Meet the on-site UBC delegates attending COP29

As a racialized immigrant youth, Aida Mohajeri has experienced climate change firsthand. Through her work with the federal government, nonprofits, and small businesses, she began to notice how oppressive structures contribute to the climate and nature emergency.

“My work aims to create more accessible, community-centered dialogue that prioritizes the needs of folks most at risk during the climate and nature emergency,” Aida says.

Aida is pursuing her PhD in Educational Studies at UBC, with a focus on the intersections of system inequities, local structures, and the climate and nature emergency. Aida is also a Sustainability Lead at the UBC Sustainability Hub and a Graduate Student Affiliate with the Centre for Climate Justice.

Carol Liao has always prioritized sustainability, especially within corporate circles. As Chair of the Canada Climate Law Initiative, she focuses on educating Canadian directors about their fiduciary responsibilities to proactively and critically address climate change.

“It is essential that law and policy integrate the realities of corporations’ unsustainable practices,” Carol says, “given the disproportionate effects global warming has on marginalized communities.”

Carol is an Associate Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law and UBC Sauder Distinguished Fellow at the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics. Her research centers on corporate law, sustainability, climate governance, and social justice. She also serves as Co-Director of UBC’s Centre for Climate Justice.

Since Chunyu Pan was in middle school, air pollution in his hometown of Qingdao, China, has been severe. It wasn’t until watching Chai Jing’s Under the Dome, a documentary focusing on the impacts of pollution in China, that Chunyu truly grasped the significance of the haze. Determined to take action, he pursued an undergraduate degree in environmental sciences at UBC where he strengthened his passion for carbon and climate change research.

“I suddenly realized that a huge part of air pollution is carbon emissions. They will cause the most severe problems of global warming and climate change,” says Chunyu.

He has since completed a master’s degree and is now a fourth-year PhD student at UBC. His current research focuses on carbon offset projects and the special role of bamboo forests in mitigating climate change.

Guangyu Wang, Chunyu’s PhD supervisor, grew up in northern Fujian, China, and enjoyed lychees every summer from southern Fujian. When he asked his grandfather about growing them in the north, he learned it was impossible because of the cold climate. After university, however, Guangyu worked at a botanical garden in northern Fujian and successfully cultivated 300 kg of lychee. This experience revealed how climate change had warmed northern Fujian, inspiring him to research climate impacts.

Guangyu is an Associate Professor at UBC’s Faculty of Forestry, and the Director of the Forest Carbon Research Lab. Guangyu examines a range of carbon topics including Chinese forest management and the global carbon market. “I deeply understand that humans are one of the biggest causes of climate change and GHG emissions,” Guangyu says. “I like to present my climate modelling research to students to show that climate change is real and happening.”