BELEM, 25th November, 2025 (WAM) -- Khalifa University of Science and Technology joined with the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC) to lead a high-level climate dialogue for the international higher education community at COP30 Brasil Amazonia in Belem, Brazil.

The dialogue featured a standout panel discussion workshop focused on 'Higher Education Institutions for Climate Action: Innovation, Implementation, Cooperation, and Communication', emphasising four important components of the critical roles of higher education institutions. It was chaired and moderated by GAUC's Chief Youth Officer, Alice Ho, with Deputy Secretary-General of GAUC, Dr. Jian Zhang, as a panel member. Dr. Jian is also Associate Director of the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development at China's Tsinghua University.

Representing Khalifa University at this high-level higher education workshop, held at UNFCCC Higher Education for Climate Action Pavilion, was Dr. Samuel Mao, Director, ASPIRE Research Institute for Sustainability, and Professor of Practice, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering. Dr. Samuel is also Co-Chair of the UAE Universities Climate Network, which consists of 38 higher education institutions of the UAE. After the workshop, Dr. Samuel and Khalifa University's two other COP30 delegates, Dr. Aisha Al Suwaidi, Associate Professor, Earth Sciences, and Mohammad Al Hamadi, a graduate student and the first Emirati to complete a polar ocean expedition recently, visited GAUC Pavilion, which also hosted a UAE Universities Climate Network COP30 session, co-organized by Khalifa University.

During the panel discussion, Dr. Samuel used his sustainable water extraction from air project as an example to illustrate Khalifa University's leadership in every aspect of innovation, implementation, cooperation, and communication. He also introduced Khalifa University's recent engagements with several GAUC member universities, including mutual visits of university leaders and development of collaborative research and education programs. Khalifa University's commitment to advancing climate action and global outreach was acknowledged by the audience at COP30.

Other members of the panel agreed that universities are engines of climate-related innovation and their roles include conducting frontier research in areas such as renewable energy, carbon capture, and climate adaptation. They also affirmed that universities are ideal places to provide interdisciplinary problem-solving, by uniting scientists, engineers, economists, and policy experts toward common climate action goals.