Green Gown Awards 2021: 2030 Climate Action - Newcastle University - Highly Commended

Climate Action at Newcastle University: Our roadmap to change

Newcastle University’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) sets an ambitious target for net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 for scopes 1 and 2 and a range of challenging targets for scope 3. The CAP represents a further raising of ambition in our leading carbon reduction work, underway since the development of our first Carbon Management Plan in 2007 which has seen us achieve a 43% reduction in carbon emissions since a 2005/6 baseline as well as meet the BEIS Carbon Pledge.

These achievements provide milestones on our journey, but we know there is more we need to do to accelerate our climate action, and we have been working at pace to not only develop our roadmap but also ensure key projects are underway towards meeting our goal. Developed with our colleagues, students and partners, our CAP targets deep and lasting change through our research, teaching and daily practices.

Top 3 learnings:

• Be brave and set a high ambition.
• Be honest about the challenges, including those around scope 3 and offsetting.
• Ensure key stakeholders, especially students, are engaged in CAP development.