Engaging Campus Sustainability through Students at COP15
by Sarah Brylinsky, Sustainability Education Coordinator, Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education, Dickinson College
As the world turns to watch climate change negotiations in Copenhagen this December, institutions of higher education are paying particular attention to the potential for translated educational opportunities and institutional reform. Eight college and university delegations will be attending the UNFCCC 15th Conference of the Parties, contributing 300 students from American institutions in addition to the more than 500 American youth and 3,000 international youth expected to participate. Student and institutional delegates are attending as researchers, observers, teachers, administrators, and climate activists focused on finding new roads to sustainable development and education.
College and university participants will be blogging, twittering, and reporting on lessons and developments of the COP15 through live Q & A calls, making information and updates accessible to the broader higher education sustainability community (See all of the ways to stay connected during the COP15 negotiations below). Their observations and experiences will provide lessons on how to create timely and aggressive climate reduction commitments, re-think institutional policies for economic and environmental savings, and use the reduction of campus greenhouse gas emissions and resource-intensity as a model for sustainability education.
Connect your campus directly to the politics, lessons, pedagogical strategies, mitigation techniques, and policy strategies of the COP15 by engaging students with peer experiences, interacting with delegation members during the conference, and using these tools to translate international climate negotiations into campus mitigation techniques:
ACCESSIBLE PERSPECTIVES: Follow and engage reports from a variety of perspectives to find commonalities between campus sustainability and climate change proceedings, and the most direct coverage of their analysis as tied to their roles as students, administrators, faculty, and campus activists.
- Bookmark the AASHE Campus Sustainability Perspectives Blog for conference blogging related to higher education, sustainable development, campus mitigation techniques, student perspectives, and other highlights from the conference as related to campus sustainability.
- Participate in daily climate opinion polls: “POP COP15: The Public Opinion Polls of the COP15” http://www.popcop15.com, twitter: popcop15.
TALK TO CAMPUS DELEGATIONS LIVE FROM THE NEGOTIATIONS: Tune in to three conference calls with the 'Kyoto to Copenhagen' delegation to hear eyewitness accounts of the negotiations and side-events as they happen. Hosted by AASHE, the three calls will give participants the opportunity to hear from members of Dickinson College's interdisciplinary student research team and ask questions. These calls will focus uniquely on the implications of the negotiations for the higher education sustainability movement. What do the negotiations mean for institutions of higher education? What are some key takeaways from the COP15 for campus sustainability advocates? How can colleges and universities use models of international climate change mitigation for their particular campus needs? What are students learning from the COP15? Submit questions ahead of time by emailing niles@aashe.org. Dial in number: (218) 862-7200 with Passcode: 151307
- 3pm EST Tuesday December 8th: Initial Perspectives and How to Follow and Use the Negotiations Process
- 11am EST Thursday December 10th: (Young and Future Generation Day) : Youth and Student Perceptions of the Conference
- 3pm EST Wednesday December 16th: Observations and Lessons Learned
MODEL YOUTH ORGANIZING: Students attending the COP15 are a part of a newly recognized constituency this year – YOUNGOs. The constituency system allows citizens and groups of similar interests to participate in the proceedings via communication rights which strengthen and complement national interests (other constituencies include farmers, business and industry non-governmental
organizations (BINGOs), women and gender, and indigenous peoples organizations (IPOs)).
Visit www.youthclimate.org for full perspective on how various youth delegations are using their voices and values to influence the negotiation process.
