Research

Our research

Oxford University provides leadership in interdisciplinary climate research to respond to society’s most pressing knowledge gaps and policy challenges at all scales.

Research activities connect climate risk and global environmental change to technological and institutional innovations to promote security for people, ecosystems and economic growth. Research themes span multiple disciplines from engineering and earth science to policy, politics, economics and geography. In partnership with UK and international research agencies, governments and business, Oxford delivers research excellence and impact.

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Recent Publications

Groups

Addressing the complex challenges of climate change requires bringing together insights and expertise from across Oxford’s divisions of Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences, Social Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Humanities. Within these, Oxford has a diverse portfolio of outstanding climate research spanning a vast array different departments, institutes and interdisciplinary schools.

Explore Groups Below

Overview

For a takeaway overview of Oxford's climate research, click here for a pdf summary.

PDF last updated July 2021.

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Article Collection

The ORA Climate Research Collection brings together the many journal articles, conference papers, working papers, preprints, and more - produced by the members of the University of Oxford, held with full text by ORA, as well as providing links to related climate research information and activities at the University at other locations.

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African Climate Research Group

Research cuts across many components of climate science as they apply to Africa with a focus on rainfall dynamics and aerosol emissions.

AGILE Initiative

The Agile Initiative at the Oxford Martin School aims to revolutionise how world-class, high-impact research supports environmental policymaking.

Atmospheric Processes

We are interested in fast, small scale atmospheric processes such as clouds, convection, and turbulence.

Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Conservation

Members of this research cluster work on both scientific and social scientific dimensions of the functioning of ecological and biogeographical systems, with principal interests in macroecology, island biogeography, diversity theory, ecosystem dynamics, conservation biogeography, conservation governance, biodiversity and climate adaptation and conservation and traditional ecological knowledge.

Biological Oceanography

Our research team studies the microscopic flora of the oceans (phytoplankton) which account for half of the photosynthesis on our planet and provide the base of the marine food chain. Our group investigates the diversity and physiology of these single-celled organisms over a range of marine ecosystems, from the poles to the tropics. We use a variety of tools to do this: from molecular markers to earth-orbiting satellites.

CAVES Africa Project

The project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (2022-2025), examines the potential impact of climate change on early modern humans over the last 300,000 years.

Climate Crisis Thinking

Research in the sciences has not succeeded in bringing about the necessary urgent and wide-ranging societal transformation that we need: the expertise, knowledge, imagination and values of Humanities and Social Sciences need to become central to public and policy conversations around how to respond and adapt to the climate emergency.

Climate Dynamics

Research includes large-scale atmospheric circulation, ocean circulation and climate variability.

Climate Processes

Our research addresses physical climate processes in the context of anthropogenic perturbations to the earth system as the underlying cause of climate change.

CO2 Removal Hub

The CO2 Removal Hub (CO2RE) is a UKRI-funded gateway to research expertise on Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR). The programme focuses on solutions-led research into economically, socially, and environmentally scalable GGR options.

Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative

The Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI) is a research, education, and outreach project focused on four Commonwealth countries: Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The CCLI is examining the legal basis for directors and trustees to consider, manage, and report on climate change-related risk, and the circumstances in which they may be liable for failing to do so.

Earth Observation Data Group

The principal focus of EODG is the retrieval of atmospheric properties (e.g. temperature, pressure, trace gas concentrations, aerosol and cloud properties) from data gathered by Earth Observing satellites.

Economics of Sustainability, Institute for New Economic Thinking

The goal of INET Oxford's work on sustainability is to develop insights that can help lead us to a new economic model that enables humankind to prosper within the "safe operating space" of our planet's physical and ecological systems.

Ecosystems Research Laboratory

Our research aims to understand how contemporary ecosystems function, and how they are affected by global atmospheric change and anthropogenic activity.

Energy and Environmental Informatics

Energy security and climate change are among the biggest challenges facing us today. We are working with both academic and industrial partners on projects looking for ICT based solutions to some of these problems.

Energy and Power Group

We research sustainable energy systems which accelerate universal access and a net-zero future.

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