The 2nd Graduates Forum of the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate is here!

2020 has been a challenging year for the world, the immediate health and governance crisis brought by the pandemic is of priority, at the same time, we must have long-term visions to ensure a green resilient recovery around the world. Addressing climate change is one of the biggest challenges for our survival and development in the 20^th century, requiring all stakeholder to jointly tackle, including academic research and technological innovation. Under this light, the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate was founded at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in 2019. As a flagship initiative within the alliance, the Graduate Forum of GAUC was missioned to better facilitate the role of global leading universities, providing a focused platform for young global scholars to exchange insights and findings on climate-related issues.

In November 2019, more than 150 graduate students from 55 universities across 6 continents united at Tsinghua University to attend the inaugural GAUC Graduate Forum. During the forum, student representatives jointly drafted a letter to Xi Jinping, presenting their thoughts on consciously shouldering the responsibility in combating climate change, and promoting the construction of ecological civilization. This January, President Xi Jinping wrote back, expressing his appreciation for GAUC students’ common concern over climate change, and is looking forward to their active efforts in tackling climate change.

Despite the delay of COP 26 due to COVID-19, the efforts to deal with global climate change marches forward. From 14^th to 16^th November 2020, the 2nd GAUC Graduates Forum, with the theme “Climate Change and Global Post-Pandemic Green Recovery”, will be held via hybrid conferencing, welcoming online and offline participants around the world.

DAY 1 (November 14^th)

On the evening of November 14^th, the opening ceremony and the main forum is scheduled to be held at the Main Building of Tsinghua University. We will welcome a distinguished list of guests joining us online and offline, they include:

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Nicholas Stern, President of the British Academy, Chairman of the Asia Research Centre, and Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics

Qi Ye, Professor of the School of Public Administration of Tsinghua University and Director of the Institute for Public Policy Studies.

DAY 2 (November 15^th)

Poster exchanges will take place in the afternoon at the Main Building of Tsinghua University. Later on in the evening, four sub-forums will be held with selected scholars giving presentations on their submitted research, the topics are as followed:

Sub-Forum 1: Public Awareness and Behaviour in the Context of Climate Change

Sub-Forum 2: Addressing Climate Change: Nature-based Solution

Sub-Forum 3: Climate Governance Solutions for Higher Quality Recovery

Sub-Forum 4: Technological Innovation and Economic Transformation Under the Goal of Carbon Neutrality

DAY 3 (November 16^th)

On the last day of the conference, poster exchanges will be held side-by-side with the Exhibition of Youth Action on Climate Change at the Main Building of Tsinghua University. The exhibition is around two themes: “Young People in Action” and “Experience Climate”. In the Interactive experience area, a recycling space is set up for audience to exchange their empty plastic bottles for recycled products. In addition, you can also find interactive experiences of “My Carbon Footprint” and “36 Methods of Energy Saving and Emission Reduction” in the area.

The closing ceremony will be held at the Meng Minwei Building, Tsinghua. The closing ceremony will focus on the hottest emerging topic around the world, “Nature-based Solutions (NbS)”. We will also will hear from a group of experts during a TED conference on their insights into NbS, aimed at enhancing young students' understanding of NbS. This session is open to Tsinghua non-participants.

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