OCTOBER 2020 NEWSLETTER
Future generations will most likely look back at this moment as the single most significant turning point for action. So take a deep breath and decide that collectively, we can do this. And you will play your part.
– Christiana Figueres, Former UN Climate Chief who oversaw the historic Paris Climate Agreement and now is co-founder of Global Optimism.
The Little Book of Green Nudges:
Join the Discussion
What is the Little Book of Green Nudges?
The Little Book of Green Nudges is a quick guide to reducing your campus’ environmental footprint through behavioural change. The concise and user-friendly publication summarizes the evidence around what nudges work best while seeking to encourage more sustainable practices among students and staff across several behavioural areas. It also provides simple guidance on how to implement and evaluate behavioural interventions in a variety of contexts. Watch the launch video and see the full publication here.
How to get Involved?
You can nominate your campus to be part of the pilot phase. This means that you will select at least one green nudge from “The Little Book of Green Nudges” and implement it on your campus. You will then let us know how it went, what the challenges were and basically give us any feedback that you might have. This will help other universities navigate the nudge implementation process. So far, 213 campuses from 36 countries have already signed up.
Sign up to be a pilot campus here.
Note that the deadline has been extended until November 18th, 2020 and the pilot phase is set to commence in early 2021.
Join the launch call on November 23rd, 2020
This call will cover the booklet and how your campus can be part of the pilot phase. Please sign up here if you are interested in joining this call on Monday, November 23rd at 8:00am Eastern Time / 1:00pm UK / 3:00pm Nairobi / 5:30 pm India / 8:00pm Shanghai.
For more information on the booklet and the pilot phase, check out the website here.
TEDxUNEP:
Racing to Zero with Higher Education
TEDxUNEP: Racing to Zero with Higher Education
Acting and Enabling Global Decarbonization
Second Nature, EAUC and UNEP co-hosted a TEDxUNEP event on October 13th during the global launch of TEDx Countdown. The event was focused on higher education’s role in acting and enabling global decarbonization.
Watch the full TEDx event here!
The event included:
– Matilda Ernkrans, Minister for Higher Education and Research, Sweden
– Michael Drake, President, University of California System
– Nigel Topping, High Level Champion for Climate Action COP26
– Joyce Msuya, Deputy Director, UNEP
– David Finegold, President, Chatham University
Join Us:
Are you ready to join our 550+ signatories (from 46 countries) in committing to go net zero by 2050 at the latest as part of the Race to Zero? Sign your institution up today or visit the website to learn more about the initiative!
GEO-6 Technical Summary Webinar:
How to incorporate into University modules
GEO-6 Technical Summary Webinar:
How to incorporate GEO into university modules
Date: December 3rd 2020, 5pm EAT
Register here!
The sixth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6), UNEP’s flagship integrated environmental assessment, launched in 2019, stresses that the scale of the environmental challenges we face requires true transformational change in how we produce and consume energy and food as well as how we manage waste, rather than simply incremental policies and business as usual. The Technical Summary of GEO-6 distils the science and data in the main report and synthesizes the information to make it more accessible to students and scientists, making it more useful both for teaching and learning at the university level.
On December 3rd from 5:00-6:30pm EAT, the Technical Summary will be presented in a webinar that will focus on how to use GEO-6 and the Technical Summary as a teaching tool at the university level. Panelists will include university professors who have participated in the GEO process and used GEO as a teaching tool, to discuss their experience and provide advice and lessons learned for university students and lecturers.
MOOC on Nature-based Solutions for Disaster and Climate Resilience
Nature offers many solutions to reduce the impacts of disasters and climate change, such as protecting forests on steep slopes, maintaining sand dunes along coastline and wetlands to buffer excess rainwater.
In this free-of-charge massive open online course (MOOC), find out how people around the world are building resilience to disasters and climate change impacts through nature-based solutions.
This course will help you understand how to apply these nature-based solutions that restore or protect natural or modified ecosystems and biodiversity and allow for their sustainable management.
This course is open to everyone, whether you have an environmental background or not and you can choose from any of your preferred languages including English, French, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, and Bahasa.
Watch the promotional video and check out the website: www.pedrr.org/MOOC
Climate Action by Youth Advocates in India
What Does Taking Action Look Like?
Hear youth voices from various parts of India as they share concrete examples of the action they are taking against environmental degradation in the country.
UNICEF, UNEP and partners are hosting a webinar on November 5th 2020 from 4:00-6:30pm IST to feature these new youth voices. This session will also feature a social media expert who will share some quick and easy ways to call for more action online. Join us by registering before seats fill up (the webinar will have English translations). Sign up here!
New Clean Energy Film and Curriculum about Groundbreaking Solar Flight around the World
The award-winning documentary, Point of No Return – the gripping story of the first solar powered flight around the world – is a dynamic jumping-off point for a new environmental education program for students to collaborate, build, and innovate towards sustainable solutions. The film itself and related STEM lessons and hands-on activities explore clean energy, sustainability, and global climate solutions, and is now available for K-12 classrooms and distance-learning. Also available for university screenings.
Learn more: www.pointofnoreturndoc.com/education
SDGS for the SDGs:
International Youth Conference
The 2nd Global Virtual Conference for Students Doing Goal Oriented Sciences (SDGS) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will take place on Wednesday, December 9th, 2020 at 12:00pm MDT. The student-focused conference is an opportunity for students to present their research and action on the sustainable development goals as posters, story maps or in the form of a press conference. The conference is focused on students in academic institutions at the graduate or undergraduate level. Registration is free and poster submissions are highly encouraged. Register here!
Get In Touch With Us
We would love to hear from you – What would you like to hear more about in these newsletters? Let us know and we’ll do our best to share content to your liking. And if you have any interesting calls to action, research asks or helpful information to share with others around the environment / sustainability / higher education theme, please don’t hesitate to send them to carina.mutschele@un.org and we will select a few to include in our next newsletter.
A few reminders…
Earth Day Network: Igniting Climate Literacy
The Earth Day Network has launched a new campaign to call on governments to commit to urgent action on climate and environmental literacy at the conference of the parties (COP26) in Glasgow, UK in 2021.
Read the full letter here.
Act Today, Transform the Campus of Tomorrow
University campuses are at the heart of the change: in 10 years, they should have achieved the 17 SDGs to be able to welcome and educate the next generation! What will these campuses be like? Imagine a solution that will allow these sites to be considered socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
Are you a student or university professor/researcher? Do you want to have a major impact and help to build the university environment of the future? Upload your project online and be noticed by the United Nations (UNRIC) and Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF).
EAUC – The Global Climate Conference 2020
16-20 November 2020
VIRTUAL
Over the years EAUC has been at the forefront of incredible global initiatives by inspiring, celebrating and advancing the critical role that education has in delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the SDG Accord and the International Green Gown Awards. More recently, they have inspired institutions and networks across the globe to respond to the ever-growing challenges the climate crisis brings to the wider society by becoming signatories of the Global Climate Letter.
EAUC is now taking a step forward through The Global Climate Conference in Education which aims to bring together these leading institutions to learn and inspire to create a bigger international movement in the education sector.
Discover more and book your place here – https://www.eaucconference.org.uk/
Stay Safe Everyone!
Best,
The Youth, Education and Advocacy Team