Introduction
The Paris Agreement aims to strengthen the global climate change response by increasing the ability of all to adapt to adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience. Multilateral collaboration, effective engagement of stakeholders, including management of knowledge for adaptation, is vital in supporting all adaptation activities at each step in the UN climate process.
Undertaking and supporting enhanced action on adaptation at multilateral, international, regional, national sub-national and local levels, public and private sectors, civil society and other relevant stakeholders is vital to achieve resilience. Universities offer critical hubs of research and teaching on climate change and have a huge potential to be partners in scaling up global action to build resilience.
The UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme launched at the United Nations Climate Dialogues 2020, and coordinated by the Nairobi Work Programme, is designed to strengthen collaboration between the UN and academic institutions, especially in the global South, with the aim of addressing the knowledge gaps which remain a critical barrier to countries implementing adaptation measures.
Objectives
The secretariat organized an event on 22nd January, 2021 at the Gobeshona Conference 2021. Comprised of a panel discussion, the aim of the event was to:
Showcase the UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme.
Highlight key learning from other partners and initiatives that are engaging young professionals and universities in building resilience. and
Explore innovative ways to build meaningful partnerships and advance resilience efforts.
Highlights
The key messages from the event are:
Universities and students are key to enable society’s adaptation to a safer and resilient global pathway by providing knowledge, skills, technologies as well as enabling social dialogue to produce climate policies in partnership with national agencies/governments.
Universities are agents of change as they contribute to innovative ideas in a way that attracts wide public support towards solutions on climate change adaptation. They can also support relevant outputs in response to the needs of international processes, such as the UN climate change process.
Initiatives such as the ones undertaken by Least Developed Countries Universities Consortium on Climate Change (LUCCC), the Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities-Network (EPIC-N), United Nations University-Institute for Environment and Human Security UNU-EHS) complement the focus of the Universities Partnership Programme. The Programme can play a critical role in building the bridge with these initiatives.
Addressing the gaps from bottom-up approaches and working collaboratively with partners through shared objectives, helps to cross-fertilize ideas that provide an effective way to build resilience.
Local and regional partnerships with universities strengthen the context-specific learning and knowledge as science and research are important in informing and guiding effective adaptation strategies.
What’s next?
The session generated valuable insights for scaling up the UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme. Some of these include:
1. Strengthen the UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme with focus on the following:
Clear vision among partners on shared goals and objectives.
Clear responsibilities among the partners.
Produce knowledge products/outputs that are relevant for specific users.
2. Explore opportunities for strengthening synergy with other initiatives, networks and consortia sharing similar objectives (e.g. LUCCC, EPIC-N, UNU-EHS):
Convene dialogues in order to develop collective strategic insights on how to meaningfully engage young professionals and universities in building resilience.
Strengthen collaboration with UNU-EHS and universities to explore opportunities for graduate students to develop solutions that are more relevant for communities and countries.
3. Set up an alumni network of graduate students/universities who have partnered with the UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme that will foster peer-to-peer learning.
Further information to the event click here.
Further information on the Gobeshona conference click here.
To find out how to join the UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme click here.
If you would like to learn more, get in touch with us: nwp@unfccc.int.