Make or Break Partners Collaborate
Our first ever Climate Action Initiative (CAI), which ran from June 2021-May 2022, brought together a diverse group of 18 local, regional, and global TEDxGlasgow partners to accelerate climate change in unison.
The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called 2021 “a make-or-break year” for climate change. A year when Glasgow hosted the most pivotal ‘make-or-break’ event for humankind and our planet, COP26.
Our Climate Action Initiative partners are organisations that perhaps otherwise may never have talked, shared knowledge or worked together.
Facilitated by the TEDxGlasgow team, the CAI platform offered a collaborative space for people to connect from businesses covering private and public organisations, global brands and local partnerships from diverse sectors, including communications, transport, food and drink, power generation, consultancy, local and national government.
Make or Break
As we get ready to launch our 2022 theme and our next Climate Action Initiative, our partners, Dr Liz Wilks, European Director of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), the largest forestry company in the world, and Dr Karin Helwig, Programme Leader of the MSc Climate Justice at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), came together to share their ‘make-or-break’ collaboration experience. Enabled by the Climate Action Initiative and TEDxGlasgow, APP will collaborate with GCU on the newly established Programme Advisory Group for its Masters in Climate Justice, therefore supporting the development of employment and career opportunities in climate justice.
Glasgow Caledonian University is committed to its social mission to promote the common good. The MSc in Climate Justice aims to achieve meaningful societal change, where staff and students share common values in the fight for human rights.
As programme leader for the Masters in Climate Justice for the last two years, Dr Karin Helwig has recently set up a programme advisory group in which TEDxGlasgow partners, Nestle, APP and Ramboll, are represented. Dr Karin Helwig said:
“Through the advisory group, we will make sure that we are fully cognizant of all recent developments and continue to meet the needs of the professional field. I also hope that it will enhance students’ employability by giving them a better understanding of the business side of climate action, which is where a lot of the employment opportunities are going to be. It’s been great to link up with some other organisations that are now members of our programme advisory group.
Through collaboration, our graduates will have input from the partners of the Climate Action Initiative and TEDxGlasgow. We aim to produce graduates that understand business better, who are ready to play their part, but maintain the critical perspective that we try so hard to teach them on the MSc in Climate Justice.”
We offer a really unique blend of critical thinking skills, public policy awareness, vulnerabilities understanding, and appreciation of how concepts such as vulnerabilities and adaptive capacity are constructed.
But we also want students to be familiar with some of the more classic environmental management tools and the procedural systems that can support positive change and have an understanding of the natural environment itself.
“We have a module dedicated to water management for example, which is important in the context of climate change as many climate impacts will be experienced by people through water.
We also have a module on climate finance and climate litigation, and these are aspects which I think also really relevant to the business community. So again, we’re aiming to equip our students with the skills that they need to actually change things,”
Dr Karin Helwig finished.
APP is the largest forestry company in the world. It makes products to meet the growing global demand for tissue, packaging and paper in more than 150 countries across six continents.
Commenting on the collaboration outcomes and plans from the Climate Action Initiative with TEDxGlasgow, Dr Liz Wilks of APP said:
“We have been inspired by the TEDxGlasgow and begun working with Glasgow Caledonian University on the MSc in Climate Justice, together with other brands and partners of TEDxGlasgow such as Nestlé.
It is our intention to be on the advisory board for the MSc in Climate Justice, and to review two landscapes; quite different ones in Scotland and Indonesia and look at those KPIs and priorities in relation to climate justice.
We are also very keen to begin to work with brands to create further recognition to the consumer, looking at how we do this at a global level. It is important for us to have long-term goals, broken down into annual goals, to show that we are making progress.”
Looking to the future, Asia Pulp and Paper has signed up to the 2022 Climate Action Initiative with TEDxGlasgow. Dr Liz Wilks finished:
“I think it’s important to note that we started in the first year, but this collaboration is more than one year’s commitment.
It’s important to make a start and to continue, which means that more time is required. If we are going to have systemic change both in thinking and on the ground, then a vehicle like TEDxGlasgow is really critical for that in terms of telling the world.”
As we take stock and look towards COP27, the Climate Action Initiative and TEDxGlasgow has enabled APP to collaborate in GCU’s Climate Justice Programme Advisory Group that feeds into GCU’s Masters in Climate Justice. This is just the beginning. In unison, we have discovered a serious drive to make the changes needed to push the vital social and humanitarian aspects of climate change forwards. The choice is yours…
Find out more on becoming a TEDxGlasgow partner.
Further info about the MSc Climate Justice, which can be studied in full-time, part-time or distance learning mode is available here.