COP25 from the Moravian College student perspective

Greetings from COP25! With so many different panels and presentations to choose from, it is difficult to focus on just one, but for this post I will elaborate upon one of my favorites thus far. The Bangladesh Pavilion hosted an event that consisted of three presentations and a panel, followed by a brief discussion. The overarching theme of the three presentations was the importance of universities as knowledge brokers and the issues that university researchers face when sharing their work, especially on climate change. David Lewis began the series of presentations by delving into his current research project which he is conducting through his own university (London School of Economics) and three other partnering universities; one other in the Global North and two in the Global South. Shababa Haque and Feisal Rahman from the Independent University of Bangladesh followed with concurring presentations. The diversity of the research partners gives light to the differences experienced by university faculty researchers in various parts of the world, though the flow of knowledge has been shifting from North to South to a more balanced sharing of ideas. The preliminary conclusion reached by Lewis is that universities are underutilized as knowledge brokers as the research conducted in these institutions often remains in an “ivory tower.” This is problematic because valuable research, such as that on climate change, does not adequately reach the world of public policy, which includes not only government officials, but civil society and businesses as well. All three presentations touched on the importance of researchers engaging in policy so that it is science, not politics, that leads policy changes. And now to you Carter…

…Thanks Hannah. These presentations about higher education and the impact it can have on policy gave way to a discussion panel consisting of three experts in their respected fields about the importance of knowledge dissemination. The experts discussed how the lowest income countries place a higher value on education as opposed to higher income countries; the United States has no mention of education in their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). The panel then went on to describe how scientific jargon can muddle laymen’s understanding of complex topics, thus leading to insufficient public policy. This links back to the knowledge contained in the ivory tower as in-depth scientific conclusions currently require higher education to fully comprehend the severity of their implications. As of now, the status quo remains that policy drives scientific exploration as opposed to the desired inverse of data driven policy. If this were the case, the panel suggested that recent college graduates could be the ones to take the jargon from the experienced scientific community and properly convey the complex information in an adequate and pertinent manner as to effectively implement necessary policy changes. Another proposed solution by the panel members was the weaving and braiding of indigenous methodologies into Eurocentric practices as a way to quell and remedy both social and environmental challenges. Indigenous societies possess traditional knowledge which is beneficial to a balanced flow of information and the scientific and public policy communities can learn from this model. Overall, much is still needed to be done in order to strike a balance between the knowledge known and the knowledge gathered, thus ushering us into a new era: an era where policy is governed by the most informed, not those who scream the loudest.