About Us

The Global Change Institute (formerly known as the Global Change and Sustainability Research Institute) was established as an enabling research platform of global significance and local impact, fostering informed action for adaptation and innovation in the rapidly changing southern African region.

The GCI addresses problems related to global change, climate change and sustainability in a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary manner. It wants to play a  more prominent role in helping to co-create, understand and inform global change solutions at various levels of decision-making (in business, industry and government – municipal, provincial, national); and to function as an enabling platform utilising research to support progressive change through collaborative efforts with stakeholders.

Embedded in a higher education institution, the outcomes of research, teaching and academic citizenship activities supports GCI to link different knowledge domains, which leads to shared understanding as the basis for change towards sustainability.

What is South Africa’s carbon budget?

What is a carbon budget and why should South Africans care? How much are we polluting, and how much should we cut down by 2050 to prevent a disaster? Here’s what you need to know about cutting carbon emissions and getting on a low carbon pathway, before it’s too late.