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“Climate change is moving faster than us, but we are not giving up…”
These words were spoken by the Secretary General of the United Nations in 2018, five years ago. However, recently, after the very serious floods and fires this summer, the tone of António Guterres' words has been raised, insisting that the situation we have experienced is consistent with the predictions and warnings of the scientific community and that the only The surprise has actually been the speed of change.
In 2009, a team of 28 international scientists, led by Johan Rockström (1), defined the concept of planetary limits, identifying a series of thresholds in 9 fundamental processes for the stability of the “Earth System”. Exceeding these thresholds would lead humanity into unpredictable and extremely dangerous territory. Katherine Richardson and other 18 collaborators have just published (2) in the journal “Sciences Advances” that humanity has already exceeded 6 of the 9 planetary limits, including those related to climate change, deforestation and the loss of biodiversity, which It means that we have left the security zone to enter physical, chemical and biological circumstances that threaten the well-being of billions of people and, with it, our current model of civilization.
The Kyoto Protocol, signed and ratified by 187 countries, and the Paris Agreement, signed by 96 countries individually and by the European Union, have sought to curb anthropogenic climate change by limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, the objective of limiting the increase in global average temperature to below 1,5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era by the end of the century does not seem to be able to be met, because it is most likely that this limit will be exceeded. threshold around the year 2027, according to the World Meteorological Organization. This fact questions the application of the internationally accepted precautionary principle and leads us to an unknown situation of undetermined environmental costs.
Although we must recognize the efforts made by many countries, and specifically the European Union, in terms of replacing energy sources and reducing greenhouse emissions, the obvious breakdown of the precautionary principle and the existence of unknown environmental costs put in question the possibilities of economic development of many countries. In this sense, developed countries are obliged not only to scrupulously comply with the international environmental standards to which they have committed themselves, but they have to cooperate proactively so that the continuous processes of productive relocation to lower-income countries do not go accompanied by considerable increases in environmental costs for the latter, a fact that has been occurring until now and that has allowed, for a long time, the climate impact to be made invisible and removed from the citizen consciousness of the most prosperous societies.
The university, as an institution, plays an important role in this regard and must work from at least three points of view. On the one hand and first of all, it is the guarantor of the accuracy of the data and measurements, as well as responsible for proposing realistic predictions that allow an objective visualization of the climate reality. Secondly, it must actively participate in solving the problem and in achieving global challenges, both from the point of view of the generation of knowledge and the technology necessary to fight against global warming, and from the advancement of social and economic knowledge that allows for more sustainable lifestyles. Third and finally, the university must simultaneously train citizens who are knowledgeable about our environmental reality and the current climate emergency and professionals capable of carrying out a real decoupling between economic growth and the generation of greenhouse gases.
The accumulation of evidence that shows the seriousness of the current situation demands that the institutions that generate knowledge and are responsible for the training of new generations of professionals act in a decisive and synchronized manner. Society invests in the University the necessary resources and the talent of its young people so that it guarantees the future of future generations. This is why we, as a university committed to the future, declare that:
1.- The Rey Juan Carlos University is aware and recognizes that the climate emergency constitutes one of the most transcendental challenges that humanity faces today.
2.- The Rey Juan Carlos University, based on the information generated by the international scientific community as a neutral and truthful instrument to understand the current and future climatic and environmental reality, acquires the commitment to become a speaker so that society knows at all times the scientific evidence found in this regard.
3.- The Rey Juan Carlos University takes on the challenge of helping to generate new knowledge, to provide technological, economic and social solutions that allow us to overcome this climate emergency, building a more just civilization and ensuring that today's well-being does not compromise security and the future of our planet.
4.- The Rey Juan Carlos University is committed to leading the transformation of society, starting by transmitting, to all its students, knowledge about the climate emergency and raising awareness among our university community in this regard.
5.- The Rey Juan Carlos University assumes the responsibility of carrying out sustainable university management and more efficient maintenance of its processes, infrastructure and equipment, directing its activities to optimize the use of its resources and energy savings, seeking to reduce its energy footprint and, in the medium term, carbon neutrality.
6.- The Rey Juan Carlos University is at the service of the Administration, at its different levels, to help political decision-making always keep in mind the environmental impact that they generate.
The Rey Juan Carlos University, in collaboration with all the European universities of the EULIST Consortium, wants to be a tool to resolve this emergency. To this end, all its faculties and schools work actively in the study and improvement of the living conditions of the Society, but it is important to highlight at this time the recent creation of two pioneering research institutes in this regard, which join the the groups and research centers that the university already had:
- Firstly, the Global Change Research Institute, which was created with the commitment to generate truthful information and objective analyzes always based on the scientific method, as well as proposals to facilitate the mitigation of global warming and adaptation to new environmental conditions. generated on the planet. Likewise, it will help forge quality public policies and will serve as a meeting platform between the public and private sectors.
- On the other hand, the creation of the Research Institute in Technologies for Sustainability is also announced as a reference in everything related to energy efficiency, the improvement of waste management, the use of recyclable and multifunctional materials and the promotion of generation of clean, affordable and non-polluting energy. This aims to help achieve decarbonization objectives and is aimed, among others, at sectors related to sustainable mobility and smart building.
(1) Rockström, Johan, et al. “Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity.” Ecology and Society, vol. 14, no. 2, 2009.
(2) Richardson, K., Steffen, W., Lucht, W., Bendtsen, J., Cornell, SE, Donges, JF, ... & Rockström, J. (2023). Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries. Science Advances, 9(37), DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh2458.
Institutional declaration approved by the Governing Council of the
King Juan Carlos University of October 27, 2023