Agnes Scott Climate Conference Highlights Women’s Role

A research project a few years ago the gather the best ways to address climate change found that some of the top global solutions focused on women: educating girls, family planning, and supporting women with small farms.

The findings of Project Drawdown were part of the inspiration for Agnes Scott College’s Women and Climate Justice conference, Susan Kidd, who directs Agnes Scott’s Center for Sustainability, said.

“What women are challenged by and what women are bringing to solutions is not underscored as much as it could be,” Kidd said. “We saw ourselves, as a women’s college, as the place to bring that voice to the forefront.”

She said the conference will focus on solutions and the ability to take action, bringing together young and more experienced women who work on climate around the world, and also here in Atlanta.

Kidd said over the past few years, people at Atlanta colleges and universities have been working with each other more — and with people in other sectors – to focus on climate change. Many of those local climate leaders are women.

“Atlanta is a special place,” she said. “It’s leaders in all the different research aspects of climate. We have women that are climatologists, we have women that are engineers, we have women that are public health experts, women that are women’s issues experts.”

Agnes Scott is working on its own climate ambitions; the school committed to be climate neutral by 2037, and has reduced its carbon emissions by 40% so far, Kidd said.

The conference is virtual. The registration is closed, but Kidd said videos will be posted later on YouTube.