Secretary-General Jan Palmowski opened the event with an urgent call for action, emphasising the vital role of universities in achieving Green Deal objectives. He noted the decline in public attention towards the Green Deal and urged universities, funders, and policymakers to actively re-engage in addressing the acute climate and nature crises both within Europe and globally.
Jaime Toney, Professor of Environmental and Climate Science at the University of Glasgow and member of The Guild’s Strategic Leads on Sustainability working group highlighted the critical need for interdisciplinarity to confront the complex challenges posed by the climate crisis. Referring to the Draghi Report's cautionary insights, she called for amplified efforts to achieve the European Green Deal goals. Toney raised ethical concerns regarding the limited inclusion of indigenous and local knowledge and the necessity of developing inclusive, globally conscious solutions. In his presentation, Morten Dæhlen, Centre Leader of dScience at the University of Oslo connected the event to the findings of The Guild's previous insight paper on the role of digital research for a successful green transition. He warned that the energy consumption of data centres, largely driven by artificial intelligence, rivals that of entire countries. Dæhlen stressed the importance of aligning short-term and long-term objectives to ensure a successful green transition.
Moderated by Secretary-General Jan Palmowski, the panellists explored how universities can leverage research, innovation and education to enable a fair and sustainable transition.
Frank Siebern-Thomas, Head of Unit - Fair Green and Digital Transitions at the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL) highlighted the need for better integration of research in policymaking and innovative tools such as the pilot on societal readiness in Cluster 5 of Horizon Europe. Michiel Scheffer, President of the EIC Board disclosed that one quarter of EIC funding goes to projects that support the European Green Deal objectives and highlighted the possibility of increasing the level of sustainability challenge related calls compared to open ones within EIC in the next framework programme. He advocated the need to create innovative ecosystems which deliver effective sustainable solutions and encourage universities to integrate societal perspectives into their innovative projects rather than solely focusing on academic and technological solutions.
Addressing the biggest challenges universities are currently facing in creating and implementing sustainable changes, Mette Halskov Hansen, Vice-Rector for Climate and Environment at the University of Oslo shared that universities are adopting a risk averse approach to investments in sustainability influenced by the current geopolitical climate. She elaborated that students, researchers and staff are motivated to invest in sustainability, but that the university leadership faces many obstacles in achieving and justifying external funding for similar initiatives. Adding to the discussion on challenges, Stéphanie Panichelli-Batalla, Academic Director for Sustainability at the University of Warwick, highlighted the Global Sustainable Development degree, in which students learned to work together across disciplines from all faculties to address complex challenges of sustainable development. Furthermore, Radboud University developed a different model by integrating sustainability into all bachelor programmes. Jaap Rohof, Program manager, Sustainability in Education at Radboud University shared that after entering into dialogue with students and staff it was shown that there are natural links between every bachelor and the Sustainable Development Goals. However, he highlighted that “we need to make explicit what is already there.”
Thomas Breu, Director of the Centre for Development and Environment and Professor for Sustainable Development at the University of Bern called attention to the global impact of the climate and nature crises, especially their impact on Low- and Middle- income Countries. Deresh Ramjugernath, Rector and Vice-Chancellor at Stellenbosch University echoed this statement and emphasised the urgency of addressing climate inequalities and tailoring solutions to local contexts. He aptly stated “environmental concerns are social concerns” and called for increased climate funding in African countries to drive meaningful change.
Susanne Conze, Head of Unit Higher Education, DG EAC, European Commission highlighted the need to integrate sustainability into both theoretical and practical education. She underscored that sustainability should be embedded in civic education and lifelong learning. Conze also discussed potential improvements to the next Erasmus+ programme, aiming for better synergy with other funding schemes to enhance international mobility.
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