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.

Events

Designed to help find high-impact, interdisciplinary solutions through direct dialogue with key actors engaged in climate change mitigation and adaptation.