ESRC Society Today

The ESRC funds world class research in a number of areas linked to the effects of environmental change, economics, human behaviour, health and technologies.

Research has had an input into the Copenhagen Conference, providing evidence, data and guidance to negotiators and policy makers.

These pages provide an overview of ESRC and joint-funded research related to environment issues. The research presented looks both at how to prevent and how to live with an altered climate. It has been divided into a number of themes which relate to the current ESRC Strategic Plan challenges.

News

• A natural relationship: An event at the ESRC Festival of Social Science looked at our perceptions and relationship with nature.
• New report: How will climate change affect people in the UK and how can we best develop an equitable response? Academics, policymakers and practitioners discussed the implications of this question at the last ESRC Public Policy Seminar. Listen to interviews, read the presentations and download the report.
• New report: Land use futures: making the most of land in the 21st century. This report commissioned by Foresight, outlines that a new approach to managing the UK's land will be vital to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
• How do we pay the climate change bill? By changing behaviour, changing policies, or investing in new technologies? Experts from RCUK-funded research centres, programmes and grants offer their views on this crucial question.
• Insights from Copenhagen: Dr Sebastian Carney, Research Associate at the School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester, and Asher Minns, Centre and Communications Manager at the Tyndall Centre, on their experiences at the Copenhagen Conference.
• How can social science contribute to research about environmental change? Listen to Paul Rouse, Deputy Head of Environment and Energy Research at the ESRC, talk about this issue (MP3).
• Climate change: local views of a global problem: giving local and poorer people a voice in environmental research and policy making may require more effort and time than adopting top-down authoritative approaches, but will be more beneficial in the long term.