At the Solutions Summit, four interdisciplinary teams came together to share what progress they have made over the past eight months on projects related to climate solutions, sharing key insights and unexpected turns that emerged from their work. The audience was able to connect with the teams and share questions and insights connecting the work to ongoing research at UBC and the need for climate solutions locally and globally. This event provided the opportunity to discuss challenges and opportunities amongst researchers and community members.
The team ‘Carbon Offsets: Climate Action or Sustainability Illusion?’ shared the complex landscape of carbon offsets, as one with potential benefits but with issues surrounding accountability, quality, unintended impacts, and more. The Solutions Summit was a true opportunity to explore interdisciplinarity: "We had a chance to discuss the overlap between our projects and hear feedback from the UBC community about the real-world impacts they could have. It was a good opportunity to share what we've done and explore how it could move forward."
The team ‘Advancing Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Through Agroecological Transitions’ presented their work toward understanding the challenges and opportunities for estimating emissions for small-scale, diversified agriculture. They presented their work on a calculator they have been working on, called PyHolos, as well as shared the many challenges they have faced over the course of the project. They noted how the current emissions estimation landscape focuses on large-scale industrial monocultures, masking the complexity of small-scale agriculture, the needs of family farmers, and potentially misrepresenting the benefits of these diversified systems. For them, “the summit was a fantastic opportunity to share this work beyond our team and get feedback. Our work has shown us the emissions estimation space has a key blind spot, so we were glad to highlight this gap for an interested audience that has the expertise to help."
The team ‘Using Large Language Models to ‘chat’ with IPCC Reports’ described how after finding their initial focus overlapped with concurrent innovations in the AI industry, they shifted into analysing how using different input languages (English, German, Spanish and Hindi) into Large Language Models resulted in different framings on climate issues and discourse. The scholars shared how the Solutions Summit has supported the continued development of their research: "(it) was a fantastic opportunity to develop the project further by drawing on diverse disciplinary perspectives. Our group particularly appreciated the time set aside for dialogue after presentations, which allowed for meaningful exchanges and deeper engagement that further shaped our research project on LLM queries in different languages."
The group ‘Enhancing Heatwave Forecasting and Public Uptake’ illustrated key innovations in predicting heat waves including advancements in AI use, and ways to better connect with the public about heat waves through website interfaces and community engagement. Preparing for the Solutions Summit provided an important way-point for the team, in particular as the research process unfolded in fresh directions than originally planned: "It was so interesting to be part of all team journeys into producing externally facing ideas - especially sharing that all our work has evolved due to the enormity or changing nature of the topics. ... The conversations following the presentation impressed on me how important our topic is, that glimmer of its practicality and full context beyond our team research efforts."
To see more detail on these projects, view each team’s poster prepared for the session:
- Unravelling Emissions Calculators for Small-Scale, Diversified Farms
- Enhancing Heatwave Forecasting & Public Uptake in British Columbia
- Assessing Large Language Models as Climate Tools
- Carbon Offsets: Climate Action or Sustainability Illusion?
The teams have two more months to work towards their research objectives. This event was an important opportunity to focus on the final portion of the projects: "To have a room full of engaged externals and our peers was energising, providing a bit of steering and enthusiasm for the closing weeks." We will be sharing updates with the teams over the summer months.
Thank you to the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions for contributing to this event through the University Climate Knowledge Mobilization Event Funding. You can sign up for their updates related to climate research initiatives, granting opportunities, and other climate events.
