Climate Futures: Science, Society and Politics MSc

Climate change has become one of the most defining crises of our time, affecting every corner of the world. From extreme weather to food and water insecurity, the future of our planet relies on qualified specialists to deliver solutions to help combat these problems.

Our Climate Futures Masters will provide you with a holistic understanding of the climate crisis, delivering the scientific, social and political approaches you’ll need to respond creatively and effectively to the unprecedented, complex and dynamic challenges of a changing climate.

The transdisciplinary design of this course means you’ll be engaging with multiple perspectives from world-leading climate experts across the University— giving you a comprehensive and extensive skill set that’ll enable you to challenge failed strategies and provide innovative solutions going forward. You’ll be taught by academics and researchers who are dedicated to providing climate solutions and are directly engaged in a wide variety of groundbreaking research surrounding the climate crisis, meaning you’ll be at the helm of innovations as they happen.

Here at Leeds, we also offer a uniquely active, immersive learning experience with the chance to put theory into practice and get involved in exciting, climate-based projects across the campus, city and beyond.

This means that, once you graduate, you’ll be equipped with the in-depth knowledge, skills and practical experience that’ll empower you to contribute towards meaningful climate action and pursue a challenging yet rewarding career that contributes to sustainable paths for our future.

Learning and teaching

The programme will adopt a blended approach to learning, developing digital offerings alongside immersive face-to-face teaching.

You'll be provided with the basic material you’ll need to give you the core level of knowledge and understanding needed for the course, no matter what your background, followed up with digital materials to assess your own level of learning.

Traditional lecture-style content will be delivered digitally (e.g., as screencasts) and through the reinforcement of clearly structured core preparatory reading that maps onto the online and face-to-face activities directly. Your time with teaching staff will be spent in face-to-face group sessions, including research skills & Continuing Professional Development (CPD) tutorials, challenge-based workshops (e.g. seminars, debates, hackathons, discussions), practical work (e.g. laboratory work, fieldwork and computer-based sessions) and oral/poster presentations.

Recognising the diversity in student backgrounds, learning will be supported with opt-in drop-in sessions to offer additional help with academic skills, as well as opt-in blended delivery of employability-related training.

Specialist facilities and resources

As a university, we are heavily involved in sustainability and tackling climate change, which means we have a range of specialist facilities and industry-grade equipment, much of which is used to inform our research.

Through our programme of immersive teaching, you’ll engage with our observational and experimental facilities; such as farms, woodlands, rewilding projects, renewable energy projects, remote and in-situ instrumentation operated in conjunction with the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and our outdoor centre situated in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. You’ll also have access to the Atmosphere and Critical Zone Observatory, laboratories and high-performance computation too.

Our Virtual Learning Environment will help to support your studies: it’s a central place where you can find all the information and resources for the School, your programme and modules.

You can also benefit from support to develop your academic skills, within the curriculum and through online resources, workshops, one-to-one appointments and drop-in sessions.

Active research environment

Learn from and work with the experts. The University of Leeds is home to several world-leading research institutes on climate change and sustainability, working to tackle the planet’s most pressing environmental challenges. Throughout your degree, you'll be taught by leaders in their fields and will be directly engaged with their cutting-edge research.

Academics and researchers teaching this course are based in or working with:

• Priestley International Centre for Climate Change, a world-leading centre for policy-relevant, solution-driven climate research advising the vast majority of UK Government departments, large corporations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN climate negotiations (UNFCCC COPs), including Action for Climate Empowerment, i.e. on climate change education, training and public participation.
• Place-based Climate Action Network, working to deliver climate policies on a global to local scale and the Centre for Global Development which addresses the transformation of human societies in response to critical global challenges such as poverty, inequality and climate change.
• Transformational projects on climate and environmental action, such as Living Labs, Sustainability Service and Geosolutions.
• United Bank of Carbon and the White Rose Forest who are protecting, planting and restoring trees and forests both in the UK and across the world.
• Climate Commissions for Leeds and Yorkshire and Humber, which bring together public, private and third sector stakeholders to facilitate ambitious steps towards a low carbon, climate-resilient future.
• Centre for Global Security Challenges, which fosters interdisciplinary links across the university around the theme of security as it relates to issues including climate change, global health and political violence.
• The National Centre for Atmospheric Science and Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, both based in Leeds and two of only six research centres funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, provide their core research into atmospheric and polar research.
• Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, which is the UK’s most diverse academic institute for atmospheric research, and the UK Met Office, which provides concrete meteorological information for making short and long-term decisions on environmental resilience.

Programme team

The wider programme team is made up of experts from a variety of relevant disciplines such as climate science, social studies and politics.

In this course, you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.

We bring together experts in computer science, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, physics and astronomy to deliver outstanding student education and research within the following schools.

Our schools

• Chemical and Process Engineering
• Chemistry
• Civil Engineering
• Computing
• Electronic and Electrical Engineering
• Mathematics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Physics and Astronomy

Research and innovation

The range and scope of our research are extensive and cover all of the major engineering disciplines, mathematics and physical sciences, integrating fundamental science and mathematical modelling with the development of processes, devices and technologies that can address challenges of national and global importance.

Research areas

• Explore our multidisciplinary research areas which bring together engineers and scientists to work on challenges of global importance.
• Robotics - An interdisciplinary network driving innovation in robotics research.
• Materials - The Bragg Centre aims to discover, create and design new materials.
• Data Analytics - The Leeds Institute for Data Analytics ensures a new understanding of health and behaviour from vast data collections
• Fluid dynamics - The Leeds Institute for Fluid Dynamics brings together cross-disciplinary expertise to maximise the impact of fluids research
• Medical technologies - The Medical Technologies IKC develops innovative technological solutions for improving health and restoring body function
• Functional surfaces - Scientific and engineering expertise in tribology, corrosion and surface engineering