COP29 side event: Enhancing and Enabling Climate Solutions with Higher Education
With COP 29 currently taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, Patricia Crifo, Professor at École Polytechnique, and Juan Diego Avila Hurtado, a student in École Polytechnique's Master's program in Economics for Smart Cities and Climate Policy participated online in the official COP29 side event "Enhancing and Enabling Climate Solutions with Higher Education" on November 18, 2024. Convened by the international alliance U7+, including l’X, the non-profit organization Second Nature, and the University Climate Change Coalition, the event brought together panelists from several universities and non-profit organizations around the world to discuss the important role of higher education institutions to accelerate climate action.
The potential of universities to accelerate climate action
Engaging students in climate action through teaching is crucial, as is universities working with local authorities to match their expertise with community needs and innovative projects by applying research to sustainable urban development.
In her speech, Patricia Crifo underlined the high potential of interdisciplinary research to foster breakthrough technologies for sustainability. Highlighting École Polytechnique's commitment to supporting green start-ups and to using new climate solutions on campus, making it a "living laboratory", she also spoke about the work of the interdisciplinary centre E4C (Energy4Climate)1 in this respect.
“Thanks to E4C’s experimental platforms, the campus itself is a model for sustainable practices, incorporating energy-efficient buildings, green technologies, and reduced carbon footprints, making it a true living lab of the energy transition”, explained Patricia Crifo.
As part of the implementation of École Polytechnique’s Climate Plan, E4C has installed demonstrators for smart grids, photovoltaic agriculture, and carbon capture technology, and has also launched medialib, a repository of open climate resources and data, in collaboration with the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace - Sciences du climat.
In addition to teaching and research, Patricia Crifo directs the Master of Science and Technology program “Economics for Smart Cities and Climate Policy”. She explains that by developing specialized climate-centric programs, universities can empower students to be at the forefront of innovation for climate action.
Juan Diego Avila Hurtado, a student in École Polytechnique's Master's program in Economics for Smart Cities and Climate Policy, also participated as a panelist in the event, providing a student's perspective on the topic. He explained how his studies at l'X have enabled him to tackle concrete climate challenges and gain experience through practical applications.
Citing the example of a life cycle assessment project linked to the redevelopment of a public place in collaboration with the City of Paris, Juan Diego Avila Hurtado noted that "by actively engaging with real data and cases, we as students are integrating sustainability into our own curriculum and career path while studying at l'X".
As part of its commitment to promoting sustainability, École Polytechnique offers specialized courses and has also introduced a multidisciplinary course "Engineering Sustainability, engineering for the long haul" to provide students with a systemic vision of the major challenges of sustainability and to equip them with the knowledge they need to tackle them.
Furthermore, Professor Crifo stressed the importance of partnerships with industrial and public actors to scale up academic research into actionable climate solutions. Giving concrete examples of the valuable outcomes of these collaborations, she mentioned “a decade-long partnership with the City of Paris” that École Polytechnique has engaged in “to evaluate the Paris Climate Action Plan”, and she explained that “each year, students from the master’s program in Economics for Smart Cities and Climate Policy carry out a scientific assessment of a specific aspect of the plan. These evaluations, conducted under the joint guidance of officials of the City of Paris and faculty of l’X, yield actionable insights and recommendations”.
Elaborating further, she reported that “a study by a master’s student quantified the health costs borne by Paris residents due to air pollution from motorized two-wheelers. The analysis revealed that emissions from these vehicles can be up to five times higher than those from private cars for certain pollutants, highlighting a critical area for policy intervention.”
Call for a culture of impact
Concluding the event, panelists expressed their sense of global responsibility to reduce emissions, expand sustainable education, and promote impactful research. Patricia Crifo stressed the need to better showcase how universities support effective climate action and called for promoting a "culture of impact in universities".
About the U7+ Alliance of World Universities
École Polytechnique is a founding member of the Alliance U7+, which was initiated under the patronage of President Emmanuel Macron at Sciences Po in 2019. The international coalition of university presidents is committed to structuring and advancing the role of universities as global actors across the multilateral agenda. Together, U7+ university presidents review their universities’ unique civic and social responsibilities and pledge to further address the world’s most pressing challenges at local, regional, and global levels.
1 E4C is one of the six interdisciplinary centers of Institut Polytechnique de Paris, founded by École Polytechnique, ENSTA, ENSAE, Télécom and TélécomSud.