The origins of GCCW.

Purpose

Global Climate Change Week (GCCW) encourages academic communities – including academics, students, and non-academic staff at universities – in all disciplines and countries to engage with each other, their communities, and policy makers on climate change action and solutions.

Held annually in October, GCCW provides an open platform for academics to register their interest, put their universities on th emap, and organise voluntary activities aimed at raising awareness, inspiring behaviour change, and driving transformation in relation to climate policy.

The Origins of GCCW

Dr Keith Horton (Wollongong University, Australia), developed the concept and with input from academics around the world and invaluable research assistance from Chad Lee-Stronach.

Many academics provided helpful feedback and encouragement, especially Keith’s colleagues at Academics Stand Against Poverty.

In 2014, a group of academics and students at the University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia – Helen Hasan, Usman Iftikhar, Adam Lucas, Josh Pallas, and George Takacs – joined Keith in a committee aimed at turning the idea into reality.

Together they organised a workshop on GCCW held on December 4-5 2014 at the University of Wollongong. Twenty-two people participated, including academics from seven Australian universities, and a number of activists.

The workshop was a great success and many new ideas emerged. GCCW’s vision and mission statements were drafted and committees established, including the original coordinating committee (Keith Horton, Helen McGregor, George Takacs, Haydn Washington, and Sam Wilson).

In 2015 Justin Westgate and Stuart Sontier from the design consultancy Antipode Studio (previously biote) developed the initial GCCW website, working largely pro bono, and GCCW was officially launched on May 26, 2015. The first GCCW was held in October 2015.

Handover to the University of Tasmania

In 2020, the stewardship of GCCW transitioned from the University of Wollongong to the University of Tasmania.

While COVID 19 impacted the running of face-to-face events in 2020 and 2022, a large number of virtual Zoom events were organised instead. To see what took place click here (2020), here (2021) and here (2022).

In 2021, UTAS took over responsibility for the GCCW website, which has been updated to incorporate a number of new features including the GCCW blog.

In 2025, UTAS will hand over the running of GCCW to a new university. If you think your university would be a good fit to host GCCW, please contact the GCCW Team.