Environmental Justice: Summer School for a Common Purpose
The youth of Mariupol State University took part in the Summer School "Democracy and Climate Justice". Valentyna Abalmasova, a post-graduate student of the educational and scientific program "Management", Oleksandra Solovei of the Educational and professional program "Management of Organizations and Administration", students of the Educational program "Law" Anna Rabchevska, Taisia Chekhlai, Kateryna Kirichenko, and a student of the Educational program "International Relations" Anastasia Sadovnikova went to the Italian city of Palermo.
The students’ educational trip took place within the framework of the international project "Living Laboratory of Climate Justice", which is implemented by the Invincible University in cooperation with the University of Palermo, the University of Rovira and Virgili, the company C.M. SKOULIDI & SIA E.E., and the association Sud Ecologia e Cooperazione Onlus.
The summer school provided an opportunity to deeply study and discuss topics of global importance, such as palaeoclimatology, ecological transition, sources of climate rights and trends in climate jurisprudence. School participants analysed the problem of climate change considering different perspectives: scientific, political, legal and social.
Valentyna, Anna and Taisia delivered the speech "Environmental damage from war: the example of Ukraine". Those present heard the story of the invincible university's move to the capital, the challenges they had to face in the rule of law sphere, and the ecocide committed by the Russian Federation. The students singled out the undermining of the Kakhovskaya Hydro-electric dam by the aggressor country as a vivid example of a crime against nature.
The school has become a platform to talk about the real environmental situation in Ukraine. Such measures help to attract attention and provide evidence of why the catastrophic consequences of a full-scale invasion should be viewed as a source of danger for the whole of Europe,
– says MSU post-graduate student Valentina Abalmasova.
