Report of Science for Net-Zero Transition Symposium Published

The report of the Symposium follows up the commitment taken at COP26 when the four organisations launched a joint Call to Action to mobilise the research and higher education communities for reducing carbon emissions.

Following the UN Sustainable Development Goal 13, the group prompts everyone in the research and higher education sector to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. The report presents consolidated views and experiences around the vision presented in the Call on the necessary collaboration between higher education institutions, research funding and performing organisations, and the whole research and education community.

This vision includes developing the next generation of students and researchers for the Net-Zero Transition, the objective for participating organisations to reduce their own carbon footprint, and improving the shared understanding of what needs to be done. Climate action is ever more urgent, and research communities should join efforts to reduce emissions and upgrade the collective ambition to do so, together with governments, the business sector, and society as a whole.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently published its report Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, calling for urgent measures to address this challenge. The Call to Action and the reports of this Net-Zero Transition symposium and previous Science for the Green Transition workshop form part of Science Europe’s contribution to these goals.