“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it”

…writes Robert Swan, the first person to walk to both the North and South pole. Indeed, whilst most students recognise the importance of taking urgent action to address the spiral of climate change, it still sometimes feels like not enough is being done to tackle the crisis. It is therefore not surprising our university campus is home to a number of groups trying to help the university and our wider society be more sustainable. One of these groups is the University of Glasgow Green New Deal, a group calling on the University of Glasgow to take more tangible steps to tackle the impending climate emergency. I sat down with Gil Anderson (a fourth year politics student) and Vidya Nanthakumar (a third year medicine student) from the Green New Deal to reflect on their journey and its importance, particularly as the group epitomises some of the struggles students face trying to push for change against the backdrop of a historically entrenched institution. 

The birth of the University of Glasgow Green New Deal (GND) movement has its roots in the emergence of more prominent conversations on campus around the urgent need to tackle climate change. GND is an umbrella organisation of several student societies (including XR UofG, GU Arms Divestment Coalition and others)  and it was around October 2019 that Gil and Vidya were inspired to join GND to call on the University to take more tangible action on tackling this issue. The group is focused on community and cooperation, drawing on consensus participatory decision-making mechanisms and replicating the structure of other student movements by splitting into seven smaller working groups to tackle key focal areas of Investment Practice; Travel & Transport; Energy Provision and Carbon Offsetting; Food; Buildings and Infrastructure; and, perhaps most importantly, Curricular and Academic. 

The group draws its inspiration partly from the successes Goldsmith University of London achieved in implementing its Green New Deal after decisive action from its students and staff. Whilst the GND group on campus was established without much advice or assistance from the GND in Goldsmith, GIl and Vidya see Glasgow’s GND journey and remit extending beyond just our campus. Ultimately, they seek to inspire other colleges and universities to take similar action, and keen to provide whatever help they can with this - in particular, they are looking for people with connections to other universities to work with in solidarity and recognition of the necessity of national and global cooperation to tackle the pressing issues of climate change. GND demands the University adopt 52 specific measures that have been proven to be feasible based on other case studies and are grounded in research, as well as an engendering broader focus on urging the University to be more transparent and integrate students into its decision-making processes. It is perhaps this basis of realism and pragmatism that shapes the Green New Deal.

The group is rightfully proud to achieve successes in its relatively short lifetime, such as the creation of a 10-credit course on an ‘Introduction to climate change and sustainability’. Gil and Vidya hope this will inspire other students to do the same, however, they note the University needs to go farther than just picking from their demands and implementing the ones that align with their preexisting aims. Whilst the University has recognised the need to take action, and declared a Climate Emergency, Gil and Vidya call on the University to go farther and tackle the hard problems necessary to enact meaningful change, particularly as the group continues to achieve remarkable success in helping to elevate conversations around sustainability on campus which has become an increasingly prevalent priority of the student body.

Indeed, the Green New Deal movement is just one group on a campus that we see becoming increasingly politicised. More campaign groups, like the Glasgow University Arms Divestment Coalition, are springing up outside the University’s institutional framework to challenge the perceived failings of the University. This is something that has perhaps been amplified by the Covid-19 crisis - at the organisational level, Covid has moved campaigns online, facilitating a wider level of access and an ease of communication. Yet, more importantly, it has also served to highlight some of the empty promises and rhetoric of the University, increasingly frustrating a student body pushed to our limits of mental health and productivity. 

Covid has also impacted on how the group is forced to operate: actions that used to take two days to coordinate now take weeks, such as the banner drop in Term 1 that needed to comply with the relevant regulations on household gatherings. It has also forced GND to work more within the framework of University institutions such as the SRC to communicate with the University. This is perhaps one of Gil and Vidya’s biggest frustrations with the University - how obstructively opaque its decision-making processes are. In particular, the learning curve of the group was quite steep, and it takes time to build up a working knowledge of the University’s structure and the technical knowledge of sustainability solutions. This is particularly worrying for Gil - as a fourth year student he feels he is only now beginning to understand how to effectively campaign on campus in his final year. The group also needs to consistently bring in younger first and second year students, and students from other schools such as life sciences to sustain and broaden the campaign as university campaign groups remain in the cycle of continual graduation and recruitment.

