2025 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit

Leading universities around the world, including the University of Nairobi, will co-host the landmark 2025 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit being organized and hosted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights) and the University of Oxford.

The summit being held 4-7 June 2025 will bring together renowned experts, leaders, policymakers, technologists, academics and universities, celebrities, and more to advance climate justice through human rights solutions to the climate crisis.

Ambitious plans for the global event were unveiled today from Oxford, UK by Professor Irene Tracey, Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Elisa Morgera, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change, Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, and representatives from UN Human Rights. The International Universities Climate Alliance (IUCA) is convening prestigious co-host universities worldwide to participate simultaneously in this first-of-a-kind global climate justice summit.

The initiative is being launched nine months in advance of the summit to ensure participants, media, and the public have ample time to engage, paving the way for meaningful progress. As a major initiative of Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, the events aim to redefine the concept of international summits. The University of Oxford, Academic Partner of Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, is coordinating with universities, such as the University of Nairobi, to hold climate-related programs over the four days. The summit will also ignite a global dialogue on 5 June 2025 - UN World Environment Day - with a 24-hour global plenary broadcast live across every time zone.

In a critical move to galvanize global action and summit support, this week UN Human Rights and the Right Here, Right Now celebrity coalition, including social justice icon Billie Jean King, Neil Young, Barbra Streisand, Carole King, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper, Ziggy Marley, Katherine Langford, Jack Black, Laura Pausini, Rachel Platten, Pierce Brosnan, Kyra Sedgwick, Margaret Cho and more, united in a social media blitz with urgent messages that reached a collective audience of more than 150 million followers.

“With our well-established and world-leading expertise in climate-related research and teaching, the University of Oxford is proud to be the Academic Partner for the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to host this pivotal summit with UN Human Rights, bringing together leaders in human rights and climate research from around the world, across a wide range of disciplines with the common goal of finding solutions to one of the most pressing issues of our times, climate change,” said Professor Tracey.

“As the global partner of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, UN Human Rights is grateful to the University of Oxford, universities worldwide, and the International Universities Climate Alliance, for their commitment to work with us to advance human rights solutions to prevent, minimize and remedy the human suffering caused by the climate crisis,” said Astrid van Genderen Stort, UN Human Rights, Chief External Engagement and Partnerships.

The approach to the summit will also mark a paradigm shift in how international gatherings and global collaboration can thrive while minimizing the carbon footprint of traditional travel. The main event of the summit, the 24-hour global plenary coordinated by International Universities Climate Alliance, will be co-hosted by the University of Cape Town, University of Colorado Boulder, Monash University, University of Nairobi, University of Oxford, University of São Paulo, UNSW Sydney and more, and will include live and virtual lectures, keynote speeches, and panel discussions. Academic institutions around the world will transform into hubs of climate consciousness, hosting ‘watch parties’ and local co-host activities, uniting their communities in this historic exchange of ideas.

"Since launching this movement alongside our global partner UN Human Rights at COP26 in Glasgow, with the backing of influential voices like Leonardo DiCaprio, Camilla Cabello, and Quincy Jones, we are immensely proud of the multi-faceted, rapidly growing and innovative climate justice initiative that Right Here, Right Now has become," said David Clark, Founder and CEO of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance. "As our Academic Partner, the University of Oxford has responded to the call, leveraging their unique power to engage experts in crafting solutions to the human rights challenges posed by the climate crisis. We also extend our gratitude to the International Universities Climate Alliance for their vital role in uniting universities around the world to help drive the global summit and plenary."

Building on the ambitious Right Here, Right Now Human Rights Climate Commitments recently unveiled by UN Human Rights, the University of Colorado Boulder, and global experts at COP28 in Dubai, the 2025 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit hosted by UN Human Rights and the University of Oxford aims to set a new benchmark in the global fight for climate justice with a forum designed to address the following objectives:

• Advance human-rights solutions to the climate crisis
• Celebrate and elevate the voices of environmental human-rights defenders
• Reinforce and bring together key elements of the global climate-justice movement while minimizing carbon footprint
• Empower and inspire people, especially students, as agents for climate justice now, and in future careers