Skip to navigation | Skip to main content | Skip to footer
Menu
Search the University of Manchester siteSearch Menu StaffNet

University to host the Manchester Festival of Climate Action

04 Oct 2021

The University is to host a four-day programme of talks tackling the biggest climate questions.

Climate festival

Uniting experts from across the University, the Manchester Festival of Climate Action will take place between 11 and 14 October 2021 to share insights and innovative solutions to the climate crisis.

Free, online and open to all, the festival will welcome policymakers, industry decision makers, academics, students and members of the public, with each day dedicated to one of the four COP26 goals – mitigation, adaptation, finance and collaboration. With 27 talks, featuring speakers from across the world, the festival will address local, national and global challenges, with Manchester experts offering responses to help drive lasting change.

Professor Colette Fagan, Vice-President for Research explains: “Our Festival will help to inform action by sharing innovative solutions to the world’s biggest climate questions. Scheduled at a critical juncture in the climate debate, it will see our world-leading community of experts answer the most pressing global challenges, so that we can help governments, businesses and communities drive the action needed to help future generations.”

The festival will feature more than thirty hours of talks, webinars, workshops and debates, drawing together expertise spanning research, teaching and social responsibility from across the University. Events include:

  • Professor Carly McLachlan on Tyndall Manchester’s work with legendary electronic band Massive Attack in developing a super-low carbon roadmap for live music
  • Professor Mike Shaver addressing the issue of plastics, asking ‘can we save the world one plastic fork at a time?’
  • A Manchester–Toronto collaboration, led by Professor Kevin Ward, on developing sustainable cities
  • Richard Smith, Head of Environmental Sustainability, on how to increase diversity within sustainability
  • Professor Paolo Quattrone on why accounting might be able to save the planet.

Register to attend

The Manchester Festival of Climate Action is part of Climate Questions, the University-wide communications and marketing campaign created to share Manchester insight to help catalyse urgent action.

The festival will take place the week before the Sustainable Futures External Launch event. This event will bring together researchers from across the University of Manchester and key external stakeholders to discuss sustainability activity at UoM at the launch of the new Sustainable Futures initiative.

More information

COP26, which takes place in Glasgow between 1-12 November 2021, will bring together over 30,000 delegates from 197 countries to unite the world in tackling climate change.

Nine researchers from the University will attend the Blue Zone at COP26, the UN Climate Change summit, to observe the negotiations that will be fundamental to securing the future of our planet.

Manchester academics have had a dedicated presence at the COP summits over the last two decades.