SDG 13: Climate Action

Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time, with rising global temperatures, extreme weather events, and environmental disruption threatening ecosystems, economies, and communities worldwide. SDG 13 calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, through both mitigation efforts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation measures that strengthen resilience to a changing climate. Phoenicia University (PU) contributes to this global effort through a combination of institutional policy, campus infrastructure investment, and academic research that advances understanding of climate mitigation, governance, and adaptation, reinforcing the University's role in preparing its community to respond to the challenges of a changing climate.

Renewable Energy and Low-Carbon Infrastructure

Central to PU's mitigation efforts is its investment in renewable energy. Solar energy systems are installed and operational across the PU campus, with 66% of total campus energy consumption now sourced from renewables. This solar infrastructure also underpins the University's approach to sustainable architecture, serving as a confirmed energy-efficient design feature applied university-wide.

Green Building Standards

Building on this, 70% of campus buildings are certified or designed to green building standards, representing 30% of total campus floor area, reflecting a sustained shift toward low-carbon construction and retrofitting practices across the institution.

Sustainable Transportation and Mobility

Beyond energy and buildings, PU has integrated emissions into considerations into transportation and mobility. Approximately 47% of students and staff currently use sustainable transportation methods, supported by EV charging stations and bicycle infrastructure, reducing transportation-related emissions associated with daily commuting.

Climate Research and Governance

Complementing these operational measures, PU's academic research contributes to the broader evidence base on climate mitigation and adaptation. Research affiliated with the University has examined Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) technologies across the MENA region, reviewing regional projects and the challenges facing large-scale deployment of carbon reduction infrastructure (Bou-Hamdan, Sufyan and Abbas, 2025). Complementing this technical focus, PU researchers have also engaged with the legal and governance dimensions of climate action, analyzing judicial approaches to climate change litigation (Farhat, 2025) and examining the legal implications of weather modification practices such as cloud seeding in the context of sustainability (Farhat, 2026). On the adaptation front, PU research has addressed the growing risks of heat exposure in a warming climate, including the development of heat stress assessment tools for vulnerable populations such as older adults (Itani et al., 2020) and the design of personal cooling technologies intended to protect health and productivity in increasingly hot and humid conditions (Allahham, Ghali and Ghaddar, 2025; El Loubani et al., 2021).

Together, PU's renewable energy adoption, green building standards, sustainable mobility infrastructure, and climate-focused research demonstrate a multi-pronged institutional commitment to reducing emissions, strengthening resilience, and advancing the University's contribution to global climate action.