Bel©m: Khalifa University of Science and Technology joined with the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC) to lead a high-level climate dialogue for the international higher education community at COP30 Brasil Amazonia in Bel©m, Brazil.
According to Emirates News Agency, the dialogue featured a panel discussion workshop focused on 'Higher Education Institutions for Climate Action: Innovation, Implementation, Cooperation, and Communication', emphasizing four critical roles of higher education institutions. The session was chaired and moderated by GAUC's Chief Youth Officer, Alice Ho, with Dr. Jian Zhang, Deputy Secretary-General of GAUC and Associate Director of the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development at China's Tsinghua University, as a panel member.
Representing Khalifa University at this workshop, held at the UNFCCC Higher Education for Climate Action Pavilion, was Dr. Samuel Mao, Director of the ASPIRE Research Institute for Sustainability, and Professor of Practice in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering. Dr. Samuel is also Co-Chair of the UAE Universities Climate Network, which comprises 38 higher education institutions in the UAE. After the workshop, Dr. Samuel, along with Dr. Aisha Al Suwaidi, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences, and Mohammad Al Hamadi, a graduate student and the first Emirati to complete a polar ocean expedition recently, visited the GAUC Pavilion. This pavilion also hosted a UAE Universities Climate Network COP30 session, co-organized by Khalifa University.
During the panel discussion, Dr. Samuel highlighted his sustainable water extraction from air project as an example of Khalifa University's leadership in innovation, implementation, cooperation, and communication. He also introduced the university's recent engagements with several GAUC member universities, including mutual visits of university leaders and development of collaborative research and education programs. The audience at COP30 acknowledged Khalifa University's commitment to advancing climate action and global outreach.
Other panel members agreed that universities are engines of climate-related innovation. They conduct frontier research in areas such as renewable energy, carbon capture, and climate adaptation. They affirmed that universities are ideal places to provide interdisciplinary problem-solving by uniting scientists, engineers, economists, and policy experts toward common climate action goals.