Global University Climate Forum

Around the world, college and university students have become increasingly concerned and vocal about climate action. This is a powerful and growing movement that has the potential to

change the course of history. Yet, it is unclear whether climate demonstrations or divestment protests will have the desired outcome of comprehensive systemic change to avoid climate

disaster.

 

The Global University Climate Forum brings student activists together to share ideas, learn, connect, and act on the global imperative of addressing climate change. Offered in the context of

the global climate negotiations, this program challenges student teams around the world to propose ideas for local-scale projects that will yield measurable results over the course of six

months. Accepted teams become a cohort that learns together, networks, shares ideas, and contributes to a growing body of inspirational projects that demonstrate the capacity of today’s

youth to lead and have an impact.

 

All proposals must be actionable by students without extensive contingencies and should be designed to yield measurable results over the course of six months. Proposals may reflect ongoing

projects and activities so long as they are the intellectual capital of the students applying and there is a projected measurable outcome during the duration of the Forum implementation

period. Students will be required to attend online workshops and encouraged to interact with each other over the six months of the Forum. Final projects will be collected into an online

publication and showcased in an event after the 2023 climate COP in Abu Dhabi.​The Environmental Innovations Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania leads the Global University Climate Forum on behalf of the International Sustainable Campus Network to engage and inspire the next generation of climate leaders and showcase the value of academic institutions as the

Knowledge Sector.

 

Learn more about the 16 projects in the 2022 cohort here. The outcomes of the 2020-2021 and 2022 cohorts are featured in the publication, The Knowledge Sector: The role of Higher

Education Institutions in addressing Global Environmental Challenges, which contains contributions from Christiana Figueres and Patricia Espinosa, previous Executive Secretaries of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

 

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