UK Student Participating in UN Climate Change Conference
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 11, 2014) — Caroline Engle, University of Kentucky junior majoring in both agricultural economics and natural resources and environmental science, is assembling with others in Lima, Peru, this week to represent the United States at the 20th annual Conference of the Parties (COP20) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Joining government officials, UN representatives and civil society organizations from across the world, Engle traveled to the conference as part of the Sierra Student Coalition (SSC). SSC is the youth-led chapter of the Sierra Club, the nation's oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization.
Meetings from COP20, culminating Dec. 12, aim to provide a foundation for a global climate change agreement at COP21 in Paris next year, and Engle hopes for the same. She helped analyze the U.S. and China policy agreement, highlighting aspects that needed to be more ambitious "to truly address mitigation in a way that takes common but differentiated responsibility into account," Engle said.
"I think it's important for youth to be involved in this conversation because the policies and decisions that are created from COP20 and COP21 truly shape our future," she said.
Engle and her delegation joined with the China Youth Climate Action Network (CYCAN) to praise their countries for action already taken, and to encourage further climate action. Both SSC and CYCAN are calling for a 100 percent clean energy-powered world by 2030, according to a news release.
A member of the Student Sustainability Council and recruitment chair for UK Greenthumb Environmental Club, Engle plans to bring her experiences at COP20 back to students at UK. With a sense of urgency, she says she will encourage more students to get involved in sustainability projects.
"As someone who is extremely interested and excited about international climate change policy, I felt like there needed to be someone to take the complicated alphabet soup the UNFCCC uses and explain it to youth in a way that is understandable to bring action," Engle said.
Engle would also like to see the Student Sustainability Council fund more renewable energy projects, "which have lasting impacts on the university." In November, the UK Sustainability Challenge Grant awards were announced, funding seven sustainability projects at UK with support from the Student Sustainability Council, the Office of the Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration, and the Office of the Vice President for Research.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Harder, whitney.harder@uky.edu, 859-323-2396