Final call: Our last two PhD studentship openings, based at our centre hub (University of Bath), will be closing for applications tomorrow, so be sure to apply today 👇

It takes 500 barrels of oil to fly to LA, and roughly 0 to take the train to Europe. Changing your travel habits is about more than avoiding climate collapse; it's about the petro-states not holding you over a barrel. flightfreeuk.substack.com/p/future-pro...

Read Steve's (@steveclimate.bsky.social) CAST briefing on "Leading by example with low-carbon behaviours: how politicians, celebrities and business leaders can stimulate behaviour change and increase trust" 👇 cast.ac.uk/wp-content/u...

Upcoming webinar: "Crossed wires: leaders' and politicians' misperceptions of the public's view on #NetZero" (hosted by Bescy) featuring CAST's Dr Steve Westlake, sharing his work exploring the power of embodied sustainable leadership. 💻️ When: Tuesday 14 April, 12:00 - 13:00 BST 📆 Register now 👇

"We find that the principal drive for global warming acceleration began in about 2015, which implies that 2°C global warming is likely to be reached in the 2030s, not at midcentury" - James Hansen et al. mailchi.mp/caa/another-...

The optimist vs pessimist divide in #climate debates isn’t usually about the data. It’s about how the same graphs are read, what people emphasise, what they discount, and how they interpret pace and stakes. Here’s what I mean 🧵👇

This is huge: For the first time since the early 1970s, coal power generation has fallen in both China & India. It undercuts claims that decarbonisation is pointless while they expand coal. Renewables are no longer just adding capacity — they’re displacing coal. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Globally, no single day in 2025 was cooler than its 1991-2020 average. climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...

2025 was an exceptional year for the Earth's climate ⬆️ Warmest ocean heat content ⬆️ Tied as second warmest surface temps ⬆️ Second warmest troposphere ⬆️ Record high sea level and GHGs ⬇️ Record low winter Arctic ice New State of the Climate over at Carbon Brief: www.carbonbrief.org/...

This thread responds to Prof. Christian Dunn’s Telegraph piece on #climate communication. I argue it misdiagnoses public disengagement, underplays escalating scientific risk, & reproduces a media narrative that has actively shaped, not merely reflected, public resistance to climate action 🧵

Themes from Steve's research are informing our new Climate Leadership Research Centre, led by Oxford University in partnership with Bath University : leadership.climate.ox.ac.uk

Something we all knew intuitively: Leading by example, or walking the walk. We need to elect more principled representatives folks!

6/ Since high income often equates to high status, that gives wealthy people a disproportionate social & cultural influence But as @steveclimate.bsky.social argues, they should be leading by example - not explicitly endorsing the most problematic behaviours and lifestyles

A canny political and media strategy from @zackpolanski.bsky.social. Immediately he defuses climate delayers’ favourite cynical attack lines, and avoids headlines like “Polanski says you should never go on holiday, drive a car, or eat meat”. But, crucially, he's leading by example... 1/🧵

1/ Yes the globally wealthy have outsized emissions, and yes that’s a massive problem But it’s actually only a small part of their devastating influence on the conditions that support life 🧵

This is scary. "Three of the five worst harvests on record have now occurred since 2020, leaving some farmers asking whether the growing impacts of the climate crisis are making it too financially risky to sow their crops." www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Hard hitting words from Chris Packham to politicians and leaders at the National Emergency Briefing on climate and nature: "You MUST listen to the science. We didn't just elect you. We've given you our trust. You are about to hear from leading scientists. I beseach you to hear their truth"

Huge news from the UK today: after UN climate talks in which there was a massive fight over language on fossil fuels, the UK government today announced that it will in fact be keeping many millions of barrels of oil & gas in the ground. Deeds rather than just words for a change! 🧵

🚨Looking forward to the National Emergency Briefing on the climate and nature crisis tomorrow🚨 👀Will be fascinating to see which political leaders attend to hear expertise from @kevinclimate.bsky.social @profpaulbehrens.bsky.social @angelaisfranc.bsky.social @mikebernerslee.bsky.social and more

Please attend this crucial briefing @annamcmorrin.bsky.social We are in a climate and nature crisis and need our leaders to step up.

'Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain' #Iran 🇮🇷

Pretty remarkable how high Australia sits on the scale for lifestyle carbon emissions globally - and how little this gets mentioned in domestic climate discourse. hotorcool.org/publications...

