How we work

Building Communities

We connect the academic world to key decision-makers in business and government. We work with legal experts, such as the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance, and provide platforms and events that create critical connections for climate and nature action.

A strong partnership with the World Economic Forum in developing the 2019 Principles for Effective Climate Governance, led us to become the secretariat for the Climate Governance Initiative from 2020 to 2025.  We continue to collaborate to support a community where business leaders can exchange knowledge, learnings, and actions to accelerate progress towards a net-zero, climate-resilient future.

We engage relevant stakeholders, including policymakers, think tanks, NGOs, academics, and law firms, to advance conversations and knowledge on key issues.

Our events are hosted in partnership with law firms, other academic institutions, and departments across Cambridge including Cambridge Zero, the Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG), the Cambridge Climate Society, the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, and the Cambridge University Law Society.

Translating Research

The Centre supports new areas of research particularly relevant for board members with a specific focus on climate law, governance, and organisational change. Our research is carried out directly by postdoctoral researchers, and indirectly via partnerships and collaboration with relevant experts.

The research element of the Centre encourages scholarship in law, regulation and governance but also in other fields such as psychology, marketing, economics, finance and management. Legal studies could include aspects of company law, such as the fiduciary duties of directors and investors; finance and investment law; consumer protection law; competition law; the role of insurers; regulations that govern the financial reports of companies; and other incentive structures for corporate boards. The Centre also enables PhD and post-doctoral researchers interested in climate change to advance their academic objectives by engaging with the Centre.

The Centre acts as an independent and trusted intermediary between Cambridge academia, the corporate and financial communities and government, drawing on a wide range of disciplines alongside climate science and law.  A team of knowledge brokers are experts in research translation and support the process of taking the learning and insight from the academic research and ensuring this is effectively communicated to business leaders and other critical stakeholders.

Transferring Knowledge

The Centre is focused on understanding the levers that may best be used to get the boards of corporate organisations to accelerate action. The emphasis is on the role of law and regulation, of reporting requirements for corporations, and of how the financial sector including banks and investors might be used to exert influence on corporations. We also need a better understanding of the proper balance between the use of “sticks” and “carrots” as levers; and of techniques of persuasion using insights of marketing and psychology.

The University of Cambridge has a wealth of leading academic research that is valuable to leaders making decisions about how to tackle climate change. There is also a wide range of research and thought leadership from other leading institutions around the world. The Centre works to scan these sources for the most critical breakthroughs and translate that information into a format accessible to chairs and non-executive directors. Effective transfer of knowledge enables boards to benefit from the latest insights from complex, rapidly evolving topics, critical for investment decisions and change management planning.

Evidence, data and research insights are then synthesised to produce briefing notes, infographics, and presentation material to enable effective transfer of knowledge.

Our model of excellence for research translation utilises creative high impact solutions for sharing information in the most effective ways.