CLIMACT
Center for Climate Impact and Action
UNIL - EPFL
Climate change is drastically affecting the world’s ecosystems and human societies. The frequency of extreme weather events such as floods or droughts is increasing, putting a strain on infrastructure, and causing many casualties. On a global level, rising sea levels, new pandemics and increasing desertification can be clearly linked to climate change.
But all is not lost, on the contrary. There is still time to adapt to climate change and limit its extreme effects by committing ourselves globally to keep the increase in temperature below +2°C, or better +1.5°C. To achieve this, we must rapidly and permanently move away from fossil fuels.
We need to massively finance renewable energy, including solar, geothermal and wind. We must capture and sequester emissions that cannot be eliminated, eat more fresh products and less meat, use trains instead of planes, and bicycles instead of cars. Finally, we must review our unrealistic economic and financial growth targets, considering planetary limits.
- Nicolas Tetreault, executive director CLIMACT
CLIMACT (Climate Impact and Action Centre), through its community and activities, is committed to an equitable, inclusive and sustainable society focused on collective well-being.
Affiliated to UNIL (University of Lausanne) and EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne), CLIMACT officially launched its activities in June 2021. The research centre is directed by Prof. Julia Steinberger and Prof. Michael Lehning (academic co-directors) and Dr Nicolas Tétreault (executive director). The centre encourages all UNIL and EPFL faculties to contribute to the fight against climate change and its impacts. It responds to the need not only to consolidate research and innovation activities related to climate change, but also to give visibility to climate action.
News & Articles
Inform about climate issues, explain the most recent scientific discoveries, dialogue with Swiss experts, highlight solutions for a sustainable transformation of our society.
CLIMACT Starting Grant 2022
CLIMACT launched its second annual call for projects on 15 March 2022, offering seven CLIMACT Starting Grants to support new climate related seed research.
Dr Nicolas Tetreault
Executive director, CLIMACT
10 recommendations which could significantly increase the effectiveness of Swiss climate policy
On 2 April, the Academic Citizens’ Assembly 2022 took place in Lausanne. It was an ambitious undertaking, with a total of 216 proposals submitted and 11’971 votes cast.
The consequences of climate change in the Alps are visible from space
Researchers from the University of Lausanne and the University of Basel have shown that the productivity of vegetation above the tree line has increased in about 80% of the Alps.
Events
Designed to help find high-impact, interdisciplinary solutions through direct dialogue with key actors engaged in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Rencontre participative avec les politiques
CLIMACT organises its first “Rencontre participative” with politicians, in collaboration with the Competence Center in Sustainability (CCD). It will be a dedicated moment for UNIL and EPFL scientists and politicians from the French-speaking part of Switzerland to meet and discuss how to improve the...
Oct 6, 2022
15:00 - 18:00
Our Projects
Promoting concrete actions based on interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research as well as on a systemic approach to address the social, scientific, and technological challenges associated with climate change.