Today Uppsala University signed sustainability pledges at a ceremony at Uppsala Castle, together with representatives of the region and municipalities, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and County Governor Göran Ernander.
This constitutes a declaration of intent that we will act jointly to reduce our climate impact by various measures. The more actors in the region join this platform on their own individual basis, the greater the effect will be. It provides direction and creates commitment. We describe our undertaking in a joint opinion piece in the Uppsala newspaper UNT.
The climate challenge demands commitment and action at every level: international, national and regional. Others have praised the climate efforts in the county, but to achieve the national targets, we need to raise our level of ambition. We who created a common platform today can create change in our own organisations through governance documents and plans, but together we can achieve more.
A while ago we signed an agreement with Akademiska Hus to collaborate on shared sustainability goals, and the other day I decided on a climate pot to stimulate climate initiatives at the University, with a view to reducing our own climate footprint. We have long participated in the Uppsala Climate Protocol initiative, aimed at making Uppsala fossil-free by 2030 and climate-positive by 2050. Another current development is that we are poised to begin a revision of the University’s environmental plan, an important document to hone our internal efforts. And most importantly: Uppsala University continues to educate students and conduct research, thereby contributing the skills and knowledge required to solve the challenges facing society. Here we have long been at the forefront. But here too, we are taking new steps, for example by identifying areas where we can work in interdisciplinary ways with research, and education, in the area of sustainability. Change does not happen from one day to the next, it happens step by step.