translated from Spanish: Magallanes University joins The U. of Chile by signing declaration of “State of climate emergency”

Along with campuses in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela, the University of Magallanes (UMAG) is one of the first South American higher education institutions, joining the network of universities of different universities arts of the world that, so far, have signed a climate emergency charter. The statement addresses a three-point plan to be implemented with the students, officials and academics of the signatory institution in order to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and society.
The agreed points seek, first, a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2040; secondly, to mobilize greater resources for climate change research aimed at action and skills building and; increase delivery in environmental education and sustainability through curricula, campus, and media linkages programs.
In the case of UMAG, the initiative was driven by the industrial civil engineer and researcher of the GAIA Antarctic Research Center of the same study house, Claudia Mac-lean, with the support of the Environmental Sustainability Unit. In this way, at the institutional level, it is planned to address the challenges committed through interdisciplinary collaborative work among the various internal areas whose academic work is consistent with topics related to the global phenomenon.
Mac-lean commented that “it is vitally important to humanity that sustainability and climate change are part of and breathe in educational institutions, because they are spaces where citizens and leaders are trained who are the ones who will take the decisions that will shape the future of our species on the planet.”
This international statement has been organized by The Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education – known as UAE, the U.S.-based higher education climate action organization – Second Nature and Youth and United Nations Environment Programme Education Alliance, the first time higher education establishments have joined internationally to address the climate emergency.
Ahead of the September 2019 Climate Action Summit organized by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, networks and institutions working in higher education will come together to add support through this emergency letter climate change, which will be shared with key government officials and the media. The expectation is that more than 10,000 higher education institutions will be incorporated before the end of the year, with governments invited to support with incentives to take action.
This significant commitment made by the University of Magellan, which shows the recognition of a climate emergency situation and the imperative need for a transition towards carbon neutrality, thus aligns with the collective step aims to provide a conglomerate of higher education organizations in the world to stop this growing threat.
As a state and extreme University, UMAG, in addition to promoting research in this field with scientific priority lines focused on environments susceptible to the phenomenon, such as the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic area, has been promoting initiatives that seek to raise awareness of environmental issues and the effects of this planetary process.
For this reason, it created the Environmental Sustainability Unit, aimed at promoting various measures with Climate Change as a cross-cutting axis. It also became part of the network of universities “Sustainable Campus”. With regard to external linkage, it integrates the Regional Climate Change Bureau, convened by the Ministry of the Environment and delivers environmental education content with a strong emphasis on Climate Change through Conicyt’s Exploration Program, hosted in institution itself, among other actions.

Original source in Spanish