Pupils for the Planet at COP29

While the official COP-29, this year being hosted in Azerbaijan, is reaching the halfway mark, eight Leighton Park students had the opportunity to participate in a mock COP-29 conference a little closer to home, in Wokingham!

Mirroring the format taking place in Baku on Friday 15^th November, our keen students took on the roles of global leaders, policymakers, and environmental advocates to simulate the real-world discussions and negotiations at the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP).

The two countries our teams had been assigned were both set to be powerhouses of the negotiations, having drawn home advantage with the UK and possibly the biggest piece of any climate action puzzle in Chin. Prior to the event our students had plenty to research deciding who might take a global leadership role on the world stage, how ambitions may be raised and who, if anyone, would be willing to provide more financial aid to drive the adaption of the most vulnerable nations.

The day unfolded in a familiar manner, with countries introducing themselves and everyone understanding that the only way forward would be through consensus decision making, a not unfamiliar concept to our students!

Sustainability Lead and Head of Geography, Oliver Staines, commented, “As an observer it was heartening to see such a high level of engagement and perhaps even more willingness to commit to transformative action than the real country delegations being represented may achieve, so it was even more heartening to segue into a section after the mock conference itself concluded, where the schools in attendance were able to share the actions they are taking to make a difference at the individual and community level.”

Charlotte (year 7) reflected, “I found the event very interesting and enjoyable to learn about things I would not necessarily have learned about before. Young people should care about climate change because they are shaping a world that they are going to grow up in.”

Lars (Year 9) added, “I really found the part were the countries had to give their opening speeches the most enjoyable. This was because we got pretend that we were representing an entire country and some of the speeches were very well written and nicely set out what countries had done, wanted and need. I was proud of the fact that I was able to shorten the opening speech to about 1 minute long instead of being five minutes long just before the COP started! I was inspired by the event because I got to see that many people students care about the environment and that they are willing to use lots of time and effort to make the COP a reality.”

Oliver concluded, “We have all come away with plenty to think about and great ideas to replicate in our own situations. There will be plenty for the Eco-group to roll our collective sleeves up on as we head into the new year, leaving behind the warmest one on record!”