Global action on the urgency of climate change: Academic and research libraries’ contributions

Abstract

At the time of this writing, Australia’s bushfires are raging, Jakarta is experiencing massive flooding, and waves of earthquakes are devastating islands in the Caribbean. Hundreds of thousands of people and living creatures are being torn from their homes. The mind reels at the intensity and scale of these climate change-induced disasters. At the same time, the world’s leading decision makers seem to finally be waking up to the emergency. For instance, the European Union (EU) just announced 1 trillion euro plan to support the European Green Deal, including a mechanism designed to help regions (e.g., coal-dependent Poland) that would be most disrupted economically by the transition to cleaner industries. Moreover, with the aim to make Europe the world’s first carbon-neutral continent by 2050, the EU pledges a just transition, that is to “leave no one behind.”