Our Climate Change Program combines the resources of BRI’s other programs to conduct studies that cross-species lines and geographic boundaries. The strength of our collective work contributes to the ongoing dialogue about climate change and helps to inform the actions that are needed to address it.

From the director, Tim Tear, Ph.D. “Following COP26, it has become clear that the world is not going far enough, fast enough, to achieve the goal of keeping global temperatures below 1.5˚C above those in the pre-industrial era. While there is rightfully a lot of focus on technology and decarbonization – we can’t forget that Mother Nature has systems in place to take carbon out of the air and put it in vegetation and the soil. We need to work with nature, not against it, to accelerate this recovery process. Our recent study about the many benefits of improving fire management in Africa is a primary example of how to kick start our planet’s healing process immediately and make the 1.5˚C goal possible in our lifetime.”

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has the largest effect on global climate. The key to unlocking natural solutions to address climate change is carbon.

BRI established its Climate Change Program in early 2021, but in reality, many of our projects across all our programs contribute to the ongoing dialogue about climate change and help to inform the actions that are needed to address it.

Click here for more information about our climate change projects, and partnership with CarbonSolve.

BRI’s Center for Research on Offshore Wind and the Environment (CROWE) builds on more than a decade of studies related to the effects of alternative energy development on wildlife and their habitats.

BRI’s Wildlife and Renewable Energy Program, established in 2011, works with BRI’s other programs to carry out research studies that cross-species lines and geographic boundaries to understand the complexities of wildlife populations and how best to minimize risks of renewable energy development.

BRI’s long-term studies provide the information needed to discern ecological changes over time. Examples include: BRI’s Loon Program, which has been studying loon species across the Northern Hemisphere for three decades; BRI’s Arctic Program which contributes to the conservation of Arctic ecosystems–one of the greatest ecological and political challenges of our time; and BRI’s tracking studies on indicator species that provide critical data for understanding the impacts of climate change on a variety of species.

BRI has invested in building sound and diverse science capacity that harnesses the latest in cutting-edge tools and methods needed for understanding climate change impacts to wildlife.

BRI’s Quantitative Wildlife Ecology Research Lab (QWERL) aims to answer important ecological questions with sophisticated analytical methods such as data integration, species distribution models, and movement modeling.

For more information on each of our Research Centers, follow these links:

• Center for Conservation and Climate Change
• Center for Research on Offshore Wind and the Environment
• Center for Waterbird Studies
• Center for Mercury Studies