Penn Global recently launched the Climate Security and Geopolitics Project to address international challenges with global climate action.
The program will focus on climate security and geopolitics, and it will seek to highlight research gaps in aligning national security policy with climate action. It will focus on exploring China's role in climate finance, soft power, and the nation's approach to climate policy amidst geopolitical rivalry.
Political Science professor and Director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives Global Scott Moore — who was recently named a senior advisor for climate security to the United States Department of Defense — will be leading the program. Moore noted that he hopes the program can progress climate research in a world where international collaboration seems to be getting harder.
“The climate crisis is something that can only be solved through lots of work in all different sectors,” Moore said. “My hope is we can inspire and encourage young people who have important skills to make more effective climate policy.”
The initiative will seek to engage students in policy through the inaugural cohort of the Penn Global and Perry World House Climate and Security Policy Fellows Program. The fellowship aims to connect Penn graduate students to industry public policy with the goal of preparing Ph.D. students for non-academic careers. Students' research will focus on how international challenges will impact global climate action and collaboration.
Nine graduate students from five Penn schools were selected. Fellows will participate in four workshops and travel to Washington, D.C., and New York to gain field experience through public service opportunities, workshops, and internships.
College doctoral candidate Mayesha Ahmed highlighted that the fellowship provides her with an opportunity to get more involved in energy policy and encouraged her to start reaching out to other graduate students and professors about gaining industry experience. Ahmed noted that the fellowship program gives her a chance to build on her background in public policy.
“Right now, [students] are not in the stage where we are able to make policies, but a lot of students will step into those leadership positions. What we are capable of doing is telling our local policymakers what the priorities should be,” Ahmed said.
On Oct. 21, Penn Global partnered with Perry World House and the Center for Climate and Security to host a panel on Geopolitics and the Future of Climate Finance. The panel was the first event in the program and featured faculty from PWH, which will work closely in collaboration with the newly established independent project.
Bess W. Heyman President’s Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Deputy Director of Perry World House Michael Weisberg, who spoke at the panel, said that his work has centered around places “where people have contributed the least to the problem and are also the most vulnerable to the problem.”
Weisberg said that the Climate Security and Geopolitics Project aims to open dialogue and provide direction to policymakers about international collaboration on climate action. He highlighted the unique advantage of partnering with PWH to help provide a more globalized and developing-country perspective to the project.
Weisberg added that he hopes the project will bring an additional layer of community and culture to PWH.
“The reason that other people aren't doing this is because it's really hard, but that's why we have universities to try to do things that other people can't do,” Weisberg said.
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