A-level students explore relationship between SDGs and climate change

Summer school discussions emphasise the importance, for the world to prosper of addressing both climate change and the wider SDG agenda.

In an annual summer school held at UCL, A-level students from London schools are encouraged to consider how climate change targets can be achieved at the same time as making progress towards the other 16 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The three-day school is hosted by the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources (ISR) and the UCL Energy Institute, who organise it with national education charity IntoUniversity. 

 At the 2019 summer school, 15 students joined members of staff from the two UCL institutes (the 2020 summer school was an online event due to COVID-19 – see note below).  

““The students explored the synergies and trade-offs between the different Sustainable Development Goals.” 

“The students explored the synergies and trade-offs between the different Sustainable Development Goals,” says Dr Nick Hughes (UCL ISR) who organised the summer school.  

Three of the students wrote blogs, now published on the ISR’s website, asking how we can limit climate change to a 1.5°C increase, while achieving food security, meeting targets for industry, infrastructure and innovation in SDG9 and, more broadly, whether the world can address both climate change and sustainable development. 

At the 2020 summer school, held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students explored two topics: the ways that  behavioural economics can address social problems; and sustainable agriculture and climate change politics in Brazil.  

The students were given reading material and introductory videos on the topics, and invited to write articles on the topics. UCL academics provided written feedback on the articles, with a view to arranging an online seminar session to discuss the topics and their articles. 

One of the participants commented that one of the best things about the summer school was “Broadening my knowledge on what can be done to reduce the impacts of climate change and how to mitigate it". 

“It was inspiring to work with such a thoughtful and perceptive group of students, who showed great resilience, creativity and curiosity in addressing these important and complex issues,” Dr Hughes added.