UNRISK is designed to steer you towards a career in any of the areas represented by the UNRISK partner organisations. They cover the full range of what is often called “climate services” – providers of expertise, data and information to help individuals and organisations make appropriate decisions about how to manage and adapt to the risks of climate change.
Our partners include:
- Research organisations like universities pushing the frontiers of knowledge, as well as training the next generation.
- Operational centres like the Met Office and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts developing and running advanced weather and climate prediction models.
- Consultancies like Ricardo providing support on climate risk and adaptation to governments, public bodies and private sector clients.
- Financial and re-insurance advisory organisations like WTW or Climate Arc that help organizations manage risk, optimize their performance and bring climate science into financial decision making.
- Public bodies like the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) performing functions that serve the public interest, for example being responsible for protecting and improving the environment.
- Humanitarian organisations interested in early warnings and long-term planning.
The market of “climate change consulting” was valued at $7.4-billion globally in 2022 and is forecast to reach $34.8-billion by 2028. Research indicates that, in 2020, there were 371 public and private climate service providers in the EU, and the market volume has not yet reached its full potential.
Career skills
What career skills will you learn during a PhD in UNRISK? We aim to expose you to as many career-relevant skills and competencies as possible, including:
- Cross-disciplinary skills. The 2024 publication Quantifying Climate Risk and Building Resilience in the UK identified the need to significantly scale up the development of “boundary-spanning skills”, including co-production and transdisciplinary teams rather than just subject knowledge.
- Data science skills. There is a pressing need for scientists to have skills at the intersection of climate science and data science. The Transatlantic Data Science Academy is an example of workforce reskilling – it aims to train over a hundred employees at the Met Office and the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in data science skills for weather and climate. As a graduate of UNRISK you will develop these skills.
- Risk assessment skills. At boardroom level, a survey by UNRISK partner Willis Towers Watson reported that 48% of companies lack expertise on climate risks.
- Decision and communication skills. An analysis by the Royal Society found that “data-driven decision-making” had the highest number of jobs offered in 2017-18, rising 39% in 5 years. The very rapid growth in “behavioural insight teams” in public policy (a factor 7 over the last decade) makes it an integral part of UNRISK.
Climate Careers Activities so far
So far (as of summer 2026):
-11 of 14 PhD projects are supported by partner collaborations (including CASE collaborations): these include Met Office (multiple projects), Flood Re, Lloyd’s Register Foundation, RIKEN Center for Computational Science, CICERO, National Trust, United Utilities, Willis Towers Watson. Working with all the above collaborators helps the UNRISK students to develop skills in communications, project management, data analysis and synthesis, which our Steering Committee advisors have emphasised are key climate career skills.
-A programme of regular UNRISK webinars has taken place. Speakers have included Met Office, Aon, Bank of England, Strategic Climate Risks Initiative (SCRI). ClimateX gave a webinar on climate careers. All the technical webinars include discussion and insight into careers and opportunities.
-Met Office, MyCarbon and JBA Risk presented a panel session about climate careers at the UNRISK Kick-off event, autumn 2025.
-WTW took part in the Exeter residential hackathon week April 2026. Students also visited Met Office headquarters in Exeter.
-For the UCL residential hackathon week (June 2026) students will visit Climate X, Bank of England, Axa and others to role play projects working with external clients.
-The UNRISK Steering Committee (Met Office, Climate X, OEP, JBA Risk, NPL) reviews the training programme and suggests priorities for career skills development (such as rapid synthesis and communications).
