Not Zero-Net Zero
Zeroing Down to Youth in Universities

 

17th November 2022, Sharm El Sheikh,

 

Chasing ‘Zero’ is never a choice of anyone. And certainly not of students in Higher Educational Institutes. At the same time, if students do not pursue ‘Net Zero’, world will have no choice but to perish forever.

‘University Students face such mind-boggling choices very often, but they have potential to take the definite and futuristic path towards carbon neutral future’, said Prakash Javadekar, Member of Parliament and Former Minister of Environment Forest and Climate Change of India while announcing the launch of global movement of ‘Not Zero-Net Zero’ in university campus. He along with Erik Solheim, former Minister of Environment of Norway and former Under Secretary General of United Nations are together mentoring this global initiative under the ‘Smart Campus Cloud Network’. 

Javadekar further stated that movement aimed at making university campus carbon neutral is anchored on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mission LiFE’, a global drive to bring individual behaviours at the forefront of the global climate action narrative.

‘Today, there is a need for all of us to come together and take Lifestyle For Environment (LiFE) forward as a campaign. This can become a mass movement towards an environmentally conscious lifestyle’, are the words of PM Modi that served as the guiding principle for addressing climate change and sustainable development. It is also supported by Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary General.

‘What is the better place to start this carbon Neutrality movement than university campus bubbling with youth and where minds are moulded and action are accelerated,’ said Dr Rajendra Shende, former Director of UNEP and IPCC’s Co-ordinating Lead Author who is the prime mover of ‘Not Zero-Net-Zero’.

Over 3 decades, the climate talks and long debates have manufactured the never-ending pledges and hollow promises without any targeted accomplishments. The host country Egypt for COP 27, representing the African continent has therefore aimed to take implementation on top of the agenda. The universities are the living laboratories and dynamic destination where promises are funnelled down into execution.

“Youth from Universities the in the frontline of the much-needed innovations in mitigation and adaptation. The time for heads of state, ministers, negotiators, climate activists, mayors, civil society representatives and business-CEOs engaged in green-washing is now over. It is the time for the to enter the arena of action leaving behind illusionary pledges and promises. The young minds are the key to turn the tide’, said Erik Solheim at COP27 in India Pavilion.

The University campuses are all ready to spearhead the climate battle under overall targets of sustainable development goals. Smart campus Cloud Network (SCCN) through its network of 400+ universities have launched a global campaign, “Not Zero-Net Zero” to make university campuses Carbon Neutral. More than 250 universities have pledged to make their campus Carbon Neutral starting with baseline survey and energy, water and waste audit in their campuses.

The Universities pledging for Not Zero-Net Zero are also required to disclose their carbon emissions data setting an example for the society to follow the carbon foot-prints. “Unless we measure, we cannot manage” is the new motto adopted by the students. Dr Bhanu Neupane, Advisor at UNESCO, Paris introduced the concept of ‘Open Access: Success for Net-Zero’. He further highlighted that misinformation on climate change would delay achieving the targets of keeping temperature well below 2 deg C.

The cloud dashboard developed by SCCN with global digital leader Ecolibrium, partnering in the movement, with strong sense of social responsibility, demonstrates the openness to data where Universities display their consumption and generation patterns.

The LiFE movement concept is fundamental to the implementation of carbon neutrality at the grassroot level by SCCN in the campuses of universities. The youth has identified their climate responsibilities thus making behavioural change the core of the action plan.

Fostering the disclosure of emission, sustaining and reporting are two filters to neutralise the emissions from universities. Aiming to document campus successful efforts, SCCN along with GORD (Gulf Organisation of Research and Development), Qatar is jointly developing the accreditation standard to certify the university campuses as Carbon Neutral Campus. Kishor Rajhansa, Executive Director, GORD presented the verification system of Net-Zero by stating that ‘Unless we verify the carbon neutrality, it will remain as greenwash’

The launch of Not Zero-Not Zero movement in the university campuses aims to localise carbon neutrality in the education sector. Universities are the epicentre to transcend net-zero having a transformational impact on society. In this decade of action, youth are the critical players for adapting LiFE, challenging the apex of the pyramid and accelerating with community-engagement.

‘Charity begins at Home & Action Begins in University Campus’, concluded Dr Rajendra Shende. He added, that the ‘ABC of Carbon neutrality is Action Begins in the Campus’. SCCN would use participative way to for implementation and guides the universities to create their own roadmap to achieve carbon neutral campus by setting the targets through simple steps such as Behavioural Change, Reducing emission at sources, adapting to clean and renewable resources, and offsetting the residual.

Not Zero-Net Zero movement is very distinct from other similar networks mainly because of the deployment of the digital technology for real time basis and through online measurements. The dashboard with data analysis with sharing of the successes and failures would be the key feature. It would also use AI-Artificial Intelligence for translating and interpretating the data into number of Indian languages. Digital technology is expected to speed up the neutrality by 30-35%. END

 

Contacts:

Dr Rajendra Shende, Prime Mover SCCN, Former Director UNEP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ar. Durga Kamat, Project Executive, SCCN: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

About:

Smart Campus Cloud Network (SCCN)

SCCN is Global Network of the Universities and Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) that localises Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The network encourages the youth in the universities to undertake projects in their own campus that relate to SDGs and Climate Change. The overall objective of the project is to skill the students and faculty in mainstreaming SDGs in the education system through practical work in the campus. SCCN’s recent project is ‘Not-Zero Net-Zero’, for which 250+ universities (and the number is growing) have pledged and are initiating the work on carbon neutrality (SDG 7 and 13). The key pressing point of SCCN is to emphasise hands-on and practical work than the class-room talks.
www.sccnhub.com