as
The UWI, SUNY meet with international development partners in New
York to advance #ClimateAction

Regional
Headquarters, Jamaica. Monday, 23 September 2019. “The
world economy needs a new development paradigm for the 21st
century,” says Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies
(UWI), Professor Sir Hilary Beckles. He made the statement on Friday,
20 September 2019, speaking at Global
Partnerships for Climate Action—a
Symposium arranged by The SUNY-UWI Center for Leadership and
Sustainable Development (CLSD).

Addressing
the gathering, Vice-Chancellor Beckles explained, “We are at the
tail end of the 19th
century development paradigm that was based on economic growth by all
means necessary, including colonial exploitation, white supremacy,
destruction of rainforests, financial institutions catering for
elites, and disrespect for the environment and the poor. We all want
inclusive development that is sustainable. But human and civil rights
cannot be again ignored and set aside. Universities should never
again support ‘development by any means necessary.”

The
Symposium
brought academics from The UWI, the State University of New York
(SUNY), the joint SUNY-UWI Center, the Global University Consortium
on SDG-13, a wide cross section of development partners—including
the World Bank, the IDB, UNDP, UNECLAC, Association of Caribbean
States (ACS) and many others—to
the SUNY Global Center in New York on
the
eve of the UN Global Climate Summit. All speakers reiterated the need
for collaboration in advancing climate action.

Speaking
on behalf of SUNY, Provost, Dr. Tod Laursen said, “We really view
substantive engagement with the sustainability agenda as a core
mission for us. It’s also very clear that issues like climate
change interventions require not only reacting effectively…but also
coming before and thinking together proactively about interventions
that we can design and mechanisms that we can try to have in place
that can anticipate what seems to be this sort of endlessly
increasing frequency and severity of events such as we’ve just seen

"It’s going to require international collaboration.”

Describing
one of the UNDP’s major initiatives to support the region, in his
remarks, Dr. López-Calva Assistant Secretary General and Regional
Director for Latin America and the Caribbean underscored, “it is
very important that we partner with academia.” He noted that
earlier that morning the UNDP signed a Memorandum of Understanding
with The UWI, for a blue economy initiative, which is “an
opportunity to bring productivity, inclusion and resilience to the
countries which will be manifested in better lives for everyone in
the Caribbean.”

During
the four-hour high level consultation, development partners and
academia discussed mechanisms to strengthen the interface between
knowledge, policy and practice; the practical application of research
into climate innovations; research communication and advocacy in
generating much-needed development impact at the grassroots level,
and how to tackle climate change challenges.

In
her wrap-up at the end of the Symposium, Dr. Stacy Richards-Kennedy,
Director, Office of Development at The UWI pointed out, “To address
climate change, it will, no doubt, require multilateral approaches…It
will require multi-stakeholder approaches. It will entail
multiplying and cascading the knowledge and skills that will enable
the efficient channelling of those resources and the effective
execution of targeted inter-sectoral projects…It is our combined
knowledge powerhouses and our joint action that will guide us to the
development solutions our world so desperately needs. We must be
very deliberate about this…we cannot expect this to happen
organically or accept that mere lip service paid to education,
research and innovation; our present day expenses are in fact,
critical investments in a more sustainable future.” She concluded,
“Today’s Symposium has sought to go a step further, for it is not
what we know that is important or that will make a difference in the
world; it is what we do, given what we know!”

Moving
forward, in its capacity as global leader in the mobilisation of
research and advocacy for the achievement of a climate-smart world,
appointed by the International Association of Universities (IAU), The
UWI will continue to harness its global partnerships to strengthen
the transfer of knowledge and have a greater influence on policy,
industry practice and advocacy.

IMAGES:

1. Vice-Chancellor
   of The University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Sir Hilary
   Beckles, speaking at Global
   Partnerships for Climate Action on
   Friday, 20 September 2019 in New York.
   
2. L-R:
   Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies (UWI),
   Professor Sir Hilary Beckles; Permanent
   Observer of CARICOM to the United Nations, Ambassador Angela
   Missouri Sherman-Peter; Dr. Luis Felipe López-Calva, Assistant
   Secretary General and Regional Director for Latin America and the
   Caribbean and SUNY, Provost, Dr. Tod Laursen who all delivered
   remarks during the opening of
   Global Partnerships for Climate Action
   in New York on Friday,
   20 September 2019.
   
3. L-R:
   Moderator and speakers from the first panel, Partnerships
   for Development Impact: The Climate Imperative
   at Global
   Partnerships for Climate Action
   in New York on Friday,
   20 September 2019.
   
4. L-R:
   Moderator and speakers from the second panel, From
   Evidence to Action: Moving Knowledge to Policy & Practice
   at Global
   Partnerships for Climate Action
   in New York on Friday,
   20 September 2019.
   
5. Dr.
   Stacy Richards-Kennedy, Director, Office of Development at The UWI
   speaking at
   Global
   Partnerships for Climate Action
   in New York on Friday,
   20 September 2019.
   

More
About the Symposium

The
Symposium included two panels. The first, Partnerships
for Development Impact: The Climate Imperative,
moderated by Ms. Golda Lee Bruce, Development Storyteller &
Communications Coordinator at IDB, included Dr. Stephen Hammer,
Adviser, Global Partnerships and Strategy, Climate Change Group from
the World Bank; Prof. John Agard, Professor of Tropical Island
Ecology from The UWI St. Augustine Campus; Ambassador Dr. June
Soomer, Secretary General, Association of Caribbean States; Mr. Ryan
McPherson, Chief Sustainability Officer, University at Buffalo, SUNY
and Ms. Joanna Eagan, Director of North America Business Development
and Sales at Zero Mass Water.

The
second panel entitled, From
Evidence to Action: Moving Knowledge to Policy & Practice,
was Moderated by Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal, Pro Vice-Chancellor
Global Affairs, The UWI. It included Prof. Kerim Nisancioglu,
Professor of Climate Dynamics, University of Bergen; Ms. Diane
Quarless, Chief, ECLAC Sub-regional Headquarters for the Caribbean;
Prof. Minghua Zhang, Interim Provost & SUNY Distinguished
Professor in Atmospheric Science, Stony Brook University; Prof.
Michael Taylor, Professor of Climate Science, The UWI Mona Campus and
Ms. Racquel Moses, CEO, Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator.

Related
news

SUNY-UWI
Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development embraces Global
Partnerships for Climate

About
The UWI

For
over 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has
provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider
world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in
Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally
respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and five
campuses: Mona
in Jamaica, St.
Augustine
in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave
Hill in
Barbados, Five Islands
in Antigua and Barbuda and an Open Campus. As part of its robust
globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with
universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa
including the State
University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and
Sustainable Development;
the Canada-Caribbean Studies Institute with Brock University; the
Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de
los Andes (UNIANDES); the UWI-China Institute of Information
Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African
and Diaspora Studies and the
Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of
Johannesburg (UJ).
The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and
postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering,
Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science &
Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. 

As
the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost
objective is driving the growth and development of the regional
economy. The
world’s most reputable ranking agency, Times
Higher Education,
has ranked The UWI among the top 600 universities in the world for
2019, and the 40 best universities in Latin America and the Caribbean
for 2018 and 2019.The
UWI has been the only Caribbean-based university to make the
prestigious lists. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

high
resolution images available for download here