Introduction
Throughout the years since CCB’s inception, among the guiding principles have been the three O’s, Outputs, Outreach & Outcomes; the following are recent activities that embody this commitment.
Undergraduate / Graduate / Youth Conferences
Students and Youths have most often been invisible in policy discussions that directly concern their future inheritance of the earth. This is true even though those who are visible in such discussions—the “adults” of the world—continue to make policy decisions that further jeopardize that future for those youth populations, many of whom will be policymakers in that future and who are eager to make change now. In response, CCB initiated conferences and fora that invited youth (15-28, typically) to have a voice and connect with one another on an international stage. These events have also enabled discussion and connection.
- In 2012, the Asia-Pacific Graduates’ Youth Forum on Green Economy was held in Kathmandu and in the coming months, based on these conferences that CCB initiated, other youth conferences are being planned for places in Latin America, South Asia, Australia, etc.
- Based on the success if this conference, the first International Graduate Conference on Climate Change and People was held in Kathmandu, Nepal in the fall of 2010. This second conference brought together over 150 graduate students from 17 countries across Greater South Asia for 5-days of presentations and discussions. It also resulted in a Youth Declaration that was distributed widely at COP-17 in Cancun, Mexico.
- The first Undergraduate Conference on Climate Change and People was held in Shanghai, China in the summer of 2009.
Master’s Programs on Climate and Society
Many academic programs claim to be interdisciplinary but few truly are, especially on issues pertaining to global change in modern contexts. In response, based on the interdisciplinary concept of Climate Affairs developed by CCB Director Dr. Michael H. “Mickey” Glantz, several major universities around the world have begun Master’s level programs in Climate and Society.
- A new program about Climate focusing in the interconnections from highlands to oceans (HtoO) is being developed. Students for this program will matriculate at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, though the program will be administered and students will be residents at a satellite campus in Kathmandu, Nepal. This program is slated to accept students in the fall of 2014.
- Mekelle University in northern Ethiopia developed and is actively matriculating students in a newly developed Climate and Society Masters and Certificate program that was initiated in the spring of 2012.
- The first to adopt the framework was Columbia University (USA), which inaugurated its program in 2004.