If we’re going to vanquish climate change, the time to charge is now

If academics are serious about tackling global warming, they can’t wait for the cavalry to show up – they are the cavalry, says Tony Chan

May 15, 2023
The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Richard Caton Woodville Jr
Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Melesse

Humanity’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was commonly likened to national war efforts. Universities throughout the world, along with other key sectors of society, pivoted rapidly to address the crisis or even to explore the opportunities it engendered.

In contrast, I see our collective response to the climate crisis and the broader but interlinked sustainability crises as slow, muted and ineffective. Universities and other key sectors of society are largely adopting “business-as-usual” approaches, apathetically ignoring a litany of failures to meet sustainability and climate goals.

The Paris Agreement set the long-term goal of limiting global warming to 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels, on the grounds that climate-related risks for both natural and human systems would otherwise rise dramatically. In the past year, however, the global average temperature reached 1.1oC above that baseline, and the World Meteorological Organization now believes there is a 50 per cent chance that 1.5oC will be breached by the middle of the present decade – a couple of years from now.

There is, thus, broad consensus that a global human and ecological catastrophe could be precipitated in just handful of years, critically exacerbating sustainability challenges including water scarcity, hunger, health, poverty, economic growth, life on land and water, energy security and sustainable communities.

I appreciate that many of my colleagues in higher education are aware of these dangers and share my concerns. But can we honestly say that this has resulted in action? Do we as a sector practise what we preach, or are we too ready to blame a lack of scalable sustainable initiatives on the parsimony of politicians and the indifference of industry? What of our own responsibility?

While our research, memoranda and papers sound the alarm about the climate crisis, our deeds have largely failed to match our worthy words. We cannot continue as before; as academics, we should recognise that we have starring roles to play in this unfolding environmental tragedy, not bit parts.

Universities must cease to be exemplars of unsustainable practices and become the transformative enablers of sustainability for others. Our students and our partners in government, civil society and the private sector take their cues from our community, not just based on what we teach but, even more so, on what we do.

This is an enormous responsibility for us to assume and a unique opportunity for us to demonstrate our calling as enablers of change. The ball is in our court, and it is useful to ask ourselves how our actions in this moment of crisis will be remembered by our grandchildren.

So what can we do? My actions, as president of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), have been to commit my university to net-zero carbon emissions, zero waste and zero wastewater. I am also hosting a major international sustainability congress, the Global Sustainability Development Congress, at the end of this month with Times Higher Education to discuss how universities must respond to the climate and sustainability crisis. We will explore these challenges across four broad themes: health and demography; sustainable energy and industry; sustainable environment; and sustainable cities and communities.

This three-day event will deliver an immersive, multi-track agenda, with more than 1,000 world leaders, investors and influencers present to share their insights into the challenges of converting goals into action and impact. It will recognise the urgent need for universities to be radical and rapid, addressing the issues at a greater scale than is currently happening.

My hope is that, by integrating thought-provoking panels with collaborative workshops, the event will deliver bold insights and enable delegates to forge powerful new alliances. In effect, I want the congress to be a call to action, an invitation to global universities to pivot their educational and research programmes towards tangible outcomes.

But while talk is necessary, it’s also cheap. We need to do more than research, debate and persuade – we need to act too. I expect all participants to come to the congress with a sense of urgency and to be willing to enable and act on much-needed change.

Universities cannot wait for the cavalry to arrive on climate change. We are the cavalry. It is time to charge.

Tony Chan is president of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The Global Sustainable Development Congress 2023 will take place at KAUST from 29 May to 1 June. For more information, Click here to visit the event website.

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Reader's comments (3)

More opportunities for University presidents, vice-chancellors, and senior management to make lives of faculty insufferable in the name of virtue signalling climate alarmism. Just what we needed, as the impulsive plans concerning electric vehicles, heat pumps, and decommissioning of nuclear plants wasn't making our lives difficult enough (while doing nothing to affect climate change, probably making it worse, all effects considered).
No virtue signalling here - the climate is changing and we are partly responsible for this through our over consumption of resources. In very simple terms we need to use less of everything. Especially in the industrialised areas - I mean think about it - do you really need to replace the phone that still works perfectly well just because the new one says it has something extra you don't really need? We have been aware of our impact on the climate and wider environment since well before the internet generated a myriad of conspiracy theories. If you don't care about the climate - think about the natural system that provides you with food and focus on that instead.
I was not denying 'the climate is changing and we are partly responsible for this'. It's just that whenever Universities, corporations, or even usually governments try to think of solutions, since they are really only interested in virtue signalling and making money, they end up with solutions that sound good but don't make things any better for the planet - often make things worse - and make things much harder for the people.

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