The climate change leadership initiative Winds of Change brought together 19 post-graduate students from New Zealand universities — nine New Zealanders and 10 originally from Chile — to investigate common climate change impacts and how sustainable development strategies can be created for the future.
"It’s basically a group of outstanding young people, with a passion for climate change, coming together to tackle issues facing both countries," University of Otago geology lecturer Chris Moy said.
As part of the Latin America Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence-funded initiative, the group has spent the past week on a field trip to Doubtful Sound to investigate marine life, and the Mackenzie Basin where they looked at the impacts of water scarcity.
Dr Moy said the group was in Dunedin at the weekend for a workshop and some tourist activities.
He said New Zealand and Chilean members of the group had paired up during the field trips to identify an environmental impact of climate change that affects both New Zealand and Chile, and investigate adaptation strategies and potential solutions.
The research projects would be presented at an international symposium early next year.
University of Canterbury School of Forestry student Paula Yarur, formerly of Santiago, Chile, said the group members had learnt a lot from each other.
Communicating about different aspects of climate change had been productive.
"We’re constantly debating things and learning and comparing."
