Climate Education, Adaptation and Resilience: 2024–25
During 2024-25, Keele supported climate education, community engagement and resilience-building activities across the region and beyond. Working alongside schools, community organisations, local authorities, charities and environmental partners, we helped raise climate awareness, strengthen adaptation planning and support practical action on climate risks and environmental sustainability.
This page covers activity from August 2024 to July 2025 and supports UN Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action.
Our work in this area supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 17 global goals adopted by all UN member states in 2015 to tackle challenges such as poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.
Main goal
Also contributes to
- SDG 4 Quality Education
- SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals
Local climate education
Launching the West Midlands Climate Ambassadors Hub
In September 2024, Keele launched the West Midlands hub of the Department for Education-funded Climate Ambassadors scheme at Keele Hall. Keele hosts the hub, one of nine regional hubs in England, which matches volunteer experts from industry and academia with nurseries, schools and colleges to help them write Climate Action Plans. The plans cover decarbonisation, adaptation and resilience, biodiversity, and climate education and green careers. Businesses, volunteer Climate Ambassadors, teachers and education leaders attended the launch, and each guest pledged a first action.
| Keele lead | Professor Zoe Robinson; Emma Baines, Regional Hub Manager |
|---|---|
| Partners | Department for Education (funder); University of Reading and EAUC (national programme) |
| Who benefited | Nurseries, schools and colleges across the West Midlands |
| Reach | Local and regional |
| Focus | Free expert support for education settings to plan for climate change, including adaptation and resilience |
Find out more about the Climate Ambassadors hub launch
Training the 1,000th Climate Ambassador
In April 2025, Stephen Morgan MP, Minister for Early Years, became the scheme's 1,000th Climate Ambassador and signed up to support a school with its Climate Action Plan. On the same day, the Keele-led West Midlands hub held a regional outreach event at the University of Birmingham for Department for Education partners and staff from nurseries, schools and colleges.
| Keele lead | Professor Zoe Robinson, West Midlands hub lead |
|---|---|
| Partners | Department for Education; University of Birmingham (venue) |
| Who benefited | Nursery, school and college staff in the West Midlands |
| Reach | Regional |
| Focus | Climate action planning in education settings |
Find out more about the 1,000th Climate Ambassador
Earth Stories Climate Film Festival
Earth Stories is an international climate and environment film festival created by Keele students. In October 2024 it opened a new Local Filmmaker category for people aged up to 25 in Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire. On 27 March 2025, the festival held free public screenings and its awards ceremony at the Mitchell Arts Centre in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, showing films about climate change and the environment from around the world. Since it began, the festival has received over 5,000 films from filmmakers in 136 countries.
| Keele lead | Emily Stevenson, Festival Director (Keele student), with a student organising team |
|---|---|
| Partners | Mitchell Arts Centre, Hanley |
| Who benefited | Young filmmakers and the public in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire |
| Reach | Local, with international submissions |
| Focus | Public climate awareness through film |
Find out more about Earth Stories 2025
TEDxKeele University 2025: Sustainability
On 26 March 2025, Keele hosted TEDxKeele University with sustainability as its theme, exploring how the health of the planet affects everyone's lives. Tickets were free, and the talks were livestreamed and recorded. Speakers came from business, education, medicine and life sciences, drawing on expertise from across Keele's schools.
| Keele lead | Jack Carter, organiser (Keele medical student) |
|---|---|
| Who benefited | In-person and online audiences |
| Reach | Local, with online access |
| Focus | Sustainability and the health of the planet |
Find out more about TEDxKeele 2025
SDG Awareness Month
Throughout March 2025, Keele ran Sustainable Development Goals Awareness Month, a programme of discussions, workshops and activities on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
| Keele lead | Keele Sustainability team |
|---|---|
| Reach | Local |
| Focus | Awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals |
Working with NGOs on climate adaptation
Nature in Your Neighbourhood with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust
Keele is working with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, Moorlands Climate Action and other partners on Nature in Your Neighbourhood, a five-year project funded with £752,415 from the National Lottery Community Fund, which began in 2024. The project helps Staffordshire Moorlands communities improve and monitor local greenspaces for people, nature and climate. By April 2025, residents had put forward more than 60 sites, including grassland, wetland and woodland. Keele researchers and students run surveys and workshops, monitor habitat health and analyse the data.
| Keele lead | Angie Turner (principal investigator); Alana Wheat (postgraduate researcher) |
|---|---|
| NGO partners | Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, Moorlands Climate Action, OUTSIDE, Staffordshire Council of Voluntary Youth Services; with Staffordshire Moorlands District Council |
| Who benefited | Communities in the Staffordshire Moorlands |
| Reach | Local |
| Focus | Improving and monitoring greenspaces for people, nature and climate |
Find out more about Nature in Your Neighbourhood
Climate Adaptation Support for Artisans
In June 2025, Keele published the Crafted Report, launching the Artisans' Index with the League of Artisans. The Index benchmarks how 50 global fashion and homeware brands disclose the environmental impacts of artisan production. It found major gaps in how brands include artisans, and metrics on energy, water and soil, in their environmental monitoring: only 34% of brands disclose the type of energy used in artisan workshops. The report highlights that artisans need climate adaptation support, as workshops can expose them to heat stress, poor air quality and limited access to clean water.
| Keele lead | Professor Deirdre McKay, Professor of Sustainable Development |
|---|---|
| Partners | League of Artisans; IMPACT+ Innovation Network (funder) |
| Reach | International |
| Outcome | First benchmark of how 50 global brands disclose the environmental impacts of artisan production |
Find out more about the Crafted Report
Co-chairing the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Climate Commission
The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Climate Commission was co-founded by Keele University and brings together organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors to accelerate climate action and nature recovery across the region. Through regular meetings, knowledge exchange and partnership working, the Commission creates opportunities for collaboration between local authorities, businesses, community organisations, education providers and public services. The Commission supports the development of regional responses to climate challenges, helps identify opportunities for joint action, and has contributed to new partnerships, funding opportunities and policy development linked to sustainability, energy, health, skills and land use.
| Keele lead | Professor Zoe Robinson, Co-Chair |
|---|---|
| NGO partners | Staffordshire Wildlife Trust (Co-Chair), Globe Foundation, Support Staffordshire and others |
| Reach | Local and regional |
| Outcome | Funding brought to the area, policy responses, and collaborations on skills, energy, health and land use |
Informing and supporting government
Collaborating in Climate Policy Implementation
In 2024-25, Dr Rosa Fernandez-Martin worked with Cannock Chase District Council and Stafford Borough Council to strengthen local climate policy development and implementation through evidence-based decision-making. The project informed recommendations on climate policy monitoring, resilience planning, stakeholder engagement and the use of data to measure progress towards climate objectives. The work also contributed to the councils' Climate Change Strategy, which highlights collaboration with Keele University to review and develop climate strategies, carbon calculation methods and climate action plans, while supporting climate knowledge and capacity building for council decision-makers.
| Keele lead | Dr Rosa Fernandez-Martin |
|---|---|
| Partners | Cannock Chase District Council; Stafford Borough Council |
| Reach | Regional |
| Focus | Climate policy implementation, monitoring and resilience planning |
| Outcome | Evidence-informed recommendations and support for local authority climate strategy development |
Find out more:
- Collaborating in Climate Policy Implementation at Local Level
- Cannock Chase District Council Climate Change Strategy
Last reviewed: 3 November 2026
