Universities are widely acknowledged as major emitters of greenhouse gases, which inter alia, provide a significant contribution to climate change. Their deep carbon footprints are caused by various processes such as:
- i. heating, cooling, lighting using non-renewable energy
- ii. general operations
- iii. mobility (e.g. internal, travel of staff and students, flights)
There is thus a perceived need to discuss, identify and implement approaches, methods and tools via which these emissions may be reduced.
Against this background, the on-line Seminar "Trends on Reductions of Emissions Through Universities' Operations" is being organised by the European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR) , the
Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme the
UK Consortium for Sustainability Research (UK-CSR) and the German Consortium of Research on Sustainable Development (DEKONA), in cooperation with the International Climate Change Information and Research Programme.
The Seminar is part of the "Universities and Climate Change Initiative", a worldwide effort led by the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, to combine the knowledge and know-how of universities, in order to tackle the many challenges posed by climate change. The Seminar will serve the purpuse of discussing how the emissions related to universities' operations may be reduced, and may pave the way for other initiatives.
We are now inviting expressions of interest from suitably qualified colleagues and teams, to submit an abstract and to attend the event.
The accepted papers will be considered for publication in the book "The contribution of universities to climate change mitigation and adaptation", which will document and promote research and practical projects being undertaken at universities, to tackle climate change. The book will also gather and disseminate knowledge on what universities round the world are doing to handle climate change, from both a mitigation and an adaptation perspective.
It follows on the success of the
Handbook of Climate Change Resilience
African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation
(which is an open access publication, with over 100.000 downloads to date) and the
Handbook of Climate Change Management (6 volumes, over 500 authors), which is one the most comprehensive non-publicly funded publications on climate change adaptation ever produced. Due to the peer-reviewed nature of the book, it will officially count for tenure and promotion purposes.
We herewith invite individual researchers and research teams, to make a presentation at the Seminar, and to contribute to the publication. A registration fee of Euro 100 (plus processing costs and taxes) will be charged to offset the preparation costs of the event. The fee may be settled upon submission of an invoice, once a contribution has been accepted, and a participant is invited to attend the event.
Expressions of interest to contribute to the Seminar, and to the book, should be sent to the IUSDRP team at:lealfilho@yahoo.com
The deadline for expresssions of interest, consisting of a 200-words abstract, with the title of the contribution and the full details of the authors, is 20th December 2022. Full papers are due by 20th March 2023, so as to give delegates to gather feed-back from their presentations.
Further details will be shared with the authors whose abstracts have been selected.
