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.

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:

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:

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.