Climate change, sea level rise, biodiversity loss, and food and energy sustainability are all important issues that need to be urgently dealt with as our global population continues to grow and natural resources dwindle.
Earlier this month, Chaminade University announced a new partnership with the United Nations to launch a new Pacific region training and research center that will provide leadership development opportunities to tackle these urgent global issues. The university’s Centre International de Formation des Autorités et Leaders (CIFAL) Honolulu is the first and only one of 22 international United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) centers to represent the Pacific area.
We couldn’t be more excited about this new, timely collaboration. Just two weeks ago, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its latest findings on the impacts and consequences of climate change. As the world currently tries to deal with its reliance on fossil fuels — a situation only worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — the U.N. climate panel warns that oil use will need to be significantly reduced in order to reduce global warming. While it is still theoretically possible to prevent these worst-case scenarios, only a major commitment to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by the nations that produce the most will help stave off a climate crisis.
While climate change is a global concern, the impacts of global warming and rising sea levels significantly affect Hawaii and Pacific Island nations and territories.
Low-lying atoll nations are gradually becoming inundated and uninhabitable, with salt water intrusion also impacting fresh water supplies, sanitation and food production in some places. Climate change, coastal runoff pollution from the built environment, and nutrient pollution are also damaging our coral reef ecosystems and harming the marine life that inhabit them.
Our new training center will work to address some of the sustainable development challenges impacting Hawaii and Pacific Island nations. The center will work with U.N. experts and local stakeholders to develop targeted education and training around key U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, including climate action, advocating for the oceans, food and energy sustainability, reducing poverty, ensuring clean water, and tending to human health and well-being.
Topics such as climate change and the environment are a natural fit with our science curriculum, but many of the other U.N. goals can be implemented with our other majors and classes like business and humanities. For example, our business program can integrate issues about gender equality and human rights. And it’s about more than discussing lofty ideals. Our focus is to partner with the private sector and civil society to develop and implement real solutions, with each goal having targets and indicators based on U.N. data.
Tapping into the expertise and resources of the United Nations, CIFAL Honolulu aims to complement and catalyze the work of other organizations in Hawaii by providing targeted education that helps local communities address sustainable development challenges that matter most to them. As part of the U.N. collaboration, our school is poised to host a CIFAL Global Network annual meeting and international conference later this fall. We hope the event can bring in educators, changemakers and learners from across the globe — and statewide.
While we annually celebrate Earth Day and Earth Week, our mission in protecting and preserving our planet should be each and every day. As the U.N. describes it: People, Planet, Prosperity.
There is a tremendous amount of work to be done and everybody has a role. And while we should inspire our children to look toward solutions, we cannot afford to just leave these problems for the next generations to solve. This U.N. regional training center is another step forward in engaging audiences of all ages to become thought leaders, and to empower them in driving positive change.
Dr. Gail Grabowsky is the dean of Chaminade University’s School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the Executive Director of the U.N.’s CIFAL Honolulu Center.
