Globally, individuals, organisations and nations have declared a climate emergency, “a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment”.1 Despite this, there has been no noticeable step change in the way that energy research to help tackle climate change is being organised and conducted. How can and should we be changing what we do to face up to this emergency? How should energy researchers who want to tackle (mitigate) climate change respond to this emergency?