Dublin Climate Dialogues

Dublin Climate Dialogues

UCD O’Reilly Hall, 19 May 2021

Good morning, I am Professor Andrew Deeks, President of University College Dublin and I am delighted to welcome you to the Dublin Climate Dialogues. UCD is very proud to be hosting this important global conference over the next two days here the University's O’Reilly Hall.

As Ireland’s Global University, UCD’s vision is to rise to the global challenges of the future by pursuing four strategic themes: Creating a Sustainable Global Society; Transforming through Digital Technology; Building a Healthy World; and Empowering Humanity. With the focus of this conference being a call to action for COP 26, our strategic theme Creating a Sustainable Global Society is particularly relevant.

I am particularly pleased to see the participation in this event of Professor Patricia Maguire, Director of UCD Institute for Discovery and Professor Andrew Keane, Director of UCD Energy Institute. UCD is leading world-class research in Climate Action and these institutes provide a real focus in bringing together researchers across disciplines to tackle global challenges.

UCD is involved in a number of exciting research collaborations, in partnership with leading energy industry companies in Ireland and internationally. The expertise of the academics involved feeds through to our teaching to develop the expertise needed to meet the challenges of the future.

We are most fortunate to have Mr Pat Cox, Former President of the European Parliament as chairperson and I will now hand you over to him.