Future specialist in climate expertise: Pinja Valja

Media artist Pinja Valja has joined the IHME Helsinki team for the spring to write her diploma work about the job of an eco-coordinator for the Specialisation Programme in Climate Expertise. The programme, which started in spring 2024, is the first of its kind. At IHME Helsinki we want to support the growth of climate expertise in the arts and to promote new educational opportunities.

What is the Specialisation Programme in Climate Expertise?

The Specialisation Programme in Climate Expertise is run by the Faculty of Science at the University of Helsinki. It is a wide-ranging, multidisciplinary, science-based programme, providing a strong basis for both understanding climate issues and applying knowledge in practice.

I applied for the course because I want to contribute to climate change mitigation through my own actions, and I felt I needed a strong knowledge base to support those actions. The course covers the scientific basis of climate change, mitigation and adaptation measures, sustainable development, and systems thinking in climate action. Building a network of climate experts across different sectors is also an important objective for the programme, and students come from a wide range of backgrounds. I am the only artist in the group.

The specialisation course is mainly followed remotely alongside the participants’ own work, lasts two years, is worth 60 credits, and students pay a fee. Applications are opened in the autumn and a maximum of 50 students are selected. At the end of the course, students write a final paper with a concrete link to climate work. Pinja contacted IHME Helsinki when looking for a topic for this.

Why choose IHME for your diploma work?

IHME combines my own interests and areas of expertise – art, science, and climate work. So, it was natural for me to approach IHME Helsinki and to enquire about the possibility of doing my diploma work there. It is interesting to add to my knowledge of climate work in the arts, not only from the perspective of the artist’s role, but also from that of organisations.

This spring, Pinja will be responsible for coordinating the objectives and the actions taken for IHME Helsinki’s Eco Compass environmental certification, calculating IHME’s carbon footprint for 2024, and publishing it in the Ecoblog. She will also be involved in planning future activities from an ecological perspective.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version) Revised by MG.