FORMER PRESIDENT OF IRELAND URGES PEOPLE-CENTERED CLIMATE SOLUTIONS

Mary Robinson is the perfect choice to honor Mrs. Haury’s interests in environment and social justice and her commitment to international cooperation. Mrs. Robinson has been a tireless advocate for human rights and a role model in international leadership, most recently on climate change.”

Diana Liverman

MARY ROBINSON AT UA’S CENTENNIAL HALL. PHOTO CREDIT: JOHN NOFS.

Policies to address climate change must take a peoplecentered approach because our planet’s environmental problems were caused by humans, said Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, during a talk at the UA’s Centennial Hall in March 2015. “We have to reach a higher ground of human solidarity where we only have one Planet Earth, one Mother Earth, one world,” Robinson said. “It’s almost like the Titanic, where it’s not only those in steerage that will drown. Ultimately if the world becomes unlivable, everybody is affected.”

Addressing the nearly 1,000 people gathered to hear her talk, “Everybody Matters: Climate Change and Human Rights,” Robinson lauded the accomplishments of faculty and students in advancing climate justice, adding “I feel very at home in this university because the climate discussion is so people-centered.” Nevertheless, she encouraged society to do more to ensure that policymakers take into account vulnerable populations as they work on adaptations to climate change. In 2005 Robinson was named a “Hero and Icon” as one of Time magazine’s top 100 men and women whose “power, talent, or moral example is transforming the world.” As a U.N. special envoy on climate change and president of the Mary Robinson Foundation–Climate Justice, she seeks justice for those particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change— especially the poor and marginalized—and to improve the record on human rights and environmental governance around the world. She is a founding member of the Council of Women World Leaders and a member of the Elders, a group of world leaders founded by Nelson Mandela who contribute their wisdom, independent leadership, and integrity to help make the world a more peaceful and better place. Trained as a lawyer, Robinson is also the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama and the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience award.

Robinson’s visit—her first to Arizona—was an inaugural event for the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice and was particularly relevant for the Southwest, where climate change is projected to have disproportionate impacts on poor, indigenous, and other often disadvantaged people. “Mary Robinson is the perfect choice to honor Mrs. Haury’s interests in environment and social justice and her commitment to international cooperation. Mrs. Robinson has been a tireless advocate for human rights and a role model in international leadership, most recently on climate change,” Diana Liverman said. “She is particularly concerned about how climate change will affect the most vulnerable and on ensuring an ethical response.”