Global Youth Summit on Net-zero Future (“Climate x” Summit) held

The Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC) (Note 1) hosted the Global Youth Summit on Net-zero Future (Climate x Summit) from October 25 to November 5. This event is an expansion of the GAUC Graduate Student Forum, which has been held annually from 2019 and was timed to coincide with COP26, the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, with the aim of raising awareness of climate issues among young people, including graduate students. With the cooperation of member universities, more than 30 seminars and other events were held on various themes such as climate, biodiversity, food and health, energy, transportation, etc. It is reported that 1.25 million people worldwide were involved in these events in one way or another, including through social networking sites.
In addition to the seminars and other events, three student participation projects were held at this event: a paper competition, a virtual hackathon, and a message video, in which our university students participated (see <Events>.) The team in which students from UTokyo participated won the competition for the hackathon.
On November 5, the final day of the conference, an award ceremony for the above-mentioned paper competition and hackathon was held in the China Pavilion at the COP26 venue. A video message to the youth from the presidents of GAUC member universities, including President Fujii, was shown (see <Message to Youth>), and the report of the workshop on campus decarbonization by the University of Tokyo​ was released. On the same day, the GAUC Board Meeting was also held to which President Fujii attended.
The 2022 Graduate Student Forum will be timed to coincide with COP27 in Egypt.

<Events>
10/25　 Opening Ceremony (GAUC Secretariat)
10/26　 Climate x Nature & Biodiversity (University of Oxford)
10/26　 ActNowFilm | COP26 Youth Voices (University of Cambridge & University of Bath Institute for Policy Research)
10/26　 Preparing for Global Net Zero (Indian Institute of Science)
10/26　 15 Years on from the Stern Review: Economics of Climate Change, Innovation, Growth (London School of Economics and Political Science LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment)
10/27　 Climate x Energy (Columbia University)
10/27　 Climate Change x Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning (Stellenbosch University)
10/28　 Youth Leadership in Achieving a Net Zero Future (WEF Global Shapers Community)
10/28　 Climate x – Health & Food (Yale University)
10/28　 Early Career Researcher Workshop (Elsevier)
10/29　 Just transition (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)
10/29　 Climate x Transportation (Tsinghua University)
10/29　 Climate x SDGs (Tsinghua University)
11/5　 Award Ceremony (GAUC Secretariat)
11/5　 Board Meeting (Board Members’ Meeting)

<Student Participation Projects>

Program	Theme/Content
Academic Track Paper Competition	Integrate themes such as food and health, transportation, energy, nature and biodiversity, and SDGs with climate issues, and examine social system transformation through their interaction.
Action Track Hackathon	Four-day virtual hackathon. Participants will be grouped together with students from different universities, and after online workshops and discussions to create products and solutions to address climate change, they will create a video of their proposals.
Voice Track Act Now Film, A COP26 Youth Voices Project	A short film compiled of youth voices from around the world of age 16-30 about their thoughts on climate change and their messages to policy makers. Program in partnership with COP26 Universities Network and the video was shown at COP26.

<Message to Youth>

Note 1 Members of GAUC
Tsinghua University (Chair), London School of Economics and Political Science (Co-Chair), Australian National University, University of California, Berkeley, the University of Cambridge, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Imperial College London, Indian Institute of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Science Po, Stellenbosch University, the University of Tokyo, the University of Oxford, Columbia University and Yale University