Connecticut’s colleges and universities will gather on April 7 for their annual sustainability conference, “Climate Change Commitments: From Paris to Connecticut Campuses.” The free, all-day conference will be held in the Reading Room of William F. Starr Hall at the UConn Law School in Hartford, and is organized by the Connecticut Alliance for Campus Sustainability. The theme of the conference is making connections between international, national, state and local climate commitments in order to increase the effectiveness of sustainability actions on campuses. Students and policymakers will discuss the goals and strategies necessary to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions in the state of Connecticut as well as in the nation at large.

A panel of students from Yale University and the University of Connecticut will report on the 2015 international climate talks, which they had the chance to experience firsthand in Paris. The conference will also feature guest speakers from the federal and state levels of government. Sen. Chris Murphy will address climate leadership at the national level and Rob Klee, commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and chair of the Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3), will review the GC3’s progress in setting interim targets and identifying strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, faculty from Wesleyan University, the University of Connecticut and Yale University will present research and analysis of the Paris climate agreement, effective climate communication, and the vulnerability of infrastructure in light of the changing climate. Representatives from Southern Connecticut State University, Middlesex Community College, Eastern Connecticut State University, Connecticut College and Wesleyan University will highlight successful sustainability initiatives on their campuses.

The Connecticut Alliance for Campus Sustainability, co-chaired by Eastern Connecticut State University’s Institute for Sustainability and Yale University’s Office of Sustainability, was established in 2014 to facilitate peer exchange and networking and to empower sustainability actions by and for the state’s institutions of higher education.
Campus sustainability professionals as well as interested students, faculty, staff and the public are welcome to attend. To register and to learn more, visit www.easternct.edu/sustainenergy/upcoming_events/ or contact Laura Miller at millerlau@easternct.edu.