Dave Reay

Climate Change Begins at Home – Life on the Two-way Street of Global Warming. Published by Macmillan. (Translated into Japanese and Korean. Shortlisted for Times Higher Young Academic Author of the Year).

Greenhouse Gas Sinks Reay, Hewitt, Smith and Grace (Eds). CABI Publishing.

MSc programme

MSc in Carbon Management

: Winner, ‘Best Feedback in Business School’, EUSA teaching awards 2013.

: Winner, ‘PwC Teaching Employable Skills Award’, EUSA teaching awards 2010.

Dave Reay is Professor of Carbon Management & Education at the University of Edinburgh. He is co-chair of the Just Transition Commission and an advisor on climate change action for the Scottish and UK Governments. Dave’s latest project involves managing his small farm on the west coast of Scotland to regrow native tree species and trap a lifetime’s carbon.

Dave studied Marine
Biology at Liverpool University and graduated in 1994. He went
on to gain a PhD with the British Antarctic Survey and Essex University studying the response of
Southern Ocean algae and bacteria to global warming. After
gaining his doctorate he continued working as a post-doc at Essex,
investigating the impact of land-use on the soil methane sink.
In 2001 he moved to Edinburgh University to investigate emissions
of the greenhouse gas ‘nitrous oxide’ from agriculture, then carbon fluxes in forests, and went on to become a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Fellow examining greenhouse gas emissions from wetlands and agriculture. In 2008 Dave became the university’s first lecturer in carbon management and became a senior lecturer in 2009, a Reader in 2013, and was appointed Chair in Carbon Management & Education in 2014. Dave became a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2015, a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 2021, and a Fellow of the EAUC in 2022.

He is designer and editor
of the climate change science website Greenhouse Gas Online and of the Southern
Ocean: Antarctic Seas and Wildlife website. He enjoys running (on an annual basis), Test Match Special, and
writing stories for his daughters.

Research Interests

Just transitions
Climate change mitigation in agriculture and food systems
Climate change skills and education
Greenhouse gas sinks and interactions
Climate change impacts and mitigation through individual action
Nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture (IPCC input: revision of EF5) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories)
Methane oxidation and production in soils
Communicating climate change to the public
Microbial ecology, incl. that of methanotrophs, methanogens, nitrifiers and denitrifiers
Diffuse water pollution
Land use impacts on greenhouse gas fluxes
Climate change impacts on land use and adaptation strategies
Carbon dioxide emission from soils and biomass
Global methane budgets
Temperature dependence of microbial activity and nutrient uptake

Research Groups

Global Change

Centre for Distance Education

Geography and the Lived Environment

Centre for Sustainable Forests & Landscapes

Centre for Business, Climate Change & Sustainability

Other Roles and Activities past and present

Executive Director at Edinburgh Climate Change Institute
Policy Director at ClimateXChange
Climate Change Plan Advisory Group, Scottish Government
NSET Skilled Workforce Programme Board, Scottish Government
Green Jobs Taskforce, UK Government
Chair, Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) Implementation Steering Group, Scottish Government
Chair, Workforce & Skills Advisory Group, UK Climate Change Committee
Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) Expert Group, Skills Development Scotland
Academic Advisor on Rural Policy and Climate Change, Scottish Government
Fellow, EAUC
Local Capacity and Capability sub-group, Green Jobs Delivery Group, UK Government
Sustainable Renewal Advisory Group, Scottish Government
Cross-Party Group on Climate Change, Scottish Parliament
Sustainability & Climate Change Working Group, UK Department for Education
UK Universities Climate Network Steering Group (Education & Skills)
Edinburgh Climate Commission
Scotland’s Climate Assembly
‘Farming 1.5’ Inquiry
EarthShot Prize Nominator (2020-23)
Climate Emergency Response Group (CERG)
Scottish Water Net Zero Advisory Panel
NFUS Climate Change Advisory Panel
Cairngorms National Park Heritage Horizons Advisory Group
South of Scotland Net Zero Commission
Climate Change Educational Partnership, STEM Learning
Sustainable Futures Advisory Group, WWF
University of Edinburgh PI: GCRF South Asia Nitrogen Hub (SANH)
NERC Peer Reviewer
Expert witness, Scottish Parliament TICC, ECCLR, NZET and RAI committees
Expert witness, House of Lords Environment & Climate Change Committee
Expert witness, House of Commons EFRA and EAC committees
Co-chair, Working Group on Climate and Sustainability in Curricula, University of Edinburgh
Steering Group and head of delegation, University of Edinburgh, COP26
Short-life Working Group on Embedding Climate and Sustainability in Curricula, University of Edinburgh
Renewable Energy & Low Carbon (RELCO) steering group, University of Edinburgh
UNA Europa
Carbon Sequestration Programme Board, University of Edinburgh
Carbon Sequestration Learning, teaching and research sub-group, University of Edinburgh
Net Zero Steering Group, University of Edinburgh
Exam Board Chair, Global Health Challenges, University of Edinburgh
Programme director of the online MSc in Carbon Management at University of Edinburgh (2014-2019)
Assistant Principal, University of Edinburgh (2014-17)
Programme director of the on campus MSc in Carbon Management at University of Edinburgh (2008-2015)
Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Principal Investigator, ClimateXChange (2019-2023)
Zero Waste Scotland Decoupling Advisory Group
Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge Jury
Reviewer for the journals Nature, Nature Geoscience, Nature Climate Change, Nature Reports Climate Change, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Atmospheric Environment, Global Change Biology, FEMS Microbiology Letters, Environmental Research Letters, Plant and Soil, Environmental Science and Technology, PLoS, Climate Research, Global Environmental Change, Journal of Environmental Quality, Water, Air and Soil Pollution
EPIS academic mentor
External reviewer for DEFRA, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Royal Society, the National Science Foundation, the British Council, the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Economic and Social Research Council
Reviewer and columnist for the Times Higher Education Supplement
Expert reviewer, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (AR6, AR5, SR1.5, AR4, SRLCC, Emission Inventories)
Expert reviewer, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, N2O)
External examiner, University of Oxford (2014-17)
External examiner, University of Aberdeen (2011-14)
Climate change consultant for Learning and Teaching Scotland
Climate change consultant for the Life Centre, Newcastle, UK
Author for the Encyclopedia of Earth, National Council for Science and the Environment
Reviewer for CABI Publishing
Reviewer for Earthscan Publishing
External reviewer, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology
Advisor, ‘Reducing Scottish greenhouse gas emissions’. Audit Scotland.
Advisory committee, British Council Scotland (2008-2014)
Member of the British Council
Member of the Forum on Science and Technology for Sustainability
Member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
Lead author, European Nitrogen Assessment
Editorial board, Carbon Management
Editorial board, Atmosphere (2017-19)
Editorial board, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

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Prof Dave Reay, FRSGS, SFHEA, FEAUC, PhD

Chair in Carbon Management & Education, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh

Co-Chair, Just Transition Commission

Climate-smart Food – Open Access book (published by Palgrave)

Online Masters in Carbon Management

Teaching on the MSc Carbon Management

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

Books

MSc programme

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