On August 8, 2024, the first International Summer School Program Climate Change and Related Risks was successfully concluded at Jiangwan Campus of Fudan University. This summer school was hosted by Fudan University, supported by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), and Monitoring, Analysis and Prediction of Air Quality (MAP-AQ), and organized by the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) and the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences (IAS), Fudan University MAP-AQ Asian Office and Fudan University IRDR International Center of Excellence.

This international summer school officially opened on July 22. The three-week course revolves around the theme of “Climate Change and Air Quality”, focusing on the three major areas of scientific basis of climate change and related impacts, coordinated governance of climate and environment, and climate change-air quality-health resilience building. Students systematically and multi-levelly learned the relevant theories of climate change risk interconnection, key knowledge and core elements of climate governance.

There are twelve different mini-projects in the summer school, as follows:

Senior Advisor of IRDR, Qunli Han delivered a speech at the opening ceremony, saying that the second phase of IRDR’s work will focus on the interconnectivity, complexity and cascading of systemic risks, and that relevant research and policies need to be closely integrated. He praised the contribution and efforts made by Fudan University IRDR International Center of Excellence to promote social awareness of health risks of climate change since its establishment in 2021. IRDR Executive Director Saini Yang delivered a closing speech, emphasizing that the purpose of the International Summer School on Climate Change and Related Risks is highly consistent with IRDR’s three major missions, namely to promote the understanding of risks and uncertainties, promote innovative solutions and capacity building, and IRDR will continue to support this summer school.

The summer school will be the flagship project of Fudan IcoE in the coming years. This initiative serves more than a training opportunity for young professionals; it will be a vital platform to enhance collaboration and communication among IRDR ICoEs. IRDR elaborates such summer school which serves not only training opportunities for young professionals, but also platforms to enhance collaboration and communication among IRDR ICoEs.