On Saturday 6 November, representatives from GÉANT, RedCLARA, and ASREN were joined by researchers from Europe, Latin America, and Africa to present at the EUROCLIMA+ pavilion, highlighting to the COP26 audience the role of Research and Education Networks in helping with Climate Action.
Guest researchers Marguerite Nyhan (Ireland), Lincoln Alves (Brazil) and Charlene Gaba (Niger) then explained the vital nature of RENs to Climate Action.
A panel session followed, focusing on the values we need to rely upon to address Climate Action; and ways in which together we can better show the value of RENs – including special mentions for In The Field stories and the GÉANT IMPACT website.
As Erik Huizer stated in his introduction, “We urgently need the creativity, brainpower & research skills of every researcher and student in the world to tackle the problem of climate change. They need to be able to share their data and results, for others to collaborate or enhance. Cooperation needs to be easy, safe and secure. Research and Education networks like GÉANT are there to facilitate that. Together we deliver an information ecosystem of infrastructures and services used for communication, collaboration, exchange of data, and access to repositories, services and facilities.”
The full recording of the session is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9J-WnsC35g
About the researchers:
- Dr Marguerite Nyhan is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Engineering & Future Sustainability at University College Cork (an HEAnet client) and a Funded Investigator in MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Climate, Energy and Marine.
- Lincoln Alves is a researcher from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), a research unit of the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology.
- Charlene Gaba is Senior Researcher at AGRHYMET, Niger.
About EUROCLIMA+
EUROCLIMA+ is a flagship programme of the European Union on climate change and will have a strong participation during COP26 through its Pavilion located within the blue zone. It is here that representatives of organisations, agencies and countries will meet for exchanges, experience sharing and multilateral meetings.
