A reflection

COP26 has been bringing together parties from across the world to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Open University has official observer status at COP26 and is learning from the conference to inform the university’s wider sustainability mission and inspire students and staff to take action. Here are some of the conference’s highlights, as told by our Open University observers. 

COP26 Diary - 8 November: Graeme Smith, Team Manager in Student Recruitment and Support.

I’m unsure if the following is a Covid-based aberration or normal at conferences – as I haven’t been to many – but due to the lack of available chairs the corridors are always lined with people sitting down, hunched over laptops at impractical and painful-looking angles, such as I am now.

Adversely, the Nature Pavilion is a wonderful place to spend time. The space is basic and filled with trees and shrubs, which, in the midst of some of the opulent nation pavilions, felt humbler and fitting. Peta Milan, CEO-Founder of Jet Group, discussed the need to move on from obsessing about sustainability theory – “why are we wanting to sustain a failed model?” and instead move towards using and designing regenerative tools to aid climate recovery. Yoshioka Tatsuya, the founder and co-director of the Peace Boat (a boat which travels the world providing education and resources to communities most at climate risk) spoke about the Ecoship – a much greener ship to travel the world on, with solar panel sails and renewable water and waste tools. The ship has been designed and engineered for seven years and is planned to launch shortly.

Another event, Climate-Smart Healthcare for a Healthier Planet, focused on how the climate battle is rarely framed to the masses as something that is directly detrimental to our health, not just in the future, but right now. Everyone has heard of air pollution, but where is the focus on stats, deaths, targets like we saw with Covid? The ongoing pandemic has seen trillions of dollars poured in globally to mitigate economic and public health crisis, so the money is there. Why – when the WHO (World Health Organisation) calls climate change ‘the single biggest health threat facing humanity’ – is that money not forthcoming to mitigate this?