Climate Emergency: UK Universities' Declarations and Their Role in Responding to Climate Change

Abstract

On April 17, 2019, the University of Bristol became the first university in the United Kingdom (UK) to declare a climate emergency. Against a backdrop of high visibility and public concern about climate change, as well as climate emergency declarations from other sectors, another 36 UK universities followed suit over the next year. This paper explores what these climate emergency declarations show about how UK universities are responding to climate change and wider sustainability concerns, as well as how they view and present themselves in relation to this. Critical Discourse Analysis of the declarations allowed for in-depth scrutiny of the purpose and wider social context of the documents, demonstrating that they function as promotional statements, as presenting a collective voice, and showing a commitment from the universities to action. We argue that while these provide the potential for advancing sustainability within the sector, the tendency to use declarations as publicity and promotional material does detract from new commitments and action. The research contributes to the discussion around the role of universities as institutions with a responsibility both to act on climate change and to shape the broader societal response to it. It also provides insights as to how future research can evaluate universities in relation to their commitments and strategies, and provides suggestions to help ensure they live up to the promises and intentions that they have publicly made.

Testing an instrument to assess the perception of climate change policies in universities: the case of Salamanca University

“…On September 26, 2019, USAL approved the CED. Similarly, the University of Bristol (Dillon, 2019) and another 36 universities in the UK have done it as well (Latter and Capstick, 2021). However, we have not found any studies explaining the process of a university developing its CC management system based on the perception of the university’s community.…”

“…On the other hand, university authorities need to determine the perception of their community in the implementation of CED. The perception of sustainability issues in the university community (Aleixo et al , 2021; Nejati and Nejati, 2013) can be a vital driver for action, and it is an essential indicator of their involvement and success in the CED (Latter and Capstick, 2021).…”

Re-purposing Universities: The Path to Purpose

“…By extension, much of the observed university responses to global sustainability imperatives has been criticised as "strategic posture" (Oliver, 1991), in which universities' promote sustainability agendas as a form of university boosterism and stakeholder "capital, " rather than driving real change (Latter and Capstick, 2021;O'Neill and Sinden, 2021). Critically, the reality of the day-to-day, year-to-year operations of most remain tied to the competitive market place of research funding and student courses.…”

Education in a warming world: Trends, opportunities and pitfalls for institutes of higher education

“…Similarly, while individual academics or departments may work directly on promoting sustainability through research on the production of renewable energy others may contribute to the (re-) production of technologies and knowledge systems that exacerbate the crises. So while the number of universities declaring climate emergencies is on the rise, there remains considerable variation in the extent to which emergency declarations translate into meaningful action (Facer, 2020;Latter and Capstick, 2021). Notably, some institutions have become embroiled in greenwashing controversies (Jones, 2012), while others faced legal action from students for their continued support of the fossil fuel industry through financial investments (McGreal, 2022).…”