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UW-Madison, together with more than 15 partners across the region, launched the Midwest Climate Collaborative on Jan. 28 . . . Director Heather Navarro shares how agriculture and other key Midwestern industries are a part of that conversation.

Last year, Natalie Tinsen represented UW–Madison at the Midwest Climate Summit, a collaboration amongst “higher education, non-profit, corporate, and government leaders” to find ways to hasten climate action in the region. At the virtual event, Tinsen, who was then the Sustainability Chair for Associated Students of Madison, met Maddie Miller, who held the same position on the student government board at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

f you only read the national news, you could be excused for thinking that climate change is solely a coastal problem. While hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, freak snowstorms on the East Coast and wildfires in the West grab the headlines, the flyover country in the Midwest faces its own set of challenges. Thirty local governments, academic institutions and nonprofits from the space between the Appalachians and the Great Plains have joined together to create the Midwest Climate Collaborative.

In fall 2020, Washington University in St. Louis led the charge in planning and convening the Midwest Climate Summit. The summit and its accompanying think tank session were cross-sector, high-level discussions involving a key group of organizations with a shared commitment to advancing climate ambition in the Midwest.