The University of Reading is one of the world’s leading research institutions into climate science. In 2021, the University was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its work on climate change – the highest honour awarded to UK institutions of higher and further education. With construction of a new HQ for the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts at the University, the Whiteknights campus will become home to the largest cluster of weather and climate scientists in the world.
Simple but striking graphics showing how the world’s climate has changed were created by a Reading climate scientist, Professor Ed Hawkins MBE, and have reached millions worldwide, starting conversations that may lead to solutions. His visualisations about how the climate has changed since the pre-industrial era are based on billions of pieces of data, from hundreds of years of climate observations and research. The graphics have appeared at the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Brazil, the front cover of The Economist and The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg, on the main stage at the Reading Music Festival, and across the BBC website during the COP26 climate talks.
The Walker Institute, based at the University of Reading, is an interdisciplinary research institute supporting the development of climate resilient societies. Research at the Walker Institute is helping us to address some of the fundamental questions currently facing development and encompassing social, economic, technological, and political strategies which are being implemented at all scales of society.
Find out more about climate research at the University of Reading.
Climate stripes at Reading Festival
