USC students tackle climate change negotiations at 2024 APRU global climate change simulation

In August, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) hosted a Student Global Climate Change Simulation providing an opportunity for scholars to tackle pressing climate change challenges of our time. The four-week mock United Nations Climate Change Negotiation conference brought together 180 students from 20 universities across the world. Participants were assigned to delegations including the United States, the European Union, India, and China to address topics such as clean energy, migration, deforestation and carbon emissions.

This year, students from Keck School of Medicine, USC Dornsife College of Letters and Sciences, USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy, and USC Viterbi School of Engineering represented the University of Southern California, and enrolled to learn about the intricacies of global climate change negotiations.

“The opportunity to represent a delegation in a global forum aimed at carbon emissions reduction really helped students understand how complex these decisions can be,” says Mellissa Withers, PhD, MHS, professor of clinical population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and APRU director of the global health program. “The students deliberated on how to represent their assigned country’s own interests while also pledging ambitious reductions in emissions needed to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. I enjoyed seeing them in their various diplomatic roles argue for why the global community needs to take urgent action on climate change.”

Over the course of the simulation, students engaged with leaders from international institutions including the Officer in Charge of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global Environment Facility Climate Change Mitigation team, Sudhir Sharma, PhD. “I really enjoyed the discussion and was very happy to see the high level of preparedness from the students and the fantastic questions they asked,” he shares.

Below are a few USC students who participated in the simulation. Read about their experiences.

Amarilis Bolaños
Keck School of Medicine of USC
Delegation: European Union

Amarilis Bolaños is a first-generation graduate student in the Master of Public Health degree program. “I have always been interested in climate change and how it relates to human health, and this experience solidified and assured me that I want to continue learning more and immerse in the field of environmental health, research, and epidemiology,” she says. Her assigned topic during the simulation was forests. Here she learned that “the actions required to mitigate climate change are urgent, but also need to be precise, calculated for each country or region involved, and followed with improvements every year.”

Mia Fong
USC Dornsife College of Letters and Sciences
Delegation: Developing Nations

Mia Fong is a graduate student in the Spatial Economic and Data Analysis Progressive degree program, interested in pursuing a career in environmental policy. She thought that the APRU Global Climate Change Summit was the perfect way to learn more about differing approaches to climate policies around the world. Fong also wanted to meet students from other countries to hear their perspectives and experiences with climate change.

During this experience, she studied how population dynamics, particularly rapid population growth, can worsen climate change by putting a greater strain on resources. “Population-related policies, particularly those related to family planning and increasing access to education for women, have the potential to increase climate resilience globally,” she says.

“I really enjoyed learning about the importance of centering indigenous environmental practices as a way of mitigating climate change. I was particularly struck by the idea that we must not view the planet as a commodity, but as an ancestor that is deserving of our care. As someone who is interested in indigenous climate justice and alternative policy solutions, it was great to engage in a discussion about this topic,” she shares.

Eric Fung
USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy
Delegation: Developing Nations

Eric Fung is a graduate student in the Master of Science in Integrated Design, Business and Technology, interested in carbon trading, offsets, clean tech and green tech. His curiosity about the mechanisms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Conference of the Parties drew him to the simulation. “I wanted to understand how the UN plays its role in enabling different countries and their delegations to negotiate on climate change and climate action,” he says.

Fung gained new insights on the pressing concerns of the least developed countries (LDCs) around climate change. “LDCs are disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and increased frequency of extreme weather events,” he shares. “This vulnerability threatens the very existence of these countries—which are already experiencing significant loss and damage—making it essential to acknowledge and address their concerns. “

To amplify the marginalized voices of LDCs, it is crucial to provide capacity-building programs, foster partnerships between LDCs and other stakeholders, and raise awareness about their challenges. Ensuring better representation of LDCs in national and international conferences and treaties requires inclusive decision-making processes, dedicated funding for their participation, and technology transfer and support to enhance their capacity to adapt to climate change. By taking these steps, we can promote climate justice and equity, to address their concerns and ensure their voices are heard in the global climate change discourse.

Shayan Rahimi
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Delegation: Group of Developed Nations

Shayan Rahimi is graduate student in the Master of Science in Chemical Engineering degree program. Rahimi was drawn to participate in the global climate change simulation “to better understand the complexities of climate change and contribute to solutions for a sustainable future,” he says. His topic of research was ‘Clean Tech Industry’ where he was “particularly excited to discuss topics related to renewable energy innovations, sustainable practices, and the impact of climate policies on global emissions reduction efforts.” This experience has inspired him to explore the intersection of technology and sustainability, particularly in areas such as energy transition, climate modeling, and innovative solutions for carbon reduction.

Jaime Reyes Sanchez
Keck School of Medicine of USC
Delegation: India

Jaime Reyes Sanchez is a fourth-year doctoral student in epidemiology degree program. He participated in the global climate change summit to get a sense of how the science around the impacts of climate change is used when making decisions. “One new perspective I learned from this experience is how climate negotiations are unequal, which stem from the inequities around which climate change itself originated,” he shares. Sanchez participated the discussion on population dynamics. “It was mentioned that discriminatory discourse focusing on population “control” should be abandoned. Instead, current policy is based on empowering girls and women to enforce their right to make their own decisions concerning reproduction and family planning.”

Sophia Wu
Keck School of Medicine of USC
Delegation: United States

Sophia Wu is a first-generation graduate student in the Master of Science in Translational Biotechnology degree program. She decided to participate in the global climate change summit to learn about different perspective on climate change from students around the world and wanted to examine accountability of developed countries towards climate change. One new perspective she learned was “people follow the routines that they expect rich countries to fund, and the other countries do the necessary work.”