United Nations Human Rights and CU host summit addressing climate change

Advocates are calling it a "humanitarian crisis." This week, the United Nations Human Rights and the University of Colorado Boulder hosted its Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit, addressing the link between human rights and climate change.

"Climate change affects the most marginalized groups around the world. I believe that the human rights piece has been overlooked," said Phil DiStefano, the CU chancellor. "There's certainly a connection worldwide, not only in our country, but worldwide, between climate change and human rights and we really haven't talked about the two together." 

University officials said for 50 years, the campus has upheld a culture of sustainability, having one of the first environmental centers in the country. The university was chosen to host the four-day event. 

"We have connected a community globally which has tremendous potential," said Heidi Vangenderen, the chief sustainability officer. "The office of UN human rights, and we, as well, would like to work as a university with the stakeholders who are represented at this summit to actually create a specific set of human rights commitments." 

Commitments like achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and embedding sustainable and equitable futures into the university curriculum by fall 2023.

A summit to bring together scientific experts and industry leaders to discuss not just the impacts of climate change, but the obligations of citizens and solutions to the problem.

"Our role as a democracy and how we work with our students, and how we work with our populations to make sure we're making our planet safe for the next generation, and the next generation," DiStefano said. 

For more information on the summit, visit: https://bit.ly/3B31l1d