University alliance to enhance cooperation on climate change research

A China-initiated alliance of 12 leading universities from nine countries on six continents vowed on Monday to enhance cooperation on research related to climate change.

Universities bear special responsibilities and missions in tackling climate change, He Jiankun, chairman of a committee at Tsinghua University's Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development, said on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations climate change conference in Madrid.

"Just as other sectors, they should carry out climate actions with initiative," He said. "Meanwhile, universities are tasked with conducting scientific research. They should offer new knowledge and solutions for climate issues by working on new technologies and looking into policies."

The Global Alliance of Universities on Climate, initiated by Tsinghua, was established in Beijing in May.

"The coming decades will be the key era for coping with climate change and the youth on campus are going to be backbones of this combat," He said. "This is why universities should unite."

Nicholas Stern, chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said addressing the climate challenges confronting the world required ideas and hard work inside and outside universities, but they could be the sole contributors of some big parts of those efforts.

LSE is also a member of the alliance.

"They have to move quickly because we're in a hurry," Stern said. "If we're going to go to net zero (in carbon emissions) by midcentury, if we're going to radically reduce our emissions in the next 10 or 15 years, we have to take action now."

Student representatives from the 12 universities made a youth declaration on climate change at the sideline event, which had the theme "universities' mission in curbing global warming".

The declaration said that to address climate change, "we, young students and scholars, should fulfill our responsibilities to unify the work of various nations, and call upon all people to live an eco-friendly lifestyle in a sustainable community and spread the idea of sustainability.

"As the hope of the future and the backbone of the present, we should proactively lead in creating a more sustainable society in which we and our offspring all can prosper and flourish."