Following October's COP26@ Lancaster University festival, the University hosted a student-led COP26 webinar which brought together student voices from Lancaster and our global partnerships in China, Germany, Ghana and Malaysia

Entitled ‘Climate change has no borders’, this event which took place in November sought to address a central question: “What can we, as students, do to address the challenges of climate change and suitability in relation to it?”

Over one hundred students formed into five groups and shared their research on five environmental topics: energy consumption, transportation, waste and recycling, food consumption, and air quality. Each group was supported by academic mentors who volunteered their time.

Professor Simon Guy, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Global (Digital, International, Sustainability), said: “The COP26 Student Webinar was a fantastic opportunity to bring together young people across three continents and to listen to what they consider important for the current debate of climate change. We welcome more events like this, to spark discussions and to engage with arguably the most important players – young people – in order to combat the global challenge of climate change.”

Professor Kirk Semple, the event organiser and the Assistant Dean International at Faculty of Science and Technology, said: “It has been a great pleasure to be able to work so closely with students who demonstrated great enthusiasm, breadth and depth of their thinking. I would like to thank them and their academic mentors: Angela Onyeri, Ella Foggitt, Kathleen Burke and Anthony N-Yelkabong, Victoria Obatusi, and Dr Binoy Sarkar.”

Each presentation was introduced by the event host Ben Matthews, Head of Global Engagement, and was followed by Q&A sessions, moderated by Joe Bourne, Creative Communications Research Fellow with questions from Professor David Higgitt (Academic Dean of Lancaster University College, Beijing Jiaotong University) and Professor Andrew Abbott (Academic Dean at Sunway University).

Lancaster University declared a climate emergency in 2020 and aims to become carbon neutral by 2035. Last month, Lancaster University hosted its own COP26 festival, which featured 39 separate events across a week-long programme with over 1,500 people taking part.

You can find out more about sustainability at Lancaster University, including ways staff and students can get involved on the Lancaster Sustainability website.