News about Sustainability

Plant-based foods: New specialisation in the MSc Programme in Food Science and Technology

We have to get better at processing plants into climate-friendly foods, while at the same time focusing on nutrition, health, and taste. That’s why we, at the University of Copenhagen, are offering a specialisation in…

Bio-what? Half of Danes don’t know what biomass is

Nearly half of Danes have never heard of Denmark’s largest source of renewable energy. The finding, reported in a study from the University of Copenhagen, is the first to explore Danish attitudes to woody biomass as an…

Katherine Richardson receives honorary doctorate

For her years in research and her scientific contributions, Professor and Leader of Sustainability Science Centre, Katherine Richardson receives an honorary doctorate at the Arctic University of Norway.

Hologenomics viewed through a mathematical lens

A recent paper published by researchers from Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics (CEH) and collaborators on a strategic model of a host-microbe-microbe system not only reveals the importance of a joint host-microbe…

When you Google the word 'tick', you're helping science

Knowledge about the spread of tick-borne diseases is extremely limited and notoriously difficult to acquire. A new study from the University of Copenhagen demonstrates that internet searches just might be the way to kee…

New biodiversity report: The value of nature should be included in Danish economic decision making

Denmark is miles away from meeting its agreed targets for nature and biodiversity. To remedy the Danish and global biodiversity crisis effectively, we need to improve how the value of nature is measured to allow…

Phages to fight bacterial infections

A team of researchers from England, Scotland, Norway, and Denmark have joined forces to develop a safe and efficient phage therapy approach to control the bacteria Pasteurella in Atlantic Salmon farms.

How do we ensure local support for green energy production?

Huge Power-to-X investments in new hydrogen-based fuels shall propel the green transition in Denmark towards 2050. But how do we prevent local conflicts over new production plants?

How to see the forest and the trees

PhD student Mar Moure shares learnings and impressions from this year's IUFRO Risk Analysis conference "Socio-ecological conflicts in forest management: risks of (not) adapting?".

Starch from plants is key to bioplastic that is actually degradable

Professor Andreas Blennow’s research group experiments with bioplastics, nutritionally healthy crops and antibiotic multiresistance, but sustainability is the bond that ties Starch together.

Wildfires: When nature strikes back politically

With support from the Independent Research Fund Denmark, anthropologists will investigate how the extensive rainforest wildfires in 2019 in Amazon politically affected Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru.

Phenomenal raw materials will get Danes to fall in love with plant-based diets

Phenomenal raw materials and ingredients are the way forward if more people are to replace meat products with plant-based alternatives and Denmark is to become a world leading producer of plant-based foods. Today, the…

Large, economic wheels must be turned to make way for green cars

Which economic levers do the politicians have to pull to move people from fossil driven cars to electrified cars? That is the main question for the GREENCAR research team at the Department of Economics.

Professor inspired by housewives and schoolchildren

University of Copenhagen professor Dennis Sandris Nielsen has been awarded SCIENCE’s Dissemination Award 2022 for his willingness and ability to communicate research about the broader societal perspectives of bacteria,…

Why the food crisis will pass

Even though the food crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine is now causing acute problems, there is no reason for panic, according to University of Copenhagen food economist Henning Otte Hansen. High food prices will no…

290 million new city dwellers benefit China's climate balance

Contrary to popular belief, China’s massive emigration from rural areas to cities has been shown to have a positive effect on China's carbon stocks. Urbanization can even play a role in attaining climate neutrality. Thi…

Pharmaceutical residues in sewage sludge and cattle manure do not have the feared effect

Pharmaceutical residues and chemicals from personal care products in sewage sludge and cattle manure do not have a detectable toxic effect on nematodes living in agricultural fields, according to 14-year-long experiment…

Researchers make non-alcoholic beer taste like regular beer

Finally, researchers have found a way to brew non-alcoholic beer that tastes just like regular beer. Even more, the method is far more sustainable than the existing brewing techniques. “It’s a game changer for…

After thousands of years, an iconic whale confronts a new enemy

The iconic tusked whale of the Arctic has a new enemy – noise. A unique study from the University of Copenhagen and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources shows that narwhals are highly affected by noise from ship…

Millions for research into green transition on the roads

The Independent Research Fund Denmark has allocated almost 12 million to the project GREENCAR, which will show the way to a green transformation of the car sector.

Research project will crack the code behind green neighbourhood communities

With support from THE VELUX FOUNDATIONS, new research anchored at the Department of Anthropology will examine how to create green neighbouring communities in housing associations.

We prefer farmed salmon – as long as we don't know what we're eating

A blind taste test by University of Copenhagen researchers demonstrates that Danes prefer the taste of both conventionally and organically farmed smoked salmon over wild-caught salmon. However, the picture is turned…

Danes have reduced meat consumption – but we lag behind other Europeans

A major new survey on meat consumption in Europe reports that Europeans have a growing appetite for plant-based foods and that meat consumption has dipped. While this applies to Denmark as well, Danes lag behind the…

New project maps illegal mining and global environmental crime

With a grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark, researchers from the UCPH will study how minerals are irregularly mined in Ghana and end up in technological products, only to return and dumped as e-waste.