Alliance of Top Universities Urge G20 Leaders to Prioritize Net Zero Emissions

An international coalition of leading climate research universities, including Sorbonne University, has issued its first declaration ahead of the G20 Summit on 21st and 22nd November 2020. The Declaration implores world leaders to use the post-COVID recovery period to implement measures to counteract climate change.

The International Universities Climate Alliance member universities span all populated continents, representing one-third of the 100 highest performing climate research universities and a quarter of the top 100 environmental research universities worldwide.

“Sorbonne University is committed to combating climate change, as embodied by its Institute Pierre-Simon Laplace and the Institute for Environmental Transition. It is incumbent on universities to develop our scientific understanding of climate change and offer solutions to mitigate its effects in service to society at large.”—Prof. Jean Chambaz, president of Sorbonne University.

The Climate Alliance is unprecedented in scale and scope and will support world leaders, policy makers and industry in planning for and responding to climate change. The advent of the Climate Alliance comes at a time when momentum is building for countries to decarbonize their economies. In recent months there have been moves by various nations to fortify incremental efforts with policies and actions equal to the urgency of the situation.

Sorbonne University has been invested in climate research for many years and in counteracting climate change. The University’s Institute Pierre-Simon-Laplace for Environmental and Scientific Research (IPSL) is made up of nine research laboratories dedicated to developing common strategies for studying the evolution of the climate, the greenhouse effect and the ozone layer. The Sorbonne University Institute of Environmental Transition (SU-ITE) works on the design and implementation of development trajectories that will be able to preserve or restore the viability of the planet. 

This Alliance will provide a central hub for universities to share the latest climate research and enable greater collaboration between leading research teams.

Read the complete Declaration by the International Universities Climate Alliance.