IMU Sustainability Student Club, in collaboration with the Sustainability Office, organized a seminar series to build climate change literacy. The training module prepared by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Sustainability at the United Nations University was narrated by Res.Asst. Ayça ÇELİKBİLEK from the Sustainability Office. Within the scope of IMU Sustainability Week’24 activities, the seminars were held in 3 sessions on Tuesday, December 24, Wednesday, December 25 and Friday, December 27, and were held both face-to-face at the Sustainability Office and online. At the end of the training, 12 of the participants who took the exam at the end of the training and scored 75 points and above were entitled to receive the training certificate issued by United Nations University.
The seminar series, which was implemented to support climate change literacy, was also designed as an environmental training that equips participants with the skills and knowledge they need to make informed decisions, take action and combat the climate crisis. Throughout the seminar series, participants were provided with a scientific foundation on climate change and net zero concepts.
In the first seminar held on Tuesday, December 24, ÇELİKBİLEK stated that the 6th report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in 2023 clearly revealed that the greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere as a result of human activities cause global warming, and drew attention to the fact that changes in land use, fossil fuel consumption, global consumption patterns and fast consumption-oriented lifestyle rapidly increase greenhouse gas emissions. However, she stated that research conducted in the last few decades has revealed that global warming and its effects caused by these greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere cannot be solved only by reducing emissions. She underlined that these efforts should be supported by the capture of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.In addition to natural carbon sinks such as forests and oceans, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies can also be utilized for this purpose. At this point, after noting that many countries, even companies at lower scales, have initiated carbon offset programs, she stated that these strategies are carried out in two categories: “net zero” and “carbon neutral”. ÇELİKBİLEK stated that these two concepts are often used in the same sense; however, both concepts characterize different things in the literature. She explained that while the concept of carbon neutrality includes activities that can be carried out away from the site, such as afforestation and carbon trading, in order to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in an amount equivalent to the carbon emissions resulting from the effects of production or activity, the concept of net zero is a much stricter concept. She stated that for a net zero target, companies or individuals should reduce emissions from their activities as close to zero as possible.Following the basic conceptual information, important international agreements such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) signed in 1992 with the aim of keeping the greenhouse gas level in the atmosphere at a certain level, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (COP) and the IPCC, the body of the United Nations responsible for producing scientific data on climate change, and the Kyoto protocol and the Paris Climate Agreement were mentioned. ÇELİKBİLEK explained that although both agreements have an important role in taking concrete steps on climate change, the Kyoto Protocol adopts a top-down strategy while the Paris Climate Agreement adopts a bottom-up strategy. She underlined that the Kyoto Protocol has been criticized as inadequate due to its application only to developed countries.
On Wednesday, December 25, the second seminar addressed the compounding impacts of climate change on the environment and daily life and discussed the roles of different actors in creating and implementing net zero solutions. ÇELİKBİLEK stated that climate change may have many environmental impacts such as loss of biodiversity; extreme disaster events such as heat waves, storms, floods and droughts, sea level rise and food shortages, and that according to IPCC data, approximately 3.5 million people live in environments that are highly vulnerable to climate change. However, she emphasized that although environmental impacts are often emphasized, climate change has socio-economic impacts and these impacts lead to significant inequalities. In particular, she stated that adverse conditions in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy and tourism sectors will cause economic damage, which will affect the income status of families and lead to extreme poverty, and this poverty will reduce people’s access to health. She also pointed out that rising temperatures will increase the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, and that reduced access to health will exacerbate this situation.Therefore, families experiencing economic hardship may be forced to migrate and all these problems will negatively affect mental health.
On Friday, December 27, the third seminar focused on larger-scale solutions such as lifestyle choices, practical tips and the pros and cons of switching to renewable energy that can be adopted to reduce carbon footprint. ÇELİKBİLEK started the seminar by explaining that the sectors with the highest level of carbon emissions are energy production, industry and agriculture/forestry/fishing, but that this ranking varies according to the level of development of countries and their main sectors. She then explained the concept of carbon footprint, which corresponds to “the amount of carbon dioxide produced directly or indirectly as a result of an activity or throughout the life cycle of a product”. ÇELİKBİLEK shared methods on how people can measure their carbon footprint and shared information on how to reduce carbon footprint. ÇELİKBİLEK stated that single-use plastic bottled water has 285 times more carbon footprint than drinking water from the tap, and that habits that will reduce the amount of single-use plastic such as carrying water canteens and cloth bags; sustainable transportation preferences such as using public transportation and bicycles instead of single passenger cars; and switching to renewable energy sources such as water, wind, solar and geothermal energy will play an important role in reducing people’s carbon footprint.
At the end of each seminar, 12 of the participants who took the online exam related to the relevant seminar scored 75 points and above and were awarded the training certificate issued by the United Nations University.