Fundamentally, the work of the Green New Deal group is only just beginning and Vidya sees the group as part of a broader narrative that questions the commodification of universities and further education. Universities used to be hubs for social change and pioneering new ideas: this perhaps fundamentally conflicts with the current business model of universities and their financial focus. Vidya believes “education should be free from economic gain”. She believes students should be empowered at the forefront of campaigns as we have a “key role to play in shaping a better world”, knowing first hand the value that universities can have in helping people find others with similar values and encouragement to pursue the causes that matter to them. 

It is the need for transparency and accountability that appears most pressing. The University of Glasgow is rightfully proud of its claims to be a ‘world changing’ university, however, it needs to follow through on this claim with its actions. In a sense, the University needs to continue to put its money where its mouth is, particularly due to the recent scrutiny its investment activities have received. Gil explains the current justifications the university has proposed for its investments is that it is limited in funds, and these investments are a balancing act to allow them to fund other activities such as scholarships. Gil suggests this is overly reductive: pointing out the somewhat arbitrary manner in which the University applies its investment values, for instance it has divested from tobacco companies, yet continues to fund arms companies and companies that contribute to global emissions and climate change. He believes more information is needed on what the University invests in, and where this money goes, in order to properly hold the University to account for how it invests our money. Whilst appreciating the financial constraints the University operates under (particularly with respect to historic legacies and endowments), GND believes more needs to be done to align the University’s actions with the values of its community, and the University should do the right thing and act ethically as its own entity. This is encapsulated in the new Socially Responsible Investment policy GND is calling on the University to adopt to try and rectify the perceived ethical failings and inconsistencies of its current strategy. Increased transparency and accountability is tied to an increased sense of democracy within universities and would seek to empower student-staff groups (as well as managers and financiers) to challenge decisions deemed unethical.

Green New Deal has already achieved remarkable success at working with the University whilst also challenging it - illustrated by its role in pushing for the University to implement its carbon neutral target of 2030, and agreeing to set up Student Assemblies from diverse and representative samples of the university body to agree on what steps the University still needs to take. The GND sees itself as part of a broadening conversation on campus and throughout Glasgow. Gil and Vidya were particularly grateful to some of the lecturers that worked with them from the outset to help establish the group and help them gain credibility, highlighting the important role lecturers and staff can play in campaigns on campus. 

It was also refreshing to see Gil and Vidya acknowledge the pivotal role the University can play in helping give back to the community of Glasgow, and the demands the GND put forward can help heighten this, for instance, urging the University to push for free public transport and to use local food produced in Glasgow. As they point out: as students, we come to the University of Glasgow for four (or more) years, but the University as an institution has been with (and hopefully will be) with Glasgow for hundreds of years, hence it is important for the University to affirm its commitment to the community of Glasgow. Perhaps it is time to see a return to this spirit of community, and GND have certainly helped push for a potential future campus that acts in a stewardship role to reflect the values of its community and shape a better Glasgow as it takes the stage in global conversations surrounding sustainability at COP 26. 

It is hopeful both the University of Glasgow and our broader society have shown a willingness to adapt to changing paradigms when deemed necessary, such as in the massive overhaul of our lives in response to Covid-19. We need to start treating the climate crisis as the true climate emergency the University has declared, and move past our entrenched institutional mindset, particularly when it comes to implementing changes that are rooted in feasibility case studies and research. If you want to help join the Green New Deal on their journey, consider signing their petition available at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd90oPEQ-fZF95siObnH8ln76PTXwcbU39TSmhLCV0RcyOAXA/viewform

The ideal green society isn’t out of our reach. It just needs us to believe in it and to commit to placing tangible pressure on our extant institutions to work with students on campus who are willing to put in the time and hard work to reshape universities once more into beacons of hope and activism. The future Vidya envisages is certainly appealing: a society that is “more in touch with nature” can be possible through “changing our urban spaces to be more green and rewilding”. The need to return to “small scale communities based on genuine relationships with each other” is clear, and groups like the Green New Deal on campus have an important role to play in making this happen - they just need our support.