Annual Salary
£15,609 to £55,000
Average UK salary in 2023 was £34,963
(source Office for National Statistics)
Swap to Maths or STEM or go back to all job sectors or go to green jobs
Swap to Maths or STEM or go back to all job sectors or go to green jobs
Climate scientists study changes in the Earth's climate over time and how they might affect the planet in the future.
Average UK salary in 2023 was £34,963
(source Office for National Statistics)
You could work: between 8am and 6pm;
There will be
2.4% more Climate scientist jobs in 2027.
You could:
You could work in a laboratory, at a university or visit sites.
Your working environment may be outdoors some of the time.
You can get into this job through a university course.
You could do a degree or postgraduate qualification in a relevant subject like:
Work experience
You can get work experience through internships, placements or a year in industry during your course. This may help you to identify your area of interest for research.
For example, the Met Office runs both summer placement and year in industry schemes.
You'll usually need:
You can find information about global climate conditions through:NASA; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Discover more about working in climate science from:UK Research and Innovation; the Royal Meteorological Society; the Natural Environment Research Council
You could specialise in an area of climate science, for example polar research, rainfall patterns or ocean changes. You might do this through research and teaching at a university or by working for a government department.
You could also work as a palaeoclimatologist, studying historic variations in climate and how the Earth adapted to these.
Other career options include working as a consultant for science publishers or broadcasters.
You may be able to apply for chartered environmentalist status. You can find out more about being a chartered environmentalist from the Society for the Environment.
Climate Scientists use earth observation data generated from satellites in space to understand more about the impacts of global warming, on weather patterns, to predict natural disasters. They might help satellite engineers and research scientists to design the satellites based on the data and information that they would find most useful.
Examples of post-16 courses you could study at a local school or college
A-level Geography, Biology or Environmental Science
Examples of post-18 courses you could study at a local provider in the South West
BSc (Hons) Environmental Science or BSc (Hons) Environmental Geography at Plymouth University
Employers in the South West
You'll need: