From Policy to Practical: UConn Students, Alumni Use Personal Strengths to Address Climate Change

Marshaling the University’s resources to tackle the pressing issue of climate change through research, policy advocacy, and more

______________

Sena Wazer ’22 (CLAS) was only 11 years old when the Paris Climate Accord was signed, but it wasn’t until three years later in 2018 when she started to pay attention.

That was the year the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in a special report that to prevent the most devastating impacts of climate change, the world must work quickly to adhere to the 1.5-degree Celsius temperature rise agreed to in the Paris Accord and must make significant changes to do so before 2030 or face severe consequences.

“For me, at 14, that was really shocking,” Wazer says. “I had known about climate change, but I didn’t realize how pressing it was and that really drove home the importance of acting – and acting swiftly.”

Chase Mack ’23 (CLAS) says his passion for climate action “has been organically growing since high school” when he helped keep chickens in his backyard and could see the Connecticut River from his house on a clear winter day.

“I found my passion originating from my fondness for international relations and international politics, and I realized that the world was having to deal with the ramifications of the fossil fuel industry for the past 100 years,” he adds. “The international world is grappling with this huge issue right now and the division within it is absurd.”

Wazer and Mack were among 14 UConn students who attended the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known more commonly as COP26, in November. Together, they worked to make headway in their quest to combat climate change and make a difference.

The UConn students and faculty members who traveled to the COP26 summit in Glasgow.
The UConn students and faculty members who traveled to the COP26 summit in Glasgow (courtesy of Mark Urban).

And as they were discussing policy and goals with world leaders in Glasgow, Scotland, UConn students and alumni back in Connecticut were pressing on with continuing efforts to seek solutions in their own fields and with their own strengths – many of them keeping climate action at the forefront of their day-to-day work.

“I worry about the Earth,” Jiale Xing, a Ph.D. student at UConn’s Center for Clean Energy Engineering (C2E2), says. “It’s important for us to protect our climate.”

With skills in electrochemistry, Xing is studying the use of catalysts for hydrogen evolution as a means of harnessing it to power fuel cells. She uses UConn’s patented Reactive Spray Deposition Technology, among other pieces of equipment at C2E2, to maneuver through her work and says she has her “dream job” because “this could change our climate to make our Earth better.

Read more at UConn Today

Connect With Us