A new international network of top universities including the University of Melbourne, Monash and the University of NSW, as well as Oxford, Caltech and the Sorbonne is calling for wealthy nations to commit to net zero emissions targets.
“We implore world leaders - particularly G20 leaders - to learn lessons from managing the pandemic: namely, to heed expert advice, to act with urgency, and to prioritise investments strategically,” says the International Universities Climate Alliance’s first declaration, published on Wednesday.
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Climate change could have long-standing impacts on agricultural
yields. Credit: Nick Moir |
The declaration, signed by 37 leading universities, says that the G20 group of the world’s richest nations has a particular responsibility to act because they represent 85 percent of the world’s wealth and 80 percent of its emissions.
"We still have a window of time to make the necessary transition to a carbon-neutral economy, we strongly encourage world leaders to ensure that all COVID stimulus measures maintain their countries’ commitments under the Paris Agreement and work toward a net-zero emission plan," it says.
The declaration of the International Universities Climate Alliance comes ahead of the G20 summit in Saudi Arabia this weekend. But according to Professor Ian Jacobs, president and vice-chancellor of the University of NSW, in future it will become a network for sharing climate resources and advice to governments, business and industry as well as the broader community.
University of NSW Scientia Professor Matthew England said that while many academics and universities have in the past been reluctant to participate in debates that are perceived to be political, academics and universities were becoming more determined to speak out.
He said Australia's goal of reaching net zero emissions sometime in the second half of the century was not in keeping with the goals of the Paris agreement.
“We have seen this in Australia on climate change for many decades now. Back in the 90s, early 1990s, when the IPCC was established, we already knew enough back then that we needed to get off our addiction to fossil fuels and move towards solar, geothermal, wind, all these different technologies.
“For 30 years, we've been calling for these changes, and the policy implementation in Australia has been far too slow. So scientists are starting to amp up the advice they're giving.
“If, for example, we come out of this pandemic and we go back to our old ways of creating energy with carbon intensive technologies, we're really going to surrender the planet to impacts of climate change that are just prohibitively costly for future generations to deal with.”
Links
- Top universities urge G20 leaders to prioritise net zero emissions
- The International Universities Climate Alliance launches with over 40 members
- Universities form global network on climate change
- This is how universities can lead climate action
- UNSW spearheads world university ‘climate alliance’ to arrest climate change
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