Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit 2024
Technological University Dublin together with N-TUTORR, hosted the Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit at TU Dublin's Grangegorman campus on 18 June 2024.
The event convened over 100 senior leaders and teaching staff from higher education institutions in Ireland to discuss the important role that higher education plays in addressing climate change through action.
Leadership for Climate Action and Strong Institutions
A panel of speakers set the stage by discussing how higher education can be a leader of behaviour change for both the public sector and the communities which we serve, as well as highlighting the social, economic, and institutional barriers to taking effective and inclusive climate action.
In the afternoon, participants attended thematic breakout sessions to discuss, in detail, effective strategies and best practice for decarbonising the campus environment; green public procurement; behaviour change; as well as embedding sustainability in the curriculum.
Minister Ossian Smyth TD, Minister of State at the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications addressed the group highlighting the crucial need to support the development of solution-orientated skills and competencies among graduates, as well as implementing effective policies to accelerate the transition towards a carbon neutral society.
The Summit also addressed the lessons learned and questions raised during the Climate Action Leadership Training, which has been rolled out across the Higher Education sector as set out in the Public Sector Mandate.
Speaking at the Summit, TU Dublin's Vice President for Sustainability Jennifer Boyer said:
The Higher Education sector, with it's reach of more than 400k students, 30,000 staff and more than 400k partners combined across research, industry and community groups will play a transformative role in leading by example. It is no longer a unique selling point for our institutions, but an expectation of conducting responsible business as public institutions.
To close the event, Environmental Journalist John Gibbons delivered the Keynote speech, and challenged the group to consider their roles as higher education leaders to instil pro-environmental action within our institutions, and to push forward effective action to tackle the climate crisis.
Shared Impact
The Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit was supported by the National Technological University Transformation for Recovery and Resilience project (N-TUTORR).
Speaking of the successful partnership between the participating institutions, N-TUTORR National Coordinator, Dr Sharon Flynn said:
Education for Sustainability is one of the six key themes of N-TUTORR, and is a thread across all our work streams. N-TUTORR is particularly proud to support the Climate Action Leadership Training (CALT), led by TU Dublin and ATU, which demonstrates a genuine collaboration across all 7 partners in the Technological HE sector and what can be achieved by working together.
This summit embodied the three pillars of TU Dublin's Strategic Intent to 2030:
- People (fostering individual talents in an ever-changing world),
- Planet (a powerhouse for living & breathing sustainability),
- and Partnership (delivering shared impact).
The topics and ideas raised during the event, work to support and compliment many of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in particular SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 13: Climate Action, SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals.
Listen back to the welcome address speeches and the panel event in the video below.