Climate framework for higher education institutions

The University of Gothenburg has, together with a large number of others universities, signed a climate framework. The climate framwork is initated by Chalmers University of Technology and KTH and developed in collaboration with other Swedish universities and colleges. The ambition is that together we will contribute meaningfully to climate works, in line with societal national and international measures.

The challenges posed by the climate will require changes from all sectors of society. ​Universities and colleges have a central role to play in this work. We have an important mission to contribute to climate work through our teaching, research and collaboration, but we also need to reduce the climate influence from our own operations.

The focus of the climate framework is on the emissions from universities’ own activities (direct impact), but it also addresses the impact from our core operations – education, research and collaboration (indirect impact).

We who have signed up see the climate as an essential and high-priority future question, and agree, by the year 2030, to have carried out measures to adhere to the 1.5C warming limit according to the Paris agreement.

The climate framework consists of a short document connected to a longer set of guidelines, which describe a number of key areas for climate work for the higher education sector. With the help of this guidance document, each university will identify the areas where they can set goals and implement measures based on their own set of conditions.