200+ Uni.lu Students Participate in 1st Climate Fresk

On Thursday 26 September 2024, 240 students from three different programmes at the University of Luxembourg took part in the first “Climate Fresk” workshop in Esch-Belval.

This event was the first in a series of Sustainability Fresks “designed to visually illustrate the perception and understanding of urgent societal issues”, as presented by the University of Luxembourg. The Climate Fresk served as “a dynamic workshop designed to raise awareness and inspire action on climate change among students”.

In the context of this first workshop, Chronicle.lu spoke with Chief Sustainability Officer Laurent Bétry, who coordinated this event together with his team, as well as three professors from the respective participating programmes.

Chronicle.lu: What inspired the decision to hold these upcoming Sustainability Fresks, and the first one in particular, on climate?

Laurent Bétry: The Sustainability Fresks are part of the catalogue of events proposed by the university's Sustainability Team to raise awareness, inform and train staff and students. The university community members express their interest in taking part in one of the proposed workshops (climate, mobility, biodiversity, digital, 2 tons - a more in-depth workshop focusing on personal solutions to reduce one’s carbon footprint to 2 tCO2e by 2050 to meet the Paris Agreement requirements) and we contact our partner associations to organise them. This is a first here: the willingness of some bachelor's and master's programme directors to include these fresks in their curricula, thereby raising their students' awareness of climate issues in a rational and factual way. The Sustainability Team therefore took on the task of organising these fresks with the Luxembourg Environment and Sustainability Education (who provided us with thirteen facilitators), not just for a few but for 240 students over the course of a day!

Chronicle.lu: As Chief Sustainability Officer, why do you feel such collaborative / multidisciplinary efforts on this topic are important?

Laurent Bétry: It is clear to both of us in the Sustainability Team that integrating sustainability into the university's functioning and operations requires an even stronger commitment on the part of staff and students. So, we are particularly pleased that our three faculties have decided to send students at the same time to engage with each other in an open and creative environment and look at climate issues in a holistic and systemic way. It is really great that these students are coming together to compare their points of view, multiply their perspectives and broaden their understanding.

Chronicle.lu: What do you hope students - and perhaps the wider (university) community - will gain from these events?

Laurent Bétry: Students are the citizens of tomorrow who will be in charge of society. It is therefore vital to inform them of the facts so that they can form their own opinions and take action. They are also future professionals who will rapidly take over companies and organisational structures, the economy, society and governments. Informed and sensitised, they will be the vectors and hopefully the actors of an in-depth transformation so that the challenges of sustainability and the preservation of biodiversity are taken into account everywhere and at every level.

Chronicle.lu also asked the following questions to Prof. Nicolas Jonard, Full Professor in Economics and Management and Head of CREA, Prof. Marie Friedel, Full Professor of Nursing Sciences, and Prof. Catherine Jones, Assistant Professor in Digital Human Geographies.

Chronicle.lu: Why do you feel the topic of sustainability, and climate, in particular is relevant and/or important for students on your programme?

Prof. Nicolas Jonard: The modern world has entered an era which presents it both with the unprecedented economic opportunities offered by the digital transformation and the decisive challenges and responsibilities that climate change imposes to human societies. Understanding the globalised, multilateral economy, embracing the energy and ecological transitions, contributing to society by creating value in ways that are both responsible and sustainable have never been more important. I cannot think of a more relevant topic for tomorrow's managers, and in general for tomorrow's citizens.

Prof. Marie Friedel: Students in nursing sciences are strongly concerned by the topic of sustainability for at least two reasons. The first one is the fact that 59% of young people 16-25 years (Kankawale et al. 2023) are experiencing eco-anxiety, putting a risk on their mental health. Being a nurse means alleviating this eco-anxiety by helping young people understand the complex mechanisms of environmental health AND helping them identify where they can act. This might reduce their sense of helplessness and hopelessness. The second reason is that the healthcare sector has a major impact on global warming. Solutions exist and must be taught to future healthcare professionals (Seppänen et al., IRDES 2023).

Prof. Catherine Jones: How society, technology and their interconnectedness evolves to become more sustainable is at the very heart of the Master's in Geography and Spatial Planning. We study the causes and impacts on transitions of individual sub-systems such as housing, energy or transport. Thus, the Climate Fresk provides the opportunity to discover real facts from the renowned IPCC report. Encouraging students to develop greater understanding on which to build climate literacy from a global system perspective.

Chronicle.lu: What can they learn from working with students on other programmes and at different levels?

Prof. Nicolas Jonard: Our Earth, its climate, as well as the economy are complex systems with large numbers of interacting components and multiple feedback loops. Interdisciplinarity, but also the simple, elementary mixing of different perspectives and their dialog are important to understand and begin addressing complex issues. Mixing is also a way of increasing sense-making and hopefully acceptability through active listening and debate; if global warming in itself is by now an uncontroversial fact, the ways forward at the individual and collective levels, the level of emergency that the transition requires, the numerous related issues of fairness and justice are still the subjects of heated debates.

Prof. Marie Friedel: Interdisciplinary teaching programmes are known to better address complex problems. Mixing perspectives of students in management, geography and nursing sciences improves the understanding of complex challenges we are facing today and contributes to foster innovations, mutual understanding and collective intelligence. It counterbalances the risk of simple dichotomic responses which are largely updated now.

Prof. Catherine Jones: The joy of working in a multi-cultural multi-discipline environment is that we are able to explore different perspectives and experiences beyond our own personal biographies. The Climate Fresk is organised in such a way that it encourages an open dialogue for all involved so we can learn from each other.

Chronicle.lu: And what can students bring to the discussion, in terms of knowledge / skills linked to your particular programme?

Prof. Nicolas Jonard: Climate change and the economy are critically interdependent. It is key to understand how growth and the human quest for unbounded prosperity is damaging the Earth system, and reciprocally how the change Earth system has (and will increasingly have) huge social and economic impacts on human development.

Prof. Marie Friedel: Nursing students are trained during their curriculum to see a person as a whole, with its biological, physical, social and spiritual dimensions. This means they will see how a human being is interacting with their family and within their community. They also have courses on leadership and research helping them to take an active role based on the latest evidence.

Prof. Catherine Jones: They will be able to reflect on the social and spatial processes of climate change vulnerability.

The University of Luxembourg also shared some of the participating students’ insights. For example, Business Administration student Xinyan Chen said it was “crucial for every citizen on this planet to learn what we have done in the past to cause climate change, what we are facing now, and what we can do in the future to change things. Every single little step is a big step for all of humanity.”

Nursing student Austin Jacques shared a less optimistic outlook: “It’s kind of depressing, seeing what’s about to come if we don’t change anything.” He expressed concern that climate change does not receive the same attention as other global issues.

Another Business Administration student, Feyza-Nur Ilhan, admitted she did not think the Climate Fresk would be “useful”, not least coming from a field with less of a focus on environmental issues, but said she ultimately “learned a lot” from the experience. Fellow student Goncalo Ferreira noted: “We’re all learning together, which helps us feel united in this effort.”

The University of Luxembourg said it was through such initiatives that it is “cultivating a generation of informed, motivated students ready to confront one of the greatest challenges of our time”.