UC3M has just launched its Climate Strategic Initiative, in a presentation by the University President, Prof. Juan Romo. Climate change is one of the most pressing problems of humanity. The very blunt beginning of the executive summary of the Stern Review, published in 2006, says: “The scientific evidence is now overwhelming: climate change presents very serious global risks, and it demands an urgent global response.” And yet the carbon emissions have not decreased but increased since 2006.

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) wants to show its full commitment to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. To this end, it has set up this Strategic Initiative to combine the full intellectual weight of UC3M faculty and staff to work on ambitious but feasible evidence and research-based policy proposals to combat climate change, and to disseminate them to society at large.