UVic Hosts 2009 World Student Environmental Summit

The University of Victoria is hosting the second annual World Student Environmental Summit from June 24 to 28, 2009. The summit, a student-driven initiative, will act as a platform for student engagement, international relations and innovative solutions in addressing one of the most urgent questions of our time: what can be done to combat global climate change?

More than 50 student delegates from countries around the world including Brazil, New Zealand, India, China, Germany and Ethiopia are expected to attend the four-day summit. This year’s key themes are energy, university sustainability, and global response to climate change.

UVic biology and environmental studies student Jill Doucette and UVic business student Chantal Orr are the 2009 WSES co-chairs. The duo represented Canada at the inaugural World Student Environmental Summit last year in Kyoto, Japan.

“The first summit linked the international student body and created a network of leaders who want to make a difference in the world,” says Orr. “The 2009 summit will educate, empower and engage student delegates so when they return to their home universities, their influential voices will be the catalyst for building sustainable campuses.”

“Our delegates are truly the source of hope for the change we want to see,” adds Doucette. “In Victoria, we will build on this network and through a student proposal targeted at the administrators of participating universities, radiate our message and foster positive change in these global institutions.”

Delegates will participate in a daily morning plenary in addition to workshops, debates and other special events. Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is expected to attend without producing a carbon footprint—by digitally presenting to student delegates at the closing ceremony on June 28.

Members of the public can attend the opening and closing ceremonies as well as plenary sessions presented by UVic earth and ocean sciences professor and IPCC author Dr. Andrew Weaver; UVic business professor and director of UVic’s BC Institute for Co-operative Studies Dr. Ana Maria Peredo; and founding director of Harvard’s Green Campus Initiative Ms. Leith Sharp.

The closing ceremony on June 28 at 6 p.m. will also feature keynote public speaker Dr. Mukesh Kapila, advisor to the World Bank on climate change and to the UN on disaster reduction and humanitarian affairs; the unveiling of WikiEarth, a user-friendly collaborative website for earth data and peer-reviewed scientific research; and the formal presentation of the 2009 WSES student proposal to carry forward beyond the summit.

For program details, visit www.2009wses.com. To purchase tickets for the presentations by Ms. Sharp and Drs. Kapila and Pachauri, visit https://tickets.tickets.uvic.ca or contact the UVic Ticket Centre at 250-721-8480. To RSVP for the presentations by Drs. Weaver and Peredo, contact tcasey@uvic.ca.

 

 

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