By Andrew Skerritt
The Florida A&M University (FAMU) School of the Environment will hold its 2024 EnergyWaterFoodClimateNexus International Summit in Durban, South Africa, next summer.
The theme, “What We Want Is Possible,” is also a call for action to recruit and train a new generation of student scientists who are ready to provide solutions to the vexing challenges of the environment. The Summit is planned for July 1-4, 2024, at Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT).
The nexus of Energy, Water, Food, and Climate presents new opportunities to advance a science-based enterprise, aiming at sustainable solutions for safe water, sustainable energy, food security, and climate resilience, said summit creator, School of the Environment Dean Victor Ibeanusi, Ph.D.
“The extraction, production and use of (energy, water, and food systems) and the overarching impact of climate are inextricably linked in an interdependent system that sustains life on our planet,” said Ibeanusi at an event on Monday, Dec. 11 to unveil the Nexus Summit posters.
“The EnergyWaterFoodClimateNexus is a new science enterprise designed to expand the research frontier for discoveries that integrate systems-based research and education for solutions to the vexing challenges on our environment,” Ibeanusi continued. “It is also, a quest for a new science enterprise to lead the way as we address these pressing environmental challenges. It is an effort to promote cross-cutting discussion, scholarships, and collaboration among researchers, students, and entrepreneurs to advance science, policy, and decision-making. The good thing about “What We Want Is Possible” is that we can shape it.”
President Larry Robinson, Ph.D., the principal investigator of a five-year $30 million National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant to recruit and train scientists from underrepresented groups, said it is a wonderful time to be part of the solution addressing the challenging environmental issues of our time.
“I’m pleased to join Dean Ibeanusi, first dean of the School of the Environment, and I want to congratulate to the students and the faculty of the School of the Environment in making this announcement about the Energy Water Food and Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa,” Robinson said. “We typically have the world come to us. Now we are taking it on the road.”
The 2022 Nexus Summit was held on the Tallahassee campus. Future Nexus Global Summits are planned for Miskolc, Hungary, in 2025 and Asia in 2026.
“Mangosuthu University of Technology is pleased to host the 2024 EnergyWaterFoodClimateNexus International Summit,” said MUT Director of Communications Mbali Mkhize. “The solutions addressing the pressing environmental challenges on climate, food security, energy, and water are possible. It will spur new scientific inquiries and recruitment of our students and scientists to build a strong and sustainable foundation for economic growths in Africa.”
Autumn Dancy, president of the FAMU Sustainability Club, is among the student leaders expected to join the fight. “The future that we desire to see in our environment is possible as long as we take the charge to lead the way to do it,” said Dancy, a fourth-year Environmental Studies student. “As students, , it’s very important that we take action enabling workforce development and student training; connecting & mobilizing global communities; and working towards developing science-based policies that provide students with quality trans-disciplinary research experiences early in their careers.”