I care about: Protecting our environment

This could be our last opportunity to address the climate crisis. The rapid rise in carbon dioxide threatens our air and ability to grow food, and we consume microplastics in our food and water every day. 

Your support could help us all step back from the tipping point. Our researchers are focusing on how atmospheric changes could damage our plants and how we can use plastics more sustainably. 

• Help our trees and food crops handle climate change, through a unique 'lab in the woods'. PhD student Anna Gardner led the UK's biggest investigation into the effects of climate change on trees; the findings could buy us a few more years to combat climate change.
• Create cleaner air; Birmingham’s research has already led to changes in legislation, including new standards for tyres and brakes to reducing toxic emissions from tyres and brakes on vehicles, reducing the pollution train travellers are exposed to. 
• So much of the plastic pollution in our water enters our lakes and oceans via rivers. We are looking at where these plastics are coming from and what harm they are causing.

See examples of how your gift could protect our air and water, and stop plastic waste