Heading to COP25

It is time for my annual trek to the United Nations climate meetings; my colleague, two students, two Moravian College alums, and I are about to head to COP25 in Madrid. This is our 11th COP as delegates of the college; we have brought over 30 students to these negotiations on the global stage since 2009. Until a few weeks ago, we thought we were headed to Santiago, Chile, but civil unrest there led to the government canceling the plans. Somehow, the United Nations and Spain found a way to organize this global event in different city, country and continent -- all in about a week! We won't talk about the disruption to plans made months earlier and, for many, lost deposits and airfare. 

I am preparing my presentation for a side event (panel) entitled Contributions of higher education to climate action and implementation of the Paris Agreement and came across this 11/26/19 post from David Hess, former secretary of the PA Department of Environmental Protection, entitled Major Businesses, Higher Ed Institutions Write To Members Of House, Senate Urging Pennsylvania To Accelerate Transition To A Low-Carbon Economy. I was interested to see the comments of neighboring college CEOs from eastern PA. 

There is also an interesting recent 5-part essay entitled How will higher education respond to climate change that begins here. This series was written by Bryan Alexander, an internationally known futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, and teacher, working in the field of how technology transforms education. Dr. Alexander has a Ph.D. in English, so speaks from the humanities perspective. For the first time that I recall, there is a COP25 side event that will focus on the humanities: Enhancing the Paris Ambition: Universities, Science, Humanities and Arts Interfaces 4 Future Life. I look forward to attending that session.

If you wonder why any of this matters, neither the most recent (greenhouse gas) Emissions Gap Report for 2019 nor the latest climate change research present a very positive scenario [see here for a summary, ref 1]. The students that we are currently educating will face a very different world in terms of climate and geo-political instability than we know now (think forced migrations, food and water insecurity, growing health concerns, and conflict). What will student success mean under these conditions? As we prepare individuals for transformative leadership in a world of change (part of the Moravian mission), are we preparing them for this change? Our campus InFocus programming is a start. Lest you think that I am being a bit melodramatic, check out this 11/29/19 article from The New Humanitarian [2].

If I still have your interest, here are two additional thoughts to consider:

1) Two weeks ago, the National Council for Science and the Environment released a report [3] showing the results of a survey of climate science publications from land grant and large R1 institutions from each state. One striking finding is that although institutions are working on regionally relevant climate research, they do little to communicate this data and its relevance to local decision makers. A few years ago at a gathering of environmental groups, faculty and students from the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges and other regional institutions, science faculty clearly expressed their reluctance to get involved in advocacy related to climate change or other local environmental challenges. Thus, this communication gap is not limited to the R1s.

2) A scientist from the German Development Institute and his colleagues recently completed an analysis [4] on whether countries indicate that education is necessary to implement Nationally Determined Contributions (to reducing greenhouse gas emissions). The bottom line according to Pieter Pauw is that "the lower the income levels of the countries, the larger the share of countries that states that education is necessary to implement the NDCs." The U.S. submitted their NDC in 2016, but there is no mention of education in it.

Screen shot from the NDC Explorer (Pauw, et al. 2017)

People I talked to over the past few weeks are curious as to how those of us from the U.S. will be "welcomed" given that we have formally begun the process of pulling out of the Paris Agreement, the only country to do so out of 196 states plus the European Union [5, 6]. That remains to be seen. Stay tuned.

Selected Works Cited:

1. Berwyn, B. "Climate Tipping Points Are Closer Than We Think, Scientists Warn." InsideClimate News, November 27, 2019.

2.  "Ebola setback, ‘starvation’ in Zimbabwe, and COP25 preparations: The Cheat Sheet." The New Humanitarian, Nov 29, 2019.

3. Goldman,  E.B. and M. Hyams. 2019. Climate Science Research in the United States and U.S. Territories: Survey of Scientific Publications from Selected Public Universities (2014-2018). The National Council for Science and the Environment: Washington, D.C.

4. Pauw, W.P, Cassanmagnano, D., Mbeva, K., Hein, J., Guarin, A., Brandi, C., Dzebo, A., Canales, N., Adams, K.M., Atteridge, A., Bock, T., Helms, J., Zalewski, A., Frommé. E., Lindener, A., Muhammad, D. (2016). NDC Explorer. German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). DOI: 10.23661/ndc_explorer_2017_2.0´

5. Friedman, L. "Trump Serves Notice to Quit Paris Climate Agreement." The New York Times, November 4, 2019; available here. 

6. Hersher, R. "U.S. Formally Begins To Leave The Paris Climate Agreement." NPR All Things Considered, Novermber 4, 2019; available here.