How can we redesign polymers to create a sustainable plastic economy? Campaigns calling for 'zero plastic' are widespread, but a world without plastics could cause significant economic and societal damage. Are there more sustainable solutions?
How can storing heat help to decarbonise energy systems? Decarbonising heat is key to achieving net zero. Innovators from the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage are playing a vital role.
How can we assess the water pollution crisis threatening the health of India’s holiest river? Scientists from the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Global Innovation have worked with colleagues from the UK and India to monitor the evolution of water pollution along the entire length of the Ganga and its major tributaries.
How have novel observational and modelling tools helped generate new insight into the causes and impacts of air pollution? Airborne particles have a major impact on the megacities of China. Although air quality in Chinese cities has been steadily improving, the levels remain above WHO guidelines, requiring further clean air action.
How can we ensure billions of people in the Global South can access a COVID-19 vaccine? Researchers are analysing how prepared the global community is to roll out a potentially temperature-sensitive vaccine.
How can lockdown learnings inform air pollution policy to benefit the Global South? Researchers are contributing to a global conversation about how COVID-19 will impact societies around the world.
How do we crack the challenge of air pollution? From the busy highways of Britain to the icy waters of the Antarctic, our environmental researchers are exploring the impact of airborne particles on our planet’s atmosphere.
How can agrobiodiversity help to safeguard food security in the face of climate change? ‘Food security’ is a simple concept to grasp, but a complex global challenge confronting humankind. Every person on the planet should be able to access enough safe and nutritious food to live a healthy life, but achieving food security faces a number of major barriers.
How can a systems approach to research protect India’s street dwellers at risk from air pollution? Researchers are working across disciplines to help resolve the health, social and economic problems associated with air pollution.
How do microplastics in our rivers and oceans interact with organisms? Microplastics are now widely abundant in our ecosystem. Understanding how plastics are transformed in water is a first step towards determining how plastics affect human health.
How can we deliver sustainable, clean and affordable cold chains? Energy demand for cooling, particularly for food, is projected to nearly triple by 2050 posing a catastrophic threat to our environment. Moving towards greener electricity is only part of the answer. The Birmingham Energy Institute is looking for novel solutions to drive sustainable cooling.
How can we improve and maintain urban metabolisms for generations to come? A number of news outlets have suggested that young people are increasingly unaware about where their food comes from. It is claimed that children and young people are no longer engaging with nature, nor are they curious about how the natural environment works. Professor Peter Kraftl conducts research with young people across the globe and believes that such headlines fail to reflect diverse realities.
How do you ensure action on air pollution doesn’t lead to unanticipated consequences? From London to Guangzhou, Nepal to Rwanda, air pollution is rising up the political agenda as evidence of its far-reaching health consequences increases. Data on air pollution is improving but the data is worrying; population-dense locations around the globe have unsafe levels of particulates. While better data is critical, alone it is not enough to make for change. Understanding the real-world impacts of vaunted pollution solutions is key.
If air pollution science won’t achieve change on it’s own, what will? Air quality is a central battlefield in the struggle to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals as economic growth and industrialisation threaten to undermine health and well being for the masses. Understanding the causes of air pollution requires a broad range of disciplines if we are to understand where air pollution comes from, and what can be done about it.
How can society build resilience to increasingly extreme hydrological events? As water shortages come more into the spotlight, researchers in the field have reached something of a watershed moment and have been challenged. How do you reduce the impact of human activity on hydrological cycles? And how can you realistically prepare for water shortages?
Across the world polluted air contributes to an estimated 7 million deaths each year. Establishing where air pollution stems from, in order to control emissions and reduce public-health impacts, is a challenge facing governments across the world.