SDG 13 : Climate Action
UL’s Annual Sustainability Report 2025 shares selected examples of progress towards SDG 13, which calls for urgent action on climate change and its impacts. Universities contribute through climate research, education and partnerships, developing mitigation and adaptation solutions and reducing emissions from their own activities.
In 2025, University of Limerick (UL) progressed campus decarbonisation, secured funding for climate research and delivered climate education and student projects. Activity included heat-pump replacements, energy-efficiency improvements, research on peatland forests and climate reporting, and workshops for first-year business students.
Campus and Operations
UL continued to reduce the carbon impact of its campus through changes to heating systems and improvements in energy efficiency. In 2025, total CO₂ emissions were 37.8% below the University's baseline and energy efficiency was 40% better than baseline performance. End-of-life natural gas equipment was replaced with heat-pump technology in several campus locations, while an energy-efficiency project in the Analog Devices Building is saving nearly 400,000 kWh annually.
Research and Innovation
UL research addressed climate action through both environmental science and climate communication. Professor Ken Byrne secured €2.7 million to lead PeatFor, which will measure carbon cycling in Ireland's peatland forests and contribute data to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Dr Sarah Josefine Schaefer secured more than €600,000 for a four-year study examining how climate change is reported in Irish and German media and why misrepresentation can occur.
Student Sustainability
Through the UL Student Sustainability Challenge 2024/25, PhD students Finn Lannon, Keelan McMahon and Emer Owens brought together Social Psychology and Accounting and Finance to investigate how corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) communication can influence perceptions of climate risk. Their interdisciplinary project examines how corporate climate information is framed and interpreted, connecting questions of corporate reporting with public understanding of climate change.
Teaching and Learning
Kemmy Business School introduced climate action to 584 first-year business students through 22 small-group workshops during their first week at UL. Following the workshops, 97% referred to increased awareness or knowledge and 86% described a stronger understanding of interconnectedness and complexity, while more than half referred to motivation, behaviour change or responsibility.
Highlights
- 261 publications linked to this goal in UL Pure, 2020–2025.
- UL’s total CO₂ emissions fell 37.8% against baseline, progressing towards its 2030 target.
- 584 new business students explored climate action before their university studies were underway.
Stories
5 stories behind this year's progress
Catalyst: building climate awareness among first-year business students
Climate change will shape the decisions today's business students make throughout their careers. In September 2025, Kemmy Business School (KBS) brought climate action into the first week of university for 584 first-year business students through a programme of small-group, interactive workshops.
Across 22 in-person sessions, students worked with Teaching Assistants and senior faculty facilitators to explore climate change, sustainability and systems thinking, and to consider their individual and collective roles as future business leaders. Adapted from the international Climate Fresk initiative, the workshops used collaborative activities and discussion to help students explore the connections between climate change and business.
The initiative was led by Professor Elaine Doyle, Dr Mary Curtin and Erin King. Seventeen KBS Teaching Assistants supported delivery, while Professor Finbarr Murphy, Dean of Kemmy Business School, also took part as a workshop facilitator.
Student feedback following the workshops described learning, social connections and emotional responses to climate change. Among the evaluation responses, 97% referred to increased awareness or knowledge, 86% to greater understanding of interconnectedness and complexity, and 57% to motivation, behaviour change or responsibility. The workshops also helped students connect with one another at the beginning of their university experience, with 58% mentioning making new friends through the activity.
Impact
Climate action will increasingly form part of the environment in which businesses operate and make decisions. By introducing climate literacy and systems thinking to 584 business students during their first week at UL, Catalyst positioned climate change as a core issue for their future professional lives rather than a topic sitting outside their business education. 584 first-year business students 22 in-person workshops 97% reported increased awareness or knowledge 86% reported greater understanding of interconnectedness and complexity 57% referred to motivation, behaviour change or responsibility 17 Teaching Assistants
If there's no planet, there's no business. This line has stayed in my mind because it summed up the whole purpose of the workshop in a business context. Companies rely on resources, people, and functioning economies, all of which are threatened by climate change. It made me see sustainability as something that shouldn't be overlooked in business as irrelevant but as something central to the future of the business that I could potentially be working in one day.
People involved: Professor Elaine Doyle, Kemmy Business School; Dr Mary Curtin, Kemmy Business School; Erin King, Kemmy Business School; Professor Finbarr Murphy, Dean of Kemmy Business School; 17 Kemmy Business School Teaching Assistants
Counting carbon: managing Ireland's peatland forests for climate and biodiversity
Ireland has 272,000 hectares of forest growing on peat soils, but managing these landscapes presents a difficult climate challenge. While growing trees capture carbon from the atmosphere, draining peat for forestry can increase decomposition of the underlying soil and release carbon dioxide.
In 2025, University of Limerick (UL) Professor Ken Byrne secured €2.7 million from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to lead PeatFor, a research project developing evidence to inform how Ireland's peatland forests can be managed for climate and biodiversity. UL is leading the project with Trinity College Dublin, Teagasc and University College Dublin.
PeatFor will establish field sites across Ireland to measure carbon cycling and biodiversity in peatland forests. At selected sites, researchers will install measurement towers to track the exchange of carbon between the forest ecosystem and the atmosphere. By also measuring carbon inputs to and losses from the soil, the team will be able to distinguish carbon captured by trees from carbon released by peat and examine how this balance changes across seasons and different forest conditions.
