Activities for everyone at RRU Climate Week

Mark your calendars! December 4 - 8 Royal Roads is holding its inaugural Climate Week, offering a wide variety of climate action themed events. From panel discussions to art workshops to poster presentations, participants can tailor their experience. Sign up for as many sessions as you wish (please note some sessions are limited to student participation only).

While the UN climate summit COP 28 is underway, we are honoured to host thought leaders, activists, artists and change agents (including our very own students and faculty) who are challenging the world to look at climate solutions in a new way.   

Climate Week Highlights: 

Indigenous climate action: decolonizing solutions - Dec. 4 - Register to attend 
 

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger will launch the week with a keynote from the frontlines of the 28th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP28). Executive director of Indigenous Climate Action, her address will offer perspectives on the international climate negotiations and Indigenous-led climate movements. 

A storytelling circle exploring the importance of decolonizing climate solutions will follow the keynote address featuring: Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, Clayton Thomas-Müller, RRU Indigenous Environmental Pathways Program graduates Lori Saunders and Chevaun Toulouse. Facilitated by Dr. Shauneen Pete.  

Showing up for each other and the planet - Dec. 5 – Register to attend 

Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism and University of Victoria’s new Dean of Education, will guide participants through a facilitated workshop exploring how we can show up differently in challenging times. The exercise examines both the past and future to shift perspectives and embrace humility, compassion and accountability.   

Activism, disruption and climate action- Dec. 7 – Register to attend 

Our panel of renowned artists, filmmakers, journalists and create will discuss the role of art as activism and climate disruption. Our inspirational panel features: Kl. Peruzzo Andrade, Damien Gillis, and Laurna Germscheid. Facilitated by Dr. Bruno de Oliveira Jayme.  

Climate Canvas: participatory art workshop - Dec. 8

Register to attend 9:00 a.m. 11:30 a.m. 2:00 p.m.  

Join us for an empowering opportunity to create a community mosaic for climate. Together participants will contribute to a collectively crafted, public art-based vision for a climate resilient future. This in-person event is offered by Royal Roads and the Resilience by Design Lab, with the support of University of Victoria and the Township of Esquimalt. Artist and educator Dr. Bruno de Oliveira Jayme will guide participants through this climate-inspired art event. 

Free to attend. Three sessions offered: 9:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m.  

Additional Climate Week Activities: 

Climate action careers networking event - Dec. 4 – Register to attend 

Pursuing a career in sustainability? Network with employers and like-minded professionals. Including presenters from Indigenous Tourism Association Canada, McElhanney and AgRI Sorghum.  

Future climate leaders present climate action insights - Dec. 5 – Register to attend 

Students in our Climate Action Leadership programs will engage participants with poster presentations illustrating leadership learnings for an equitable, resilient and sustainable world.  

COP28 recap - Dec. 14 – Register to attend 

Did COP28 live up to our hopes? Join Faculty members Dr. Robin Cox, Dr. Leslie King, Dr. Julie MacArthur and Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon as they critically examine the progress and failures of the annual climate talks. Facilitated by Dr. Gabriela Vieyra.  

Self-guided resources  

Packed schedule and can’t make an event? It doesn’t mean you have to miss out!  

Explore the YouTube playlist of past RRU panel discussions, topical webinars and program sessions about the most pressing issues of our time.   

You can also study up on your United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which focus on global challenges we all face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice; or discover climate solutions for your office with Project Drawdown’s Job Function Action Guides, which provide practical, shareable climate actions you can take at work.   

Learn more about the Master of Arts in Climate Action Leadership.