Teaching and Practicing Climate Politics at College of the Atlantic: Student-inspired, Student-driven

Doreen Stabinsky

doi:10.5195/rt.2015.214

Abstract

College of the Atlantic students past and present play leadership roles in the international climate justice youth movement. Student interest in climate change politics at the global level, particularly within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, has inspired the development of a range of courses at COA in global environmental diplomacy. The courses provide a climate justice framework for understanding the geopolitics and political economy of the negotiations, serve to link students with key actors in the climate justice movement, and ultimately to contribute to their own development as climate justice leaders.

Highlights

College of the Atlantic (COA) is a small, alternative liberal arts college located on Mount Desert Island in Maine
The flexibility of our curriculum, a student-centered philosophy, and an emphasis on practical engagement provide the conditions for a unique learning laboratory for students seeking to practice climate politics
Active and activist students are attracted to COA and many will have already been involved in some form of politics: recent U.S students have come to us with experience from participating in model United Nations at their high school, Occupy, and the Sierra Student Coalition

Summary

Students Take on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

In 2005, a small group of COA students decided to attend the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 1st Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, held in Montréal, Canada. Parties meet annually at COPs to discuss, debate, and decide on means to implement the provisions of the convention This initial engagement of COA students, facilitated by the U.S youth organization SustainUS, sowed the seeds for a whole range of courses in global environmental diplomacy at COA. The students attending the Nairobi COP focused their group study on the main issues under negotiation for this particular COP, reading, among other texts, the tome of official preparatory documents and country position statements. It was in the lead-up to COP11 that the student organization Earth in Brackets, or [earth], was conceived (www.earthinbrackets.org). As the students say on their website, the idea of the logo is to reflect the fact that the future of the planet is contested

Climate Justice and the UNFCCC

Teaching Climate Activists

Earth in Brackets at the UNFCCC

Conclusion