The People & Planet University League Table has just been released for 2018/19! This year’s table is particularly interesting as we are now more aware than ever that we stand at the crossroads of a climate catastrophe if we don’t take action, and the spotlight is on universities. What are universities doing to tackle the climate crisis? Which universities are still complicit in the destruction of the planet and the world’s most vulnerable communities? All is revealed in the People & Planet University League!

NUS Vice-President (Society & Citizenship) Zamzam Ibrahim shares some of the discussion from a panel event she recently chaired called ‘C02lonialism: climate change is a racist issue'. Organised by SOAS Students' Union, speaking on the panel was the formidable SImmone Ahiaku from People & Planet and the ever-inspiring Asad Rehman from War on Want.

Here are just a few of the things we discussed:

Found that your university management are sometimes uncooperative or even belligerent? It’s likely that staff are just as tired of them as you are. The forces that students are fighting against are the same ones that led to pay cuts for staff and increased workloads and zero-hour contracts. We have far more in common with our lecturers than we might initially think.

 Discussions of climate change go hand in hand with issues of justice and distributive fairness, this is because the burdens of climate change disproportionately affect the poorest areas of the world where its inhabitant are the least equipped to deal with its impact, due to geographic vulnerability and poverty. Therefore, it seems logical that the international response to climate change, in the form of international agreements; aim to avert the climate crisis whilst being sensitive to questions of justice and fairness.