Abu Dhabi: Burjeel Holdings has announced today a bold new partnership with the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School to help address the climate crisis.

The new collaboration will deliver a competition, known as the ‘Burjeel Holdings Oxford Saïd climate change challenge’, focused on raising awareness amongst high school students across the world of the risks of climate change, in the run up to COP28 later this year in the UAE.

The challenge will also extend to high school educators, who will be invited to submit lesson plans related to climate change.

The winning submission will be recognised in the UAE. The winners of the challenge and the educator will be invited to Oxford Saïd to participate in a climate change program in the spring of 2024.

A delegation from Burjeel Holdings visited the School on Monday to launch the partnership and work on details of the challenge, which will be announced in due course.

Commenting on the collaboration, Burjeel Holdings Founder and Chairman Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil, said, "We are pleased to collaborate with Oxford Saïd for the climate change initiative, a landmark project in the year of the COP28 climate summit in the UAE. As healthcare providers, we recognise the well-being of our communities is deeply intertwined with the health of our environment and that a collective global effort is crucial to confront the climate crisis. The challenge aims to nurture a generation of students and high school educators, so they can foster innovative solutions to ensure an equitable and sustainable future."

Soumitra Dutta, Peter Moores Dean at Oxford Saïd, said, “Climate change is the greatest and most complex threat to humanity, and today’s young students will be living with its impacts in ways we do not yet understand. That is why this partnership with Burjeel Holdings is both exciting and important. We look forward to working with them and are extremely grateful for their valuable support.”

The climate change challenge is supported by the world renowned Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford Saïd, which equips entrepreneurial leaders at the University of Oxford, and worldwide, to tackle the climate crisis and other systemic challenges.