King’s College London (KCL) will postpone its full net-zero environmental target from 2030 to 2050, Professor Frans Berkhout, Assistant Principal (King’s Climate & Sustainability), told Roar. “We’re not going to do that,” he admitted in an exclusive interview, explaining that the University’s revised timeline will now align with national targets.
Roar sat down with Professor Frans Berkhout, Assistant Principal leading King’s Climate & Sustainability, to discuss KCL’s climate targets, investments, student engagement and the department’s future.
Ambitious Beginnings
King’s Climate & Sustainability (C&S) is a three-year transformation programme established in 2023 to invest in education, research, and operations, with the aim of reducing the University’s environmental impact.
The Assistant Principal told Roar that the climate crisis has been taken seriously at King’s, “[it has been] driven from a commitment at the top, they’ve put resources into it and we’re really trying to do a sort of systemic change throughout the whole organisation.”
Since KCS launched, King’s has been recognised for its environmental policies, ranking first in the world in its application of the UN’s SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) 12 on Responsible Consumption and Production and placing sixth in the UK for environmental and social impact as per the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings in 2024.
King’s previously announced it would adopt 14 sustainability goals, alongside the UN’s 17 SDGs. Originally, the University’s objectives was to achieve net-zero by 2025, later delayed to 2030 with no clear explanation as reported by Roar.
Net-Zero by 2030: “We can’t do that”
Exclusively, Professor Berkhout told Roar the new target of 2030 will not be met, “We’re not going to do that, we can’t do that.”
He continued, “We’re going to restate our carbon target much more in line with the national net-zero carbon target.”
Within the detail of carbon emissions, there are three main scopes: scope one (directly from King’s), scope two (indirect, such as through electricity usage) and scope three (from supply chain purchases). The greatest challenge is in relation to scope three.
The new decarbonisation target, which will be published as part of a new King’s Climate Sustainability Strategy, will see scope one and two emissions end in 2045 while scope three aims to meet the national target in 2050.
This delay places King’s further behind its competitors, with both UCL and Imperial aiming to reach net-zero across all three scopes in 2040, and LSE aiming for scope one and two net-zero in 2030 and scope three in 2050.
KCS found that the 2030 target could not be met due to two main factors: a decision to move away from carbon offsetting due to ethical concerns, and the overwhelming carbon emissions from scope three.
While the decision is “disappointing”, Professor Berkhout reassured Roar that it was more realistic, as the cost of decarbonising King’s is thought to be more than predicted.
Investments are being made, with the refurbishment of Bush House South West Wing predicted to make it the first carbon-neutral building on King’s campus.
Professor Berkhout said, “These are really big investments that the university is making to try and decarbonise.”
King’s told Roar they have made progress towards meeting their targets, having halved scope one and two emissions since 2006.
Funding uncertainty ahead
KCS was allocated a one-off £5.83million from the University’s Strategic & Capital Investment Fund for its three-year transformation programme, lasting from April 2023 to July 2026.
The budget has been spent on the KCS Seed Fund, which helps staff to secure research projects and the Education for Sustainability (EfS) Fund, which helps the integration of sustainability into the curriculum.
Despite the success of initial investments, Professor Berkhout told Roar it was “unlikely that we’ll get that level of funding” and negotiations with the University are still ongoing.
He continued, “We don’t know exactly what will happen after July next year.”
While funding is not secure, C&S remains optimistic about the ambition of the new sustainability strategy, with a desire for around 10% of all King’s research to be climate and sustainability-related and for “every King’s graduate to leave knowing enough about climate and sustainability and to be able to apply it to whatever they do in their work or in their lives.”
“We’d like to do more”: Awareness of C&S Among Students
The educational aspect of C&S goals includes a target for all courses to have climate science and sustainability integrated in the curriculum by 2026. However, outside of students’ course, teaching engagement remains uneven.
The main engagement forum for students is the Climate Action Network, which 500 students participate in, in addition to its year-long KEATS course that was only completed by 178 students in 2023-24.
Berkhout reflected how, despite the low uptake, many students are not necessarily interested in climate and sustainability, noting they are only able to “work with the community as it is [but] we’d like to do more.”
He said, “I think we can always do better, but we also realise that students are busy people”
He mentioned that historically the KCLSU had “not been terribly interested in climate and sustainability,” however, the new sabbatical officers seem to be “more engaged”.
KCLSU told Roar: “As officers of KCLSU, we recognise our responsibility to address the climate crisis and environmental challenges facing our communities.
“KCLSU is committed to becoming a net-zero carbon organisation and a sector leader in sustainable practices, reflecting both our 2025-30 Strategic objective ‘Building Collective Student Power for Educational and Social Change’, and also our core values of being Open, Brave, Collaborative, and Inclusive.
“We are working with teams and communities across KCLSU and KCL including the KCS working group to establish wider climate and sustainability awareness and good practice across the SU and King’s.”
A KCL Spokesperson told Roar:
“A consultation is underway on a new King’s Sustainability Strategy to make long-term and lasting change. We will align with UK government targets and international best practice, set a milestone for significant reductions in direct emissions by 2030/31, and invest in the changes needed to achieve full net zero by 2050.”
Grace Holloway is Roar's editor-in-chief managing the editorial side of our operation as well. She has gained valuable experience from Bloomberg as well as writing for Breaking Media, the Non-League Paper and Politics UK.
