Not surprising – but disappointing!

With a new president in the White House, the world has seen a surge of executive orders in recent months. Some executive orders have wilder consequences than others. A few hours after taking office on 21 January, the President withdrew the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement. In doing so, the US government abdicated its responsibility to keep global temperature increases below two degrees and to combat climate change.

In a way, I wasn’t surprised. In fact, the President also withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement in 2017, and during the 2024 election campaign, Donald Trump warned several times that this would happen again with him as the new president. Nonetheless, I was quite disappointed when the President signed the executive order regarding the Paris Agreement three months ago.

Firstly, scientific studies consistently show a link between global temperature increases and human emissions of greenhouse gases. This is stated, among other things, in the UN Climate Panel’s reports, to which Professor Sebastian H. Mernild from the SDU Climate Cluster has contributed. When the US government withdraws from the Paris Agreement, it means that researchers and science are being neglected. Unfortunately, the United States have entered an age of ‘fake news’ rather than thorough scientific documentation. As an employee at a university with the noble purpose of creating knowledge for society, I find the President’s approach very disappointing.

Secondly, I find it disappointing that the government of the world’s largest economy is not actively taking part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing global temperature increases. The signal to other governments in the world is completely off. Hopefully, the rest of the world’s countries will live up to their commitments in the Paris Agreement. And hopefully the United States will rejoin the Paris Agreement when a new president enters the White House. Yes, I admit that this is a faint hope!

SDU’s climate efforts

As you know, hope is not a strategy. Therefore, as a university, we must continue to contribute important knowledge about climate change, and we must take on the responsibility in order to reduce SDU’s own greenhouse gas emissions. In this way, as a university, we ourselves take the medicine prescribed by research.

At the Board meeting on 10 April, the Rectorate presented SDU’s Climate Accounts 2024. To put it simply, the University’s work on the reductions is going in the right direction. But it is also fair to say that it will require a very large effort from all of us at SDU in the coming years if we are to succeed in achieving the University’s reduction target in 2030.

A particularly large effort must be directed at SDU’s emissions from purchases of goods and services. According to the 2024 Climate Accounts, this is the category in which the University emits the most greenhouse gases. In the coming years, we must become much better at recycling and extending the lifespan of equipment and materials, so that we avoid buying new ones when an existing product has not yet reached the end of its service life. This is why we have set up a recycling exchange at SDU.

We must also become much better at climate-friendly travel behaviour. Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, SDU’s emissions from air travel have been below our 2030 target. But in recent years, the emissions from air travel have increased at SDU, and in 2024 we were above the 2030 target. As a university, we need international activity and collaboration, but we should carefully consider our travel behaviour. In fact, SDU has established principles for climate considerations when travelling, and information is also available on emissions of greenhouse gases from air travel for each faculty, department and area. These initiatives are a first step towards informing about and encouraging climate-friendly travel behaviour at the University.

Further initiatives will be necessary in the years ahead so that SDU can move in the right climate direction towards 2030.

Let us not follow the disappointing climate course that the US President has set out on with the US exit from the Paris Agreement.