September and October mark the start of the academic year in many universities worldwide, and this year, many students have arrived back at school with a recent disaster experience. In just the past weeks, we have witnessed massive disasters from the Nepal border region floods to hurricanes in the US and Mexico or heavy rainfalls in India and Southern Europe. This year’s ‘Super El Niño’ will very likely trigger more events in the months to come. The common thread is the increase in disaster frequency and intensity due to climate change, which we are not doing enough about. In fact, the sad truth is that, at present, research and education on climate change are being hindered, if not rolled back, with consequences for the future.
Science under attack
Researchers worldwide are experiencing attacks on climate science. The pressure comes in forms of fundamental criticism of doing climate change research at all, increasing politicization of research, decreasing funding, and discontinuation of relevant programmes and positions on the topic. This is by no means a criticism of the legitimate critical scrutiny of research and its findings, but rather of the questioning of the legitimacy of climate science and, in particular, of social science research on it.
Climate science needs high-quality longitudinal data collection. At present, entire climate data series are being suspended or access to them is being restricted. What was previously freely accessible to researchers worldwide no longer is. A gap in a crucial data time series cannot be filled easily, if at all, and the impacts will be felt for many years.
Research needs open borders and open minds
Meanwhile, geopolitics have imposed restrictions on international research collaboration on a scale not seen for a long time. Many researchers, particularly those from countries in the Global South, experience this first-hand when they wish to travel to conferences or collaborate with fellow colleagues abroad. Visa restrictions are increasingly becoming a barrier to academic exchange. This often means that researchers from the regions most exposed to the impacts of climate change cannot participate in exchange and scientific collaborations any longer.
Some valid criticism also goes to universities, where education often remains stuck in academic silos. The question of how well a method or a topic fit with a discipline is discussed before its topicality. Rigid academic regulations stand in the way of redesigning teaching. The performance of researchers is measured by how much they publish in journals relevant to their discipline. But this approach actively disincentivizes the generation of new knowledge in interdisciplinary clusters – with consequences on what students are being taught. While this is a challenge in academia overall, this has a particular impact on the study of inherently interdisciplinary issues such as climate change with its complex effects. Systemic problems cannot be solved with individual fixes. Expertise in a particular discipline is most helpful to solve real-world challenges when knowing how to link with other schools of thoughts.
Finance is a precondition of research and education
Lastly, education requires reliable funding. Access should not be limited to those whose families can afford it. The right to education is a fundamental human right. While virtual learning formats are becoming increasingly accessible and affordable, they do not replace degree programmes, which remain the entry ticket to many professions. In reality, however, access to education including the choice of university depends on financial considerations.
It is precisely access to international education that is becoming increasingly restricted, due active discouragement of international students by restrictive visa regulations or quota for international students, barely affordable study fees and the discontinuation of key scholarship programmes. Not only does this mean that the training of qualified people falls by the wayside, but also that the development of valuable networks across borders is neglected. Yet it has been proven that international students contribute to economic and social development.
We cannot afford to fail to train future thought leaders simply because their families cannot afford it, because they do not come from high-income countries, or because they are marginalized in other ways. Humanity is heading into a perfect storm while squandering the opportunities to develop the needed solutions. This is not a hypothetical discussion – we can witness how university budgets are being cut, data series discontinued and scholarship programmes scaled back, and not only in one country.
When Navy Pillay was recently awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, much of the news coverage emphasized that she has a university education even though she descended from indentured labourers. The fact that this still makes headlines shows how exceptional such a trajectory remains. It should go without saying that education and access to the latest knowledge should be accessible to everyone and everywhere. In the end, all of society loses opportunities when this is not the case.
