In advance of the Secretary General’s Climate Summit on September 23, networks and institutions working in Further and Higher Education are coming together to add their support to this letter that would be shared with key government officials and the media in advance of this event.
The aim is to get as many networks and institutions as possible on board in order to showcase the commitments towards the attainment of SDG 4 (Education) and 13 (Climate Change).
As at 21st May 2019, networks from the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI), Global Alliance, EAUC – The Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education and Second Nature have already agreed to support this letter. Collectively, they represent over 500 individual institutions.
Mario Salomone, Secretary General of the WEEC Network, already signed the letter and invites everybody to sign and share it.
Who can sign: Ideally, the president or chancellor of respective institutions will sign on to this letter on behalf of the institution. However any faculty or staff member of the institution can sign on to reiterate pre-existing commitment. Networks that represent higher and further education institutions can also sign on to the letter.
Deadline: The current deadline for signing on to this letter is August 1st 2019.
Climate Emergency Letter
As institutions and networks of higher and further education from across the world, we collectively declare a Climate Emergency in recognition of the need for a drastic societal shift to combat the growing threat of climate change.
The young minds that are shaped by our institutions must be equipped with the knowledge, skills and capability to respond to the ever-growing challenges of climate change. We all need to work together to nurture a habitable planet for future generations and to play our part in building a greener and cleaner future for all.
We are today committing to collectively step up to the challenge by supporting a three-point plan which includes:
Mobilizing more resources for action-oriented climate change research and skills creation;
Committing to going carbon neutral by 2030 or 2050 at the very latest;
Increasing the delivery of environmental and sustainability education across curriculum, campus and community outreach programmes.
We call on governments and other education institutions to join us in declaring a Climate Emergency and back this up with actions that will help create a better future for both people and our planet.
Current representation:
23 institutions representing approx. 200,000 students
14 networks representing approx. 6,000 institutions