Playing the part of world leaders, Non-Governmental Bodies (NGOs) or Media, the students were tasked with taking part in a real-life climate negotiation simulation, producing a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
As world leaders came together in Egypt to discuss reducing global emissions at COP27, 50 students from United Learning school sixth forms came together in Stratford for a COP27 Climate Negotiation Simulation Event hosted by the British Council. Playing the part of world leaders, Non-Governmental Bodies (NGOs) or Media, the students were tasked with taking part in a real-life climate negotiation simulation, producing a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In order to agree measures to limit the rise in global temperature to below 3 degrees, students had to negotiate to meet the needs of their own nations or lobby group, and seek alliances to support their goals. After presenting their final statements to the group, the final proposals were fed into a computer programme developed by Climate Interactive and MIT which uses real-life data to model what the consequences of the proposals would be. The students achieved an overall projected global temperature increase of only 2 degrees – let’s hope that the real COP27 is just as effective!
Year 12 Geographers, David, Ollie, Rosie, Maya and Milun played the part of the UK, a developed nation which made them a very popular group for the others to try and negotiate with. David was even interviewed by both BBC London who were there to film the event, and the British Council, and they all seemed to thoroughly enjoy the experience.