Global university leaders in Auckland for thinktank on sustainability

Academic leaders from the Asia-Pacific region are meeting in Auckland for the Annual Presidents' Meeting of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), hosted by the University of Auckland from 24-26 June.

Around 130 delegates from the Americas, Asia and Australasia are congregating for the three-day event, the theme for which is ‘Oceans: The World’s Challenges Divide Us, the Ocean Currents Connect Us’.

Speakers will address the challenges of climate change, the degradation of oceanic systems, protecting biodiversity for the oceans, and advancing climate equity in the Asia-Pacific. A key goal is to strengthen the bonds of this vastly connected university network to provide a forum for leading Pacific Rim universities to collaborate on research that delivers solutions.

Programme highlights include a panel discussion called ‘Navigating the Tides: APRU Leadership in Addressing Climate Change’ chaired by the APRU Chair Rocky Tuan, who is Vice-Chancellor and President of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Another panel, chaired by Chancellor Pradeep K Khosla, University of California, San Diego, will discuss ‘Guardians of the Blue: Protecting Biodiversity for the Ocean’. The third will be chaired by University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor Professor Dawn Freshwater, APRU Vice-Chair, and will explore ‘Sea, Soil, Sustenance: Pathways to Resilient Food Systems’. The final panel will be 'Advancing Climate Equity in the Asia-Pacific and Implications for Communities' chaired by Professor Rosa Devés, Rector of Universidad de Chile.

Professor Freshwater said the APRU event shines a spotlight on the urgent need to address climate change impacts on the ocean and provides a forum for leading universities to collaborate on research.

“Universities have a duty to contribute to society by advancing knowledge and offering solutions.

“The world is reaching a critical juncture. Urgent action must be taken to secure our future. By harnessing our collective expertise, we can address the impacts of climate change on the oceans and the wider implications on communities and Indigenous populations, climate justice, food and water security.”

As the world’s largest ocean, the Pacific is critical to global climate regulation. It absorbs approximately one-third of carbon dioxide emissions but also bears the brunt of the detrimental impacts of climate change, which has severe implications for communities and Indigenous populations.

At a lunchtime talk on 25 June, Dr Dan Hikuroa, from the University of Auckland, will discuss the idea of ‘thinking like a fish’, which challenges us to stop regarding the oceans as resources to be exploited and instead as complex, integrated, ecological systems that have their own life force.

Dr Hikuroa will outline how the early Polynesian navigators, who repeatedly crossed vast distances of ocean, regarded the Pacific as the ‘great connector’ in which the islands themselves were fish.

University of Auckland marine scientist Professor Simon Thrush will speak at the same talk, and said the benefit of the APRU event is being able to network and identify threats that university researchers around the Asia-Pacific region can tackle together.

“Our collaborative research across geographical regions and disciplines can inform policy and governance in a constructive way.”

His talk will look at the importance of marine ecosystems in tackling the “trifecta of challenges we face: biodiversity, sustainability and climate change”.

While in Auckland, delegates will visit the University of Auckland’s Newmarket Campus to see the Structures Testing Laboratory complex, which is home to one of Australasia’s largest earthquake-testing facilities, as well as a world-leading water engineering lab designed to tackle water resource problems.