14 UConn students, and five faculty and staff, attended the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference (COP 29) in Baku, Azerbaijan in November, 2024.
The students who attended are from a variety of disciplines, including marketing and urban and community studies, geographic information science, accounting, philosophy, and social responsibility and impact in business.
UConn hosted a collaborative platform that brought together scholars, students, and experts from various disciplines. The Just Transitions Symposium aimed to explore themes and strategies for a sustainable and equitable global future, emphasizing the importance of diverse voices and disciplines in addressing climate change.
The idea for the Just Transitions Symposium stemmed from a faculty reading group that explores just transition themes, many of which have their roots in the social sciences and humanities, explained Professor and Head of the Department of Geography and Chair of Atmospheric Sciences Group Anji Seth.
Professor of Geography Carol Atkinson-Palombo drew a parallel between the symposium and this year’s UConn Reads selection, Braiding the Sweet Grass by Robin Wall Kimmerer:
“Thinking on how Wall-Kimmerer frames it, we don’t know what will spark the change, but we need to gather the materials and momentum to fuel the transformation. That is consistent with our role as educators, we are gathering this information to set the stage to think about this transition seriously.”