“Thank you so much for organising this opportunity, our boys absolutely loved the conference and were keen for it to continue all day.”
Teacher feedback, LWC, Merseyside Schools Climate Conference 2020
Bringing students closer to global climate negotiations: Inspired by critical global negotiations at COP26, you are invited to a climate conferences for Y6-Y8 school students to bring them closer to the international decision-making process, and to inspire local action.
NOTE: THIS EVENT IS ONLY OPEN INITIALLY TO SEFTON SCHOOLS. If you are from a Merseyside school, please register, and you will be contacted about this event.
The offer to students: Our conferences are typically held in local council chambers but this will be run online still providing a multi-dimensional learning opportunity for students to:
- Engage in UN-style negotiations on global progress since the Paris Agreement
- Experience decision-making and question local decision-makers
- investigate a range of local organisations’ ideas to inspire their own climate action.
What students will do on the day: Students will take part in a conference of two distinct but linked sessions, moving from UN-style dialogue through to what’s happening locally and what difference students can make.
Global Negotiations (approx. 2 hours) Modelling the UN Climate Conference (COP26 in UK this year), 10-15 teams (5-6 students/team) represent nations from Fiji to the USA. The session will focus attention on global progress towards targets to tackle Climate Change set out in the Paris Agreement in 2015, and negotiations for more ambitious global action particularly in regard to Cities, Forests and Oceans. We provide detailed Country Briefings and background information in advance to help direct the school teams’ research and their negotiations on the day.
Local Action (approx.1 hour) In the second part of the conference the focus turns to local climate action and how students can make a big difference. The areas addressed are those in which we can all make the most difference: Energy-use; Food and Food waste; Travel and transport; What we buy & use. The key questions for the students to investigate in this session are:
- What climate action can we take at the local level?
- What are we going to prioritise and present back to school?
Still need more information? This conference was designed by https://interclimate.org/climate-conferences/ where you can find out more about the day, and sample materials.
Want to take it further and link with schools in Italy, France and Hungary? This project is part of the https://www.icanproject.eu/ project where you can register to join up and share your ideas with other EU partners.