Open Letter Calling for QUT to Declare a Commitment to Strong and Ambitious Climate Action

We hereby call for QUT to declare a commitment to strong and ambitious Climate Action to address the climate crisis - with immediate effect. In doing so, we call for QUT to be a first mover among Australian Universities, and join academic institutions across the world, who have also committed to urgent Climate Action.
 
Human activity is dramatically changing the Earth’s climate in unprecedented ways. The 2021 Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that temperatures around the world are likely to rise by more than 1.5oC within the next two decades, bringing widespread extreme weather events such as bushfires, heat waves, droughts, storms, heavy rainfall and floods.

We wish to acknowledge the devastating health, ecological, social, economic and political impacts that climate change is having and will continue to have, in Australia and across the world. 

Only a rapid and drastic reduction in greenhouse gases over the next decade can prevent such climate breakdown, with every fraction of a degree of further heating likely to compound the accelerating effects, according to theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on climate science.

As a University we must join our international colleagues in acknowledging the role that our existing approaches to teaching, research and practice have in many ways contributed towards and helped perpetuate the Climate Crisis. Maintaining the status quo is no longer an option. We can no longer continue to teach our students, focus our research, and orient our organisation in ways that predominantly focus on perpetual growth and development, delivering profits and shareholder value, promoting (often excessive) consumption, espousing management and accountancy practices that serve corporate rather than social and planetary concerns, and entrenching law and regulation that upholds rather than transforms our current forms of social organisation.

We identify a clear opportunity for our teaching, research and practice to work to protect flora and fauna, people and planet. A commitment to Climate Action should be embedded through the very fabric of QUT and be reflected in our policies, strategies, culture, teaching, research, and everyday practices.

We believe our students, our graduates, and our alumni can become good environmental and social citizens through their QUT experience and go out into the world to help address climate change through climate action. Our research can and should increasingly focus on the role that QUT can play in contributing to the Climate Crisis, but can also create interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary opportunities for innovation, critical thinking, and ethical practice in Climate Action. Our operations as a University should set the standards for being an organisation committed to Climate Action, to reducing carbon emissions, and supporting changes in human activity that prevent catastrophe. 

As the University for the Real World, QUT must react to the global climate crisis as it is undeniably the right thing to do. As an institution we must take the lead and cannot wait until others speak up. Putting Climate Action at the heart of our agenda is consistent with our QUT values of integrity and inclusiveness, and our aims to change lives for the better, support our community, and the world at large now and for future generations. Declaring a commitment to Climate Action can only enhance our global reputation. Climate Action is now at the front of the global political agenda, and all organisations in both the public and private sectors are being held to a much higher level of scrutiny in this regard. 

Considering the academic expertise we possess and the role that we play as education providers, QUT and indeed all Universities have a special duty to provide leadership in thought and action. There is also a strong expectation from staff and students to show leadership in addressing the climate emergency. QUT respondents to the United Nations’ UN75 one-minute survey believe climate change, the environment and sustainability are the key issues facing the global community, with most feeling that people will be worse off in 25 years’ time than they are today. So, the time for action is NOW!

Below we present a list of recommendations and actions that will demonstrate QUT's commitment to Climate Action, and which strongly align to the existing QUT Blueprint 6 strategy :

1. Develop QUT Strategy with a commitment to Climate Action at its heart.

2. Consult with and involve staff, students and stakeholders in meaningful and participatory ways in developing Climate Policy, Strategy and Action - and continue to do so on an ongoing basis.

3. Commit to working in partnership with, and empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to be at the forefront of our Climate Action activities. Embed Indigenous Australians’ knowledge regarding managing our climate and being sustainable into QUT policy, strategy, teaching, research and practice relating to Climate Action.

4. Develop a plan and take responsibility to enable us to halve our carbon emissions over the next decade, and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. This plan should consider our carbon footprint, resource use, water consumption, the impact of future development, and a transition to clean energy systems.

5. Transform our teaching curriculum by embedding a commitment to climate action that aligns with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Universities Partnership Programme. This should involve orienting our teaching and research to focus on embedding a commitment to climate action in law, organisational policy, strategy, and activities in the commercial and public sector, reducing consumption, cutting back on waste, respecting and protecting the natural environment, responsible investment, promoting sound environmental law and climate justice, and espousing a commitment to a low carbon economy and green jobs.

6. Commit to ongoing dialogue, consultation, consensus building, and development and delivery of additional relevant Climate Action activities as required. Clear mechanisms should be developed to facilitate this process such as the formatting of a standing and fully representative Climate Action committee, a process of monitoring, review and accountability, and regular community dialogue and consultation forums.  

Please, sign and share this petition and send a strong message to QUT:

Declare a commitment to strong and ambitious Climate Action, today.