The South East Africa Climate Consortium (SEACC) will be formally launched today (Tuesday 9 March 2010) in the Eden Grove Red Lecture Theatre, Rhodes University, through a lecture by Sir David King, the Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at the University of Oxford.
Rhodes’s participation in SAECC is “an opportunity to formalise collaborations with neighbouring universities and environmentally orientated organisations operating in the Eastern Cape, and to combine our strengths in funding proposals to support research and development projects related to climate change and environmentally sustainable practices”, says Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dr Peter Clayton
The Consortium will promote capacity building, research, knowledge dissemination and understanding to develop practical policies and steps towards adaptation and mitigation. It will also aim to use its strength in science, technology, communication and education to reach the people of South Africa in their efforts to achieve sustainable management of the climate.
Rhodes supports a wide range of initiatives which put the spotlight on environmental concerns. “The sustainable use of natural resources cuts across all faculties and many disciplines, and is ingrained within our teaching and learning, research, and community engagement programmes.
“Some of our high profile fields of intellectual engagements include Environmental Education, Environmental Science, EBRU (the Institute for Environmental Biotechnology), the Rhodes Investec Business School whose flagship programme is the MBA in Environmental Management, among many others,” says Dr Clayton.
Institutes affiliated to Rhodes in Grahamstown include SAIAB (The South African Institute of Aquatic Biodiversity) and SAEON (The Southern African Environmental Observation Network), both fundamentally concerned with environmental issues related to climate change.
Says Dr Clayton, “Alongside the scholarly programmes, the University community has committed itself to a policy of environmental best practice in the daily running of our campus. Our latest initiative is the establishment of a Green Fund, for the purpose of converting our infrastructure to take better advantage of sustainable approaches to the consumption of natural resources and energy, and to the management of waste products.”
The Consortium’s founding partners include Rhodes University, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, University of Fort Hare, the Sustainable Seas Trust and the Wilderness Foundation.