Welcome to ClimateChange@Hutton

Climate change is having, and will continue to have, major impacts on life in Scotland, the UK and the rest of the world. These effects are driven by increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. The effects of this are most directly seen in changing mean global temperature and sea levels (https://www.climatelevels.org/), which have major impacts on ecosystems, economies and livelihoods. Some of these impacts already being seen are changing weather patterns, increased frequency of wildfires and human migration driven by climate change-induced droughts and crop failures. At the James Hutton Institute, we are carrying out research across a wide range of subjects related to climate change. We are looking for ways to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), deal with the changes that are already taking place and that will happen in the future (adaptation) and make communities and society more resilient to these changes. Part of our activities include working to help the Scottish Government identify ways to meet its 2045 Zero Carbon targets.

ClimateChange@Hutton was formed for several reasons. We need to improve our communication on the diverse range of climate change work that we carry out. We also need to provide researchers at the James Hutton Institute a way of bringing their relevant work together, sharing ideas and developing new research both internally and externally. Our goal is to improve the impact and visibility of our research and to increase awareness of the ways in which this research is interlinked.

Within the environmental sciences, climate change can be researched in many ways. The sections given above cover the research areas within the James Hutton Institute that relate to this complex and wide-ranging topic. For each research area, we have given a description of the work that takes place at the Institute and how it relates to the wider research community. We have also identified two key people (one each at our Aberdeen and Dundee sites) who can be contacted with queries in each area.

For additional queries about this website or about ClimateChange@Hutton, please contact Matt Aitkenhead, climatechange@hutton.ac.uk or one of the contacts given in the subheadings below.