There are over 1️⃣6️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ gas & oil lobbyists at COP30 👇 What a shocking failure. Would you allow tobacco lobbyists into a world health conference? There will be 0️⃣ lobbyists at the National Emergency Briefing on the #climate and #nature crisis on 27th November. Is your MP attending? www.nebriefing.org

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀! Want to join @chrisgpackham.bsky.social in supporting the National Emergency Briefing on Climate & Nature? 🖋️ 𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 urging MPs to attend: lnkd.in/ecGDM3Ry

World leaders punch back at US climate denial ahead of Brazil's COP30 negotiations Country leaders at a climate summit in Brazil on Thursday bemoaned the fractured global consensus on climate action, taking swipes at the climate-denying U.S. government. buff.ly/aM4Pscu

1. This is a thread on freedom, and how easy it is to lose. Over the past 2,000 years in Europe, there have been few periods and places of freedom. For much of the time we lived under highly oppressive tyrannies of various kinds, whether small or grand, local or imperial, secular or religious.🧵

I've finally got around to curating a selection of films about the #climate crisis 🎥 There's lot of mediocre climate films out there, but for me these stand out head & shoulders above the rest 🎞️ They make excellent resources for classrooms, lecture halls, or community cinema's 🎬 Thread:🧵Plz RT

Great thread on Universities and the climate crisis. Lays out the problem, and the way forward.

🔥 The never-ending narrative… This week, I’ve once again heard prominent climate researchers dismiss individual action as either irrelevant or a distraction instigated by the fossil fuel industry. Here’s a 🧵 on why this argument frustrates me to no end and why I think it misses the bigger picture.

It's the 'Scientists Responsibility Summit' today. Here's a live thread with some take aways from each talk... 🧵

5/ I found it interesting that both speakers repeatedly stressed the need to question deep assumptions about how we think about the future, & how our imaginations are constrained by the past & by the present. I explore more about the importance of imaginaries for supporting social change in this 🧵

Has anyone else been dealing with some serious headline whiplash recently? Even for those of us who follow #climate and #energy matters closely, it can be hard to know what the hell is going on! So here's a thread to help climate communicators get a grip on how to deal with this 🧵

see also this @steveclimate.bsky.social theconversation.com/politicians-...

ICYM #climatecrisis

Revealed: ‘Corporate capture’ of UN aviation body by industry

Interesting-looking new study finding that "the global aviation sector’s impact on global warming continues to increase even under the most ambitious mitigation scenarios" cell.com/one-earth/fu...

😊 Delighted to announce I'll be a Lead Author for ch.8 of @ipcc.bsky.social's Seventh Assessment Report, alongside 663 experts from 111 countries, as part of Working Group III. Analysis by @carbonbrief.org shows increasing diversity of IPCC authorship: tinyurl.com/462pvby9 #IPCC #ClimateReport

More Americans are very worried about climate change than are about crime. @yaleclimatecomm.bsky.social climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications...

"Leaders across the political spectrum are protecting the fossil-fuel status quo at the very moment scientists warn we need rapid, transformative change." theconversation.com/politicians-...

Such a good @bankfieldbecky.bsky.social + @steveclimate.bsky.social paper here: examining how "climate pragmatism" has become a major part of the new lexicon of climate delay Also see: "climate realism" theconversation.com/politicians-...

"Climate pragmatism" in the UK; "climate realism" in the US: justifying the continuance of the fossil-fuel economy, either way.

“The future isn’t something that happens to us, it’s something we build together. By choosing to act wisely today, we can navigate uncertainty and emerge stronger tomorrow.” - @laurielaybourn.bsky.social, @climate-risk.bsky.social youtu.be/IkjsAQeomtQ

Men will build giant floating walls to prevent warm water from reaching ice shelves, and scatter microbeads onto sea ice to increase its reflectivity before just stopping the burning of fossil fuels www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Interesting take on the new politics of climate pragmatism that matches the emerging paradigm of climate realism around the world cc @jeffcolgan.bsky.social

In an article for The Conversation UK (@uk.theconversation.com), CAST affiliate Dr Steve Westlake (@steveclimate.bsky.social) discusses new research which "shows that political “pragmatism” is fast becoming a dangerous form of climate delay". Read the article 👇

"By framing urgent action as 'extreme' and steady-as-she-goes policies as 'pragmatic', leaders across the political spectrum are protecting the fossil-fuel status quo at the very moment scientists warn we need rapid, transformative change."

"The projection of unequal outcomes across scenarios... is a matter of serious concern, especially when scenario results are directly used as inputs for #climate policy... we need to move towards model &scenario building techniques where questions of equity &climate justice come to the foreground"

Happy to share our new research on UK climate politics 🚨 We found Members of Parliament (MPs) use the language of climate "pragmatism" to avoid rapid change. It risks becoming a new discourse of delay. More detail below and in 🧵 1/ theconversation.com/politicians-...

New research from @steveclimate.bsky.social shows that MPs support climate action, but don't do much about it because it's not politically 'pragmatic' Of course it's not pragmatic, it's the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced! Politics can't fix this - but Citizens' Assemblies might

Help please 😁. I’m co-designing a new module for 3rd year psychology undergrads on “The Psychology of Sustainability”. I’d love to hear your advice and ideas for making it extra-brilliant by way of: themes, content, essential references, resources, materials.