On February 21, the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate was invited to participate at a closed-door meeting with the COP26 President, Alok Sharma, exploring opportunities to amplify the impact of global climate and sustainability networks in the run-up to COP27.

Themed Global Universities for COP26., the meeting focused on two topics: practical options to scale up actions and collaborations between networks. Alok Sharma invited university networks to discuss and identify ways to deliver the Glasgow Climate Pact through the role of higher education.

Sharma stated the progress formulated during COP26, including finance, adaptation, loss and damage, and raised a key question to the representatives of the networks in higher education: what are the practical ways that universities can support state and non-state actors in meeting their commitments?”

Sharing GAUC’s experience in organizing the Global Youth Summit on Net-Zero Future, a summit held around the COP26 by 15 member universities of GAUC, that presented 30 events in total and attracted 1.25 million participants worldwide, Dr. WANG Binbin, the executive secretary general of GAUC, offered her thoughts to Sharma’s questions: First, identify the right timing and move fast; second, find the challenge and explore pathways to locate the solution; lastly, scale up.

The meeting, organized by UK COP26 Universities Network, in partnership with the COP26 Presidency and the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN), is the second in the series to mobilize universities to collaborate towards achieving the Glasgow commitments and increasing mobilization in the lead up to the COP27. 20 higher education networks were represented at the meeting.

PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)

Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)

Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU)

Climate Leadership Network

COP26 Universities Network

The Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education (EAUC)

Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC)

Global Council for Science and the Environment (GCSE)

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI)

International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU)

International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN)

International Universities Climate Alliance

Least Developed Countries Universities Consortium on Climate Change (LUCCC)

Paris Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB) Network

U7+ Alliance

UK Alliance for Disaster Research (UKADR)

UK Collaborative on Development Research

UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme

Universitas 21 (U21)

University Climate Change Coalition (UC3)

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