Letters from CCS: Week 4
Whilst week 5 looms upon us, here’s our climate news and events delivered straight to your inbox💚
🚀 Launch of Cambridge Climate Week — March 16–21 (how can you get involved ⬇️ ?)
Support your vet friends at protests THIS WEDNESDAY 18th (1pm) and next Monday 23rd (8.45am) outside Great St. Mary’s Church!
🚨Last call🚨 for abstracts for our journal: CJCR (details ⬇️)
Seminar on Financial Law and Climate Change — Friday 20th Feb 4pm @ Hughes Hall
And so much more! Keep on reading…
💚 Eleanor and the whole CCS committee
🌍 Cambridge Climate Week
We are inviting societies, local organisations, businesses, and community groups to host their own events as part of Cambridge Climate Week 2026 (March 16–21)! Whether it is a workshop, a green open-house, a panel discussion, or a community meetup, CCW26 provides a unified brand and central platform to amplify your work. By coordinating our efforts into one high-visibility week, we aim to break silos and showcase the Cambridge community as a leader in collective climate action.
❓How it works: You maintain full ownership of your event; we provide the branding, central calendar listing, and city-wide promotion. Check out the Organiser’s Handbook.
💡Host an event: Register your interest/event! Submit them by Feb 24 to be part of the first wave of promotions.
🐾 Show your support: Save the Vet School
Support your vet friends at protests THIS WEDNESDAY 18th (1pm) and next Monday 23rd (8.45am) outside Great St. Mary’s Church!
The Vet School leadership team found out last Tuesday that the decision on the closure of the vet school is being made on 23rd February (next Monday). This was kept quiet for three months. We were previously assured that in addition to the General Board vote on Monday (which only 20 academics sit on), Regent’s House would get to vote on the matter later in the year (which is made up of 7000+ senior academics and staff). When the vet school explicitly asked for clarification on this, the General Board revealed they do in fact believe they have the power to close our course. This has been totally out of the blue and we need to act now.
The University’s own Board of Scrutiny sees through this; they have issued two “Graces” which state the General Board should not have the authority to pass this decision, and that if they do, proceedings to revoke their decision will follow. These Graces have been voted for by over 1000 academics at the University (only 50 votes are needed to force a discussion).
Whether you know vet students or not (we are a small but friendly bunch, but not all colleges accept us!), please stand up for what’s right. Certain actors at this University are trying very hard to close our Department and we have been offered very little explanation or justification for the steps which have been taken to push this through under the radar.
We’ve got info on two rallies coming up below.
1. First rally, Wednesday 18th February @1 pm outside Great St. Mary’s Church
2. Second rally, Monday 23rd February @8.45 am outside Great St. Mary’s Church (this is the morning of the meeting where the General Board votes on our course’s closure)
3. Please add any comments to our campaign website - they are all read and are very appreciated. You can stay up to date with any changes / info through this link.
4. The Cambridge Vet School Instagram will have up to date information on protests / petitions.
For those of you who don’t know much about our department, our hospital provides world class care to so many animals from across the country (some of the treatments we offer aren’t offered anywhere else in the world). Our research covers pandemic preparedness, Public Health, human diseases and more. Our RSPCA clinic provides low cost support to hundreds of local families (the only low cost clinic in Cambridgeshire, with Cambridge known to be one of the most unequal cities in the UK). The clinic is one of very few ways this University gives back to the community. We are pioneering in terms of women in STEM - we’re 85% female, higher than any other science course, (and higher than most humanities too!) and we have record numbers of students from rural backgrounds.
We really, really appreciate any words of support on the website, and we hope to see plenty of you at the rallies.
📅 Upcoming Events
Cambridge Climate Challenge training session: What works in Climate Entrepreneurship and what doesn’t (with pizza!) — Wednesday 18th Feb
This year's Postgraduate Climate Challenge competition has a final prize of £5,000. Attend training sessions to learn how to pitch a solution, and build a team with fellow postgrads and postdocs. The next session focusses on ‘What works and what doesn’t in Climate Entrepreneurship’, delivered by Carbon13 CEO Dr Nicky Dee (as seen in The Times). Enjoy Aromi pizza when you book a place for Wednesday 18th February (5:30pm to 7pm), and join the WhatsApp group or mailing list to stay updated.
Seminar on Financial Law and Climate Change — Friday 20th Feb 4pm @ Hughes Hall
Dr Pedro Schilling de Carvalho will talk about Financial Law and Climate Change, with an opportunity for networking afterwards. The talk will offer an introduction on how to think about the intersection of financial law and climate change. It will explore how past and current legal and financial structures contribute to the climate crisis, and some of the challenges in enacting effective change. The talk will also examine recent developments and discuss some of the ways forward, in view of more challenging geopolitical conditions.
Pedro Schilling de Carvalho is an Assistant Professor in Financial and Environmental Law at the UCL Faculty of Laws, where he is also Co-Director of the UCL Centre for Law and Finance. He has experience advising governments and organisations such as the World Bank, GCF, OECD, and the Gates Foundation on legal and regulatory reforms.
🔗 Reserve your free ticket here.
Be a part of the first ever plant-based college rankings 🏆 through a potluck — Sunday 22nd Feb 5pm @ Downing College, Cambridge
On Sunday 22nd February from 5pm, Plant-Based Cambridge are bringing together student representatives from all colleges 🤝 to plan a collation of best practice in plant-based food provision across the colleges.
The plant-based food needs improving and Plant-Based Cambridge can help you to achieve that in your college, alongside external collaborations with Forward Food and Proveg, who can provide free support for your catering managers and chefs
Join the launch event with a plant-based potluck on Sunday 22nd February!
Also:
Turn your department plant-based with this step-by-step guide in Plant-Based Cambridge’s Departmental Campaign WhatsApp Group.
Challenge the university’s Whale Café failings 🐳Get active now.
Please sign (and share!!!) Plant-Based Cambridge’s petition about the Whale Café if you haven’t already.
🌍 Cambridge Journal of Climate Research
The Cambridge Journal of Climate Research is a diamond open-access, interdisciplinary journal encompassing all areas of climate-related research: from engineering and atmospheric science to law, demographics, politics, and art.
We are putting out a call for abstracts for our next issue:
Abstract Submission Deadline: 27 February
Notification of Acceptance: 5 March
Deadline for First Draft Submission: 15 March
🔗 Please submit using this form!
🌍 Read more about the journal here.
The Cambridge Journal of Climate Research brings together climate expertise from diverse fields in two packed issues every year - one in May and one in December. The journal is recruiting both Associate/Senior Editors to join the team for this calendar year (2026). If you think this is you, please do apply by 27 February 2026! We look forward to working with you!
Contact: cjcr.main@gmail.com for any questions.
🌐 University of Cambridge Resilience Web
Climate and social justice work at the University of Cambridge is happening everywhere — across departments, research groups, student societies, institutions, and specialist teams. The Resilience Web brings all of this work together in one interactive, mappable directory.
The Resilience Web showcases groups working across areas such as policy & justice, energy & carbon, food & health and more.
🔗 Check out the Resilience Web here today!
The Resilience Web will be replacing the current societies directory on the CCS website.
📅 Reminder: our calendar contains all of our events! Subscribe today!
A letter full of important events and campaigns this week. We hope you have a lovely week and remember to check out Cambridge Climate Week 2026!💚