Universities’ at COP: Five tracks of engagement and influence

Blog post by Steven Davison and Kristy Faccer of the UK Universities Climate Network.

Next month, 50,000 people are expected to descend on Belém, Brazil, for the annual UNFCCC Climate Summit and Conference of the Parties – or COP, as it’s commonly known. Around half of these are government affiliated delegates and around 10,000 are known as observers, including an estimated 3,000–4,000 from higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world. 

At the heart of COP are the negotiations between state governments on the details and progress of international climate policy.  So this begs the question, where do university and college representatives fit in?  What are they hoping to achieve by going?