Earlier this year, Envision Racing launched its Race Against Climate Change Advisory Board with one clear aim: unite pioneering minds from across industries to accelerate impactful climate action. Among them is a scientist whose career path took him from the depths of space to the urgent realities of our planet’s changing climate.
In this interview, we meet Professor Ed Hawkins, Climate Scientist at the University of Reading. We’ve worked with Ed for several years, proudly featuring his now-iconic Climate Stripes on our cars and in our garage. For Ed, the stripes are more than just an image – they’re a powerful visual reminder of the reality of climate change and its consequences, already being felt across the globe.
From astrophysics to climate change
Ed began his academic life studying the cosmos, completing a PhD in astrophysics. But as his career progressed, he felt drawn to work that felt more relevant to people’s daily lives.
“I went sideways into climate topics because they seemed more pressing,” he explains. “It was a different time – climate denial was getting stronger, and many of us felt compelled to stick our heads above the parapet.”
Now, with over 20 years in the field, Ed brings both deep expertise and the perspective of someone who entered climate science with fresh eyes. His work is driven by the conviction that science must be communicated clearly, directly, and accessibly – not just to academics, but to the public, policymakers, and communities.
The power of the Climate Stripes
First created in 2018, Ed’s Climate Stripes have become one of the most recognisable symbols in climate communication. Depicting global temperature changes year by year, they have been projected onto landmarks, worn by rock bands, and even presented to the Pope.
“The stripes do such a good job of showing what we’ve already done to our planet,” Ed says. “They help make climate change feel like something happening now, not in some distant future.”
The data behind the image tells a sobering story – one that is already being felt in extreme weather events, from record-breaking heatwaves to increasingly intense rainfall. “We’re already living with the consequences,” he warns.
Turning questions into research
Much of Ed’s work begins with conversations. Interviews and public discussions often leave him wishing he could answer questions with greater clarity, or express certainty in ways that are both scientifically robust and widely understandable.
Sometimes, those conversations inspired research projects – for example, analysing how a particular flood or heatwave compares to similar events a century ago. “We can ask: if we had the same weather patterns 100 years ago, how different would the impacts be? It’s a valuable way of framing the discussion, and it’s all backed by solid science.”
Shifting the narrative on misinformation
A decade ago, climate misinformation was a dominant force in public discourse. In recent years, climate science is much more widely accepted – but we’re at risk of going backwards.
“Ten to fifteen years ago, sceptics and deniers were getting a lot of airtime,” Ed recalls. “That’s dropped off in recent years, and there’s now broader acceptance in major media that we don’t have to give equal weight to unfounded claims.”
But he cautions that political headwinds can still threaten climate progress. In the UK, for example, recent anti–net zero rhetoric marks a step backwards. “It hasn’t been like this for a decade,” Ed says, “and it will make this work even more important.”
Going to greater depths
Ed’s latest research continues to build on the stripes concept, expanding from global averages to regional and even city-specific versions. But his focus is not just on surface temperatures – he’s exploring changes deep in the ocean and high in the atmosphere.
“We can see strong warming trends in the oceans since the 1960s – this is why sea levels are rising, coral reefs are bleaching, and marine species are shifting. Higher in the atmosphere, the lower layers are warming, but the upper layers are cooling. That cooling is a fingerprint of our greenhouse gas emissions, predicted decades ago and now observed by satellites. It’s exactly what the science told us would happen – hot air is being trapped under the stratosphere.”
Collaboration across industries
For Ed, joining our Advisory Board is an opportunity to exchange ideas with leaders in fields far beyond academia.
“It’s fascinating to hear the perspectives of organisations in different industries – and to understand the struggles they face in solving these problems. You can do so much internally, but often you don’t have control over everything in your supply chain or operations.”
Beyond net zero
Ed is clear-eyed about the challenges ahead. “It’s looking increasingly likely that we’ll overshoot global targets – we’ll go over 1.5°C without a doubt. Once we do, the question becomes: can we reverse it? Can we go beyond stabilising and actually bring temperatures back down?”
That’s where net negative comes in – removing more carbon from the atmosphere than we emit. “We can’t decarbonise completely. For instance, if we want to feed the world, agriculture will always have some unavoidable emissions. So we need to reduce as much as possible, and then ‘mop up’ the rest through carbon removal and storage.”
The technologies to do this exist in theory, but scaling them is the challenge.
“It’s early days, and some ideas are a bit crazy, but nothing has been demonstrated at the scale we need yet. The companies that invest now will be ahead of the game – just like with renewables. The more we invest, the more ideas will emerge.”
At Envision Racing, insights like Ed’s are exactly why we brought together our Race Against Climate Change Advisory Board. His scientific expertise, ability to communicate complex ideas simply, and willingness to tackle the big, uncomfortable questions help guide our own sustainability journey – both on and off the track.
By connecting leaders from science, industry, and sport, we can share knowledge, spark innovation, and push faster towards a net zero – and eventually net negative – future.
