Greek universities addressing the issue of climate change

Abstract

Nowadays, a great challenge, that most countries are struggling to assess, is the rapid change of earth’s climate. At the same time, the sea level is constantly rising, floods and droughts are increasing and global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. Climate change (CC) is a wide world problem, which requires international partners, such as industries, educational institutions, individual citizens, in order an environmental and energy revolution process to be somehow initiated. Universities, as having the important mission of the education of world’s future decision makers, can contribute to mitigating and adapting CC. The purpose of this survey is to assess whether or not Greek universities have incorporated CC issue into their curricula and research efforts. Additionally, it is aimed to identify the outreach of the Universities to the society, meaning communicating through civic ecology procedures on global CC and its impacts on the region. Greece is a country that generates electricity by burning coal, in a high percentage, to cover citizens’ energy needs. The results of this research could give information whether the higher educational institutions in Greece have given the appropriate attention to the issue of CC.