The research will help identify appropriate management options for different peatland forests. These could include continuing forestry where trees are performing well or considering rewetting or lower-intensity woodland at sites where forest growth is poor and carbon losses from peat are significant.
The project aims to contribute data to Ireland’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, improving the evidence available for estimating forest greenhouse-gas balances and informing land-use policy.
Impact
Ireland needs to know whether its peatland forests are storing more carbon than their drained soils are releasing if it is to make sound decisions about forestry and climate action. PeatFor will generate field evidence to improve national greenhouse-gas estimates and help inform how these landscapes can be managed for both climate and biodiversity.
We need to find a balance between timber production and environmental and social services.
People involved: Professor Ken Byrne, University of Limerick; Trinity College Dublin; Teagasc; University College Dublin; Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Also contributes to: SDG 15 Life on land
Decarbonising the UL campus: cutting emissions and changing how buildings are heated
Space heating and hot water were identified as UL’s primary source of CO₂ emissions in an energy audit covering 85% of its delivered energy. In 2025, University of Limerick (UL) continued work on heat-pump replacements and energy-efficiency improvements, alongside planning for further campus decarbonisation.
A separate Decarbonisation Report identified heating, solar photovoltaic (PV), LED lighting, retrofits and other efficiency measures as key areas for action if UL is to meet its government-mandated 2030 emissions targets.
In 2025, Buildings and Estates replaced end-of-life gas-fired heating and hot-water equipment with heat-pump technology in several locations, including the Stables, Lonsdale Building, Plassey House, Engineering Research Building and Health Sciences.
UL also continued to improve the energy efficiency of its buildings. By 2025, the University's energy efficiency was 40% better than its baseline performance, against a mandated target of a 50% improvement by 2030. An energy-efficiency project in the Analog Devices Building is saving nearly 400,000 kWh annually.
The new UL Student Centre, officially opened in October 2025, incorporates a bivalent heating system, LED lighting and solar PV. UL also purchases 100% renewable electricity.
These measures form part of a wider transition still under way. By 2025, total CO₂ emissions were 37.8% below baseline, against a mandated reduction target of 51% by 2030. Buildings and Estates is also commissioning a site-wide study to identify the most cost-effective, technically feasible and practical approach to decarbonising UL's heating plant.
Impact
Heating buildings is UL's largest source of energy-related CO₂ emissions, making the move away from fossil-fuel heating central to reducing the University's carbon footprint. In 2025, UL combined measurable progress against its emissions and energy-efficiency baselines with practical changes to heating systems across campus, while planning the deeper decarbonisation needed to meet its 2030 targets.
People involved: University of Limerick Buildings and Estates; energy consultants; mechanical and electrical contractors
Also contributes to: SDG 07 Affordable and clean energy
Exploring how ESG communication shapes perceptions of climate risk
How companies communicate about their environmental performance can shape how climate change and its risks are understood. Through the UL Student Sustainability Challenge 2024/25, PhD students Finn Lannon, Keelan McMahon and Emer Owens brought together expertise in Social Psychology and Accounting and Finance to investigate the relationship between corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) communication and perceptions of climate risk.
The interdisciplinary project examines how corporate ESG information is framed and interpreted. By combining perspectives from accounting and finance with social psychology, the students are exploring whether and how different approaches to ESG communication influence people's perceptions of climate-related risk.
Impact
Understanding how ESG communication influences perceptions of climate risk could help inform clearer and more transparent approaches to communicating corporate environmental performance. The project also brings together three doctoral researchers from different disciplines to examine a climate challenge that sits across corporate reporting, communication and public understanding.
People involved: Finn Lannon, Social Psychology; Keelan McMahon and Emer Owens, Accounting and Finance; UL Student Sustainability Challenge 2024/25; Centre for Sustainable Futures and Innovation; Kirby Group Engineering; Bidvest Noonan; UL Doctoral College/Research Office.
Also contributes to: SDG 12 Responsible consumption and production · SDG 16 Peace and Justice
Understanding how the media communicates climate change
How climate change is reported can influence how people understand both the problem and the actions needed to address it. In 2025, University of Limerick (UL) researcher Sarah Josefine Schaefer secured more than €600,000 for a four-year study examining climate-change reporting in Ireland and Germany.
The project will compare climate reporting in Ireland and Germany and engage with journalists to examine the professional practices and conditions shaping coverage.
The research was one of 36 projects nationally to receive funding through the Research Ireland Pathway programme in June 2025. The programme is co-funded by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Findings are intended to inform workshops and seminars for journalists and journalism students in both countries.
Impact
Climate reporting matters because news media play an important role in how people understand climate change and the responses available to address it. By examining why climate information can be misrepresented and working directly with journalists, the research aims to strengthen understanding of how climate change is communicated to the public. More than €600,000 funding Four-year research project Two countries studied: Ireland and Germany 36 projects funded nationally through the 2025 Research Ireland Pathway programme
People involved: Dr Sarah Josefine Schaefer, University of Limerick; Research Ireland; Environmental Protection Agency
