Update: UBC Climate Emergency
The climate emergency is here, and UBC is committed to bringing our community together to confront this crisis.
In December 2019, the UBC Board of Governors unanimously endorsed a Declaration on the Climate Emergency, responding to the advocacy and leadership of our students and community members and joining other universities, organizations, municipalities, and Indigenous Nations around the world.
Following the declaration, an independent Climate Emergency Task Force (CETF) made up of students, faculty, and staff from both UBC campuses undertook an extensive community consultation process and produced the CETF report1. This report identified nine strategic priorities and 28 recommendations for UBC to take action in responding to the climate emergency.
This fall, UBC Sustainability Hub released the first progress report2, describing the actions taken by the UBC community to advance the strategic priorities put in place through the CETF. The report celebrates the creativity and diversity of climate emergency actions at both UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan. These include the launch of a new Centre for Climate Justice3 in the Department of Geography, and the approval of two new Climate Action Plans 20304 setting ambitious targets for reducing operational and embodied emissions.
UBC Sustainability Hub has also launched a new version of the Climate Emergency website. Recognizing that tackling the climate emergency as a university requires collective responsibility and action from the UBC community as a whole, the website is a way to stay connected with climate action across UBC.
1 UBC Climate Emergency Engagement Final Report and Recommendations 2021
2Climate Emergency at UBC Report on Progress 2021-22
3UBC Centre for Climate Justice
4UBC Vancouver Climate Action Plan 2030 and UBC Okanagan Climate Action Plan 2030