A group of Emory students representing programs across campus is traveling to Colombia to participate in a youth forum at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health.
The student contingent includes four Emory College undergraduate students, a visiting student, three master’s degree students and a PhD student. An Emory College alumna and a staff member from the Department of Environmental Sciences are accompanying the students.
In addition to joining the invitation-only sessions where researchers and policymakers discuss the impact of pollution on health and suggest solutions and make recommendations, the Emory cohort also will serve as de facto communications staff at the event.
“This is an opportunity for them to talk about climate change and air pollution in a way that is more digestible and to experience how much work it is to communicate complex issues in a way that has impact,” says Eri Saikawa, the professor of environmental sciences leading the Emory cohort.
The World Conference on Air Pollution and Health, which runs March 25-27 in Cartagena, Colombia, will focus on pollution that is responsible for at least seven million deaths worldwide each year, according to the United Nations.
It is the second global convention bringing together environment and energy officials from national and development agencies, along with researchers and scholars.
Emory’s participation in the conference grew out of Saikawa’s existing and new collaborations with global partners working to mitigate climate change.
As director of Emory Climate Hub (previously Emory Climate Talks), she teaches a Climate Change and Society course that sends students to the U.N. conferences on climate change every year.
In fall 2024, the course’s final project required students to create messaging that would work for BreatheLife, a joint initiative from the WHO, Climate and Clean Air Coalition, U.N. Environment Program and World Bank that seeks to mobilize communities to take action on air pollution.
One of Saikawa’s doctoral advisees, Wenlu Ye, who now researches air pollution at the WHO, coordinated agency training for the undergraduates in last fall’s course.
The student projects, shared to the Emory Climate Hub, include everything from interactive online essays to videos for social media to story maps.
Senior Kylie Hanson, a double major in environmental science and political science, is among those stepping forward in Colombia. She will help with the forum and communications work before rushing back to attend the Emory Varsity Track and Field Senior Night, then defend her honors thesis on anaerobic digestion on April 1.
Hanson, who will work as a researcher with the environmental policy think tank Frontier Group after graduation, says the rush is worth it.
“What I am most excited for is being able to bring transparency to the global decision making and removing the technical barriers for people to have access to these ideas,” says Hanson, who created a GIS-story map for Saikawa’s course showing the links between deforestation in the Amazon to Brazilian air pollution.
“When people are informed on the clear science behind air pollution, they know what they want to advocate for specifically on the local level or even up to state or federal policymakers,” Hanson adds. “Our role has the ability to empower citizens across the world.”
The Emory cohort, which include students from other courses and undergraduate researchers in Saikawa’s lab, will also have global impact by participating in the forum, Emerging Leaders for Clean Air.
The 45 forum participants will spend a day before the conference discussing and preparing a four-minute message to deliver to top research scientists, policymakers and politicians at the conference’s end.
“What I emphasize to students is how important it is to have an interdisciplinary way to discuss how climate change connects to other issues, like air pollution or health,” Saikawa says. “It’s difficult to grasp how to do that until you are in it, and they are going to be right in the middle of it.”
‘Climate coach’ comes to Emory, March 31-April 2
Emory Climate Hub will host a series of events March 31-April 2 featuring alum Michael Coren, who writes a column for the Washington Post about climate issues.
The week kicks off with a creative writing reading series at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 31, in the Robert W. Woodruff Library’s Jones Room.
Students can sign up to get involved in upcoming Emory Climate Hub events or visit the Climate Hub online to learn more.