UNFCCC Observer Status

Dear Colleagues:

LMU has taken another step in expanding our global reach and influence by receiving non-governmental official observer status by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). With this status, which follows an extensive, 1½ year application process, LMU can take its place as an active participant in international climate change conversations. We will join the elite of the world’s higher education institutions that hold UNFCCC observer status, including Georgetown and Xavier.

U.N. observer status will allow LMU to organize delegations that enable our students and faculty to be accredited NGO participants at the annual U.N. Conference of the Parties (COP) that rotates between member countries. For example, the Paris Agreement resulted from COP21 and the mid-year talks held annually at the UNFCCC headquarters in Bonn, Germany. As delegation participants, LMU students and faculty will have access to the official proceedings and to side events that afford opportunities to interact with climate experts, government officials, and activists.

Plans are already underway for a transdisciplinary Study Abroad summer session course that will include attending the upcoming Bonn mid-year talks in June 2020, where LMU has a long-standing signature Study Abroad program featuring various tracks and areas of academic focus.

Arguably, universities play an increasingly important role in enhancing local and national policy on climate change through applied research, modeling best practices within communities, and educating the next generation of globally conscientious leaders. This status provides LMU an ideal opportunity to connect our well-established academic programs and partners with our new transdisciplinary initiatives for students and faculty to maximize our impact on one of the most pressing and concerning global issues of our time.

I want to thank Roberta Espinoza, vice provost for global-local initiatives, and her team for making this extraordinary opportunity a reality. Roberta has expressed her deep appreciation to the many people across campus who informed our application and provided support.

Stay tuned for more exciting news on this topic!

Sincerely,

Thomas Poon, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President and Provost  

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