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With so many important areas of research to choose from, how do you make the most of your career in climate science? We ask three experts for their advice

Jenny Bird
Climate change research fellow at the

It was while Jenny Bird was volunteering with a charity in a Nepalese village that everything fell into place. 鈥淚 realised that all of the work I was putting into raising awareness about health and the environment would be reversed by climate change,鈥� she says. So she moved back to the UK to find a way to make a difference.

Since 2005, Bird has been working as a climate change researcher at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a policy think-tank based in London. 鈥淩ight from the start I had freedom to pursue my own research and ideas for policies that will improve lives and contribute to the climate change debate,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very liberating.鈥�

After just two years with the IPPR, she co-authored a report that had a lasting effect on the UK鈥檚 climate change policies. 鈥淩adical groups were calling for the government to increase its promised cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from 60 per cent to 80 per cent by 2050, but no one really knew whether it was possible,鈥� Bird says.

鈥淭he government needed to know whether an 80 per cent reduction in UK emissions was feasible. They wanted to know how we would generate electricity, how industry would manage, and whether we would need nuclear power.鈥�

Her report concluded that the cuts were indeed possible, and contributed to the government鈥檚 decision in 2008 to raise its promised level of cuts to 80 per cent. 鈥淚 see my role as making radical ideas a bit more mainstream. That and anticipating problems in climate change that are on the horizon and working up solutions.鈥�

A penchant for research, particularly for using statistics, is essential, Bird says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to be able to interrogate your own ideas if you want to pursue policy research.鈥�

Bird believes that one of the most important up-and-coming areas of climate change policy research is justice. 鈥淲hen I was living in Nepal, many of the villagers I was educating about climate change weren鈥檛 contributing to emissions at all 鈥� they travel by bicycle, burn wood for heat and barely use any electricity,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd yet I knew they were the ones who were most at risk from the effects of climate change, through crop failure and flooding. It just seemed so unfair.鈥�

鈥淲ithin five to 10 years, climate change policies are going to need to be a lot tougher on greenhouse gas emitters,鈥� says Bird. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a big challenge to figure out how to do that fairly, without penalising the vulnerable.鈥�

Professor of earth science at University College London and director of the

鈥淥ne week I may be chatting to Mikhail Gorbachev in a London hotel, the next I might be talking on a TV show about my new book, or sharing a sofa with Chris de Burgh on another chat show,鈥� says Bill McGuire, living proof that being a climate scientist is far from dull.

聯One week I may be chatting to Mikhail Gorbachev, the next I might be sharing a sofa with Chris de Burgh聰

McGuire is a volcanologist who has turned his attention to climate change, specifically trying to find out whether it will trigger volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and other hazardous geological phenomena.

Originally lured by Italy鈥檚 pasta and wine, McGuire spent 20 years working on Mount Etna in Sicily. Now he regularly swaps jeans for a suit as director of the Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, a consultancy that provides natural hazard and climate change expertise to businesses, governments and international agencies.

But climate change isn鈥檛 just about the science. Communication is just as important, McGuire says. 鈥淚ncreasingly in the climate change sphere, science communication is seen as a critical aspect of an academic鈥檚 work.鈥�

It鈥檚 important to appreciate the influence you can have, he says. 鈥淐limate scientists have had an enormous impact on policy decisions, and without them climate change would not be where it is today 鈥� right at the top of the political agenda.鈥�

This means that climate change is attracting major funding in the UK, and rightly so, says McGuire. 鈥淭he Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has a major programme of research aimed at trying to understand our planet鈥檚 climate system, and its many and varied complexities.鈥�

So what will be the future funding hotspots? Research into the response of the Gulf Stream and associated ocean currents to climate change will be high on the list, says McGuire, as these keep the climate of Europe mild compared with other locations at the same latitude. NERC is so concerned by this that it recently injected funds into a programme called , which aims to monitor changes to the currents in order to provide an early warning of any untoward activity in the north Atlantic.

Regardless of which field attracts the most funding, McGuire is quick to suggest steering away from academia if you鈥檙e looking for riches. 鈥淚f you are a big-bonus man or woman, then forget academia,鈥� he says. 鈥淣o million-pound handouts just for doing your job here, although my academic salary, together with income from peripheral activities, means that my family and I certainly can鈥檛 complain.鈥�

Climate change academics may have to be content with intellectual revenue, but if you鈥檙e looking for the big bucks, there鈥檚 certainly some to be made in industry (see graph). 鈥淟ow-carbon and adaptation technologies are inevitably the big growth areas, with transport and energy right at the top of the pile,鈥� he says. 鈥淧eople are keen to lead greener lifestyles and embrace home energy generation, but don鈥檛 know where to start, so there are lots of entrepreneurial opportunities here, especially in advisory and brokering capacities.鈥