COP is a United Nations Climate Conference that takes place every year and is attended by 197 countries.
Representatives share knowledge, set climate targets and review progress against previous climate targets. This year’s COP, COP29, will take place in November in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Since 2021, when COP26 was held in Glasgow, thousands of pupils from schools around the world have taken part in the annual ECO2 COP Schools Virtual Climate Conference, coming together to learn and share their experiences, just like representatives from each country do at COP.
Last year, in December 2023, 100 schools from 16 countries, including the UK, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and India took part in ECO2 COP28, as COP28 took place in Dubai, UAE. Schools learnt about climate change and the energy transition in three provided lessons, producing some fantastic pieces of art and poetry as a result, or taking learning outside the classroom to explore the energy transition in their local area:
- Students from No. 1 Young Talents Primary School, Poland, created an amazing map of global climate impacts, which helped highlight the different impacts that climate change is having around the world and the importance of climate justice. “Thank you very much for having the chance to work on the ECO2 COP28 and for the fantastic lessons which encouraged pupils to find out more information and come up with ideas how to combat the problem. It was managed and delivered perfectly.” – Teacher, Poland
- Students from Nehru World School, India, took their learning outside the classroom to learn how solar panels helped generate clean energy in their local area.
- Students from Cockfield Primary School created posters to help share their learning about climate change and energy with their fellow students and families. “Thank you ever so much for a fabulous Climate Conference; our children have really loved participating.” – Teacher, UK.
Schools then came together to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences at one of the ECO2 COP28 virtual climate conferences. They also had the opportunity to ask questions to a panel of climate and energy experts from Durham University and ourselves and hear a live update from Durham University’s Professor Chris Stokes at COP28 on how talks were going.
This year’s conference is set to be better than ever, and we are looking for even more schools in County Durham and from around the world to join us! As talks this year are likely to focus on climate justice and financing climate action and the energy transition, our conference will also focus on the challenges of climate justice and ensuring that no-one is left behind in the transition to renewable technologies.
To help pupils prepare for the exciting live conferences, participating schools will receive three lesson packs, containing a lesson plan, PowerPoint and associated resources. These materials are available for ages 7 to 9, 9 to 11 and over 11. Schools can then sign up to join one of our live, online conferences in November 2024, where they will have the opportunity to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences, ask questions to a panel of experts from Durham University and Durham County Council, and hear a live update from Durham University’s Professor Chris Stokes at COP29 in Baku about how the COP29 talks are progressing.
If your school would like to take part in the ECO2 COP29 Schools Climate Conference, please visit the ECO2 Smart Schools website. County Durham schools who have an Energy Management SLA with Durham County Council do not have to pay to take part. All other County Durham and UK schools who would like to take part can do so at a cost of £50 per school.
Email: eco2smartschools@oases.org.uk
Website: https://eco2smartschools.org.uk/
Facebook: @eco2smartschools
Instagram: @eco2smartschools
