where do universities, and especially Heriot-Watt University, fit in? As charitable bodies, higher education institutions are mandated to work solely for the public good. Heriot-Watt has been working for centuries to derive and assess new forms of energy and is now pushing the frontiers for ethical and rapid energy transition. Universities are national, and indeed global, lighthouses of best practice, casting their light to provide leadership and develop confidence. This is very much the intention for our University.
Universities embrace and model innovative pathways to Net Zero and beyond Net Zero, but they also carry the knowledge to assess and articulate the net impact of decisions to do with energy systems and society. Whilst some universities may turn the climate change challenge, adherence to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and being the first to reach Net Zero, into a ‘league table race’, most are choosing to stretch themselves.
Nations are aching for confidence and ambition to support much-needed actions.”
But back to Whac-A-Mole. How can we be arbiters of truth and sources of advice beyond our immediate campus environs? There are five gamemaster roles.
First, to educate hundreds of thousands of students to become carbon literate, so wise personal and collective decisions can be made.
At Heriot-Watt, we are developing a free carbon literacy programme for all staff, students and alumni worldwide. The tangible impact of such educational endeavours will yield greater net impact to CO₂ mitigation than any physical transformations to decarbonise our buildings. To support this type of community action further, we are developing a Net Zero Community Hub, that is both a real place and a digital twin – accessed in the virtual world online, to support education and display innovations that are world changing.
Second, to assist national academies and governments in articulating the pathways for policies and systems that will lead to a net zero lifestyle. This is notably absent from national strategies, but desperately needed to build ambition and confidence for decarbonisation. Nations are aching for confidence and ambition to support much-needed actions. Our presence at COP28 underscores this.
Third, to progress our research, and the translation of that research, to enabling new innovations to be delivered to support climate mitigation – ranging from sustainable aviation fuels through to IT tech to optimised growth of crops in areas of sparse rainfall.
The fourth role is to coalesce action by initiating trusted multi-partner consortia. This approach is well evidenced in the way universities work with industry and others. By working as part of a cluster of industries within a region, the challenge of decarbonisation becomes a shared endeavour, by which we will encourage collective regional action and funding. A key example of this is the UK-wide Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) based at Heriot-Watt.
The final role is to drive new ethical economic thinking through frontier research in green finance, and models for a future-looking sustainable economy, where impact investment and social benefit is valued. From our base at Adam Smith’s Panmure House in Edinburgh, we seek to connect and understand what sustainable capitalism means for nations around the world which have, rightly, different perspectives on the meaning of ethical and just transition.
It’s time to move from gaming to reality.
Find out more about our sustainability strategy and action
