As delegates from more than 190 countries meet at the UN Climate Conference in Paris Nov. 30-Dec. 11, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Claire Sterk announced new university-wide support for Climate@Emory. This recently launched, campus-wide initiative advances scholarship, teaching, partnership and engagement around climate change at Emory and beyond. As a part of this initiative, Emory sent a delegation of faculty and students to participate in the Paris talks.
Joining the provost in supporting this effort are deans of six schools and colleges across Emory University: Dean James Curran, Rollins School of Public Health; Dean Robin Forman, Emory College of Arts and Sciences; Dean Erika James, Goizueta Business School; Dean Christian Larsen, School of Medicine; Dean Linda McCauley, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing; and Dean Robert Schapiro, School of Law.
"Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today," says Sterk. "As a university dedicated to educating future leaders, Emory has an opportunity to harness the expertise of our faculty and the talents of our student body to make a difference in this area."
"Our students and faculty already are making major contributions on this front," says Daniel Rochberg, chief strategy officer for the initiative and an instructor in the Department of Environmental Health at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health and in Emory College’s Department of Environmental Sciences. "Seed funding for Climate@Emory will enable the development of a portfolio of new activities and initiatives that promise to significantly advance our response to climate change in the years ahead."
More information at climate.emory.edu and on twitter at @ClimateAtEmory.
About Climate@Emory
Launched in Spring 2014 by several Emory faculty with support from the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, Climate@Emory has quickly grown into a university-wide effort that draws on the expertise of more than 50 faculty and staff from over 20 departments. During the initiative’s first academic year, Emory secured accreditation as an official observer to the UN climate negotiations; faculty participated in a series of White House roundtables on climate change and health; the university convened a Day of Scholarship with experts from Emory and the Georgia Institute of Technology; and Emory researchers published key findings on topics ranging from the physics of melting icebergs to the impact of climate change on China’s development trajectory. In 2015, Emory’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives announced that Emory had achieved its 10-year energy efficiency goals ahead of schedule.