The University of Connecticut Office of Sustainability will host a Climate Change Cafe from 4 to 6 p.m. in Student Union Room 304 today.
Students who attended the United Nations’ climate change conference in Brazil will share their experiences at the event. Recipients of the Office of Sustainability’s Environmental & Social Sustainability grant will also be presenting their projects. Refreshments will be provided for free at the event.
Besty Mortensen, the communications, outreach and education coordinator for the Office of Sustainability, said in an email to the Daily Campus that the Climate Change Cafe is “an excellent opportunity to connect with other students who are motivated to pursue solutions to environmental issues locally and globally.”
“This is a chance to get inspired and learn more about ways you can get involved with the Office of Sustainability’s experiential learning programs,” Mortensen said.
The Conference of Parties is the United Nations’ annual meeting to discuss climate change and potential solutions. This year, the 30th conference (COP30) was held in Belem, Brazil. The United States did not send an official party from the federal government, but environmental and political activists from the U.S. attended.
UConn sent 12 students from a range of disciplines to the conference. UConn has sent a delegation of students to COP every year since 2015, according to the Office of Sustainability website.
Mortensen encouraged students from any major to attend the Climate Change Cafe.
“Sustainability is something that spans ALL fields – from health, investing, engineering to art,” she said. “Sustainability can be applied to your future career, and will increasingly be a requirement.”
Students shared their initial reactions from COP30 with the UConn Office of Global Affairs during the conference. Claire Lawrence, a senior studying applied data analysis and public policy, wrote about how delegates at the conference often shared the same frustration she saw in students who try to advocate for climate action.
“They want to stand up and shout from the rooftops the same way we do as students. But that is not how policy is made,” Lawrence wrote. “It is created through carefully learning what battles to lose. Most importantly, it is created through knowing when to let challenges pass and when to stand up and stay standing.”
Updates from the students and more of their experiences can be found on an Office of Sustainability webpage. Mortensen said that members of the Office of Sustainability will also be available to answer questions directly from other students during the cafe.
Along with the COP30 fellows, students who received Environmental and Social Sustainability grants from the Office of Sustainability will present about their projects within the UConn community.
“This is a chance to get inspired and learn more about ways you can get involved with the Office of Sustainability’s experiential learning programs,” Mortensen said.
Recent ESS grant projects have involved improving dairy wastewater treatment with microalgae, investigating more sustainable ways to harness phosphorus in agriculture and developing a food forest with native plants around UConn.
Information about the Climate Change Cafe can be found in the UConn calendar and on the Office of Sustainability Instagram.