{"id":19566,"date":"2021-10-27T12:21:46","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T11:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=19566"},"modified":"2021-10-27T12:21:46","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T11:21:46","slug":"open-university-cop26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/around-ou\/open-university-cop26\/","title":{"rendered":"The Open University champions COP26 with \u2018Green Zone\u2019 event exploring culture, citizens and climate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Open University is hosting a\u00a0unique\u00a0event at the 26th<\/sup>\u00a0United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) as one of several initiatives to mark its commitment to responding to the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

COP26 will bring together parties from across the world to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Open University will host a 90-minute\u00a0series of short reflections\u00a0on \u2018Ancient Knowledge and Modern Thinking: Climate Perspectives in Folk Art\u2019 held in partnership with Glasgow Life<\/a>. Taking place on 7th<\/sup>\u00a0November, these\u00a0reflections\u00a0will\u00a0feature\u00a0indigenous artists and experts from the OU and Glasgow Life, exploring connections between culture, citizens and climate by examining\u00a0three\u00a0contrasting\u00a0works\u00a0of art from Glasgow Museums\u2019 World Cultures collection.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Open\u00a0University\u00a0has\u00a0official observer status at COP26 and will learn from the conference to inform\u00a0the\u00a0university\u2019s wider sustainability mission\u00a0and inspire students and staff to\u00a0take action.<\/p>\n

The Open University is committed to being \u2018net zero\u2019 by 2050 and will achieve net zero for what are known as scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, investing millions of pounds to achieve this. The University has also committed to divestment from fossil fuels, on which work has started and will complete by 2023.<\/p>\n

Vice-Chancellor Professor Tim Blackman<\/a> said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018It is a great privilege to offer a \u201cculture and science\u201d perspective on the impacts of climate change\u00a0in such a hugely significant event as COP26.\u00a0\u00a0Climate change and its ecological consequences are the biggest challenges facing humanity. In response,\u00a0our sustainability vision at The Open University is to create and share knowledge and learning to realise social and environmental justice.<\/p>\n

\u2018Through the power of learning we collaborate with our stakeholders to achieve impact across society in response to the sustainability crisis. This permeates everything we do, from exploring new frontiers in understanding Earth’s atmosphere, its ecosystems and its people, to the\u00a0democratisation of learning and knowledge.\u00a0The new OU Strategy\u00a0for 2022-2027 directly addresses sustainability and the need to support our students and staff to become agents for the change that is needed.<\/p>\n

\u2018Through our mission to be \u201copen to people, places, methods and ideas\u201d we are committed\u00a0to inspiring action via our role as an educator and to ensuring that everything we do is sustainable.\u00a0 We will draw on our unique heritage of over 50 years as the only university operating across the UK\u2019s four nations, reaching learners at a distance and engaging mass public audiences through our long-standing media partnerships\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Find out more<\/strong><\/h5>\n

For the trailer for our Green Zone event: click here<\/a><\/p>\n

For information on our Green Zone Event: click here\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

For our Net Zero 2050 statement: click here<\/a><\/p>\n

For access to our Citizen Science platforms:<\/strong><\/p>\n

X-Polli:Nation – https:\/\/xpollination.org\/<\/a>
\niSpot – https:\/\/www.ispotnature.org\/<\/a>
\nTreezilla – https:\/\/treezilla.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Open University is hosting a\u00a0unique\u00a0event at the 26th\u00a0United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) as one of several initiatives to mark its commitment to responding to the climate crisis. COP26 will bring together parties from across the world to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":19577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,19],"tags":[1525,1640,1643],"class_list":["post-19566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-ou","category-ou-speaks-out","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home","tag-ou-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}