If the last few years of environmental coverage has taught us anything, it is that the climate crisis is a complex problem with no silver bullet. Effectively mitigating it will require a multifaceted approach that incorporates technological solutions as well as behaviour change at the governmental, corporate and individual levels. For physicists, the challenges of meeting our needs sustainably are already opening up lots of interesting and creative job opportunities.

In many of these roles, the skills and knowledge you gain from a physics degree are invaluable. As well as being numerate and having technical knowledge, you’ll have computer programming skills and practice of applying physical principles to solve real-world problems. To guide you through the myriad options, I spoke to nine physicists whose work relates to three main aspects of sustainability: policy and behaviour change; decarbonizing energy sources; and finance and economics. You can find links to those articles in the box below.