Hall filled with people sitting at desks, a screen reads: United Nations Climate Change Conference, below the UN logo

Logo reads: Model COP: London universities and colleges editionWe are inviting students from across London universities to participate and learn about climate change negotiations and the partisan issues that create the tense negotiations at the real UN Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP).

Participation in the Model COP is limited, and therefore interested participants must fill out a short application form. We are aiming to involve participants from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences, therefore please answer honestly.

The application form can be found here. The deadline to apply is 00:00 (Midnight) BST at the end of Sunday 27 June.

We aim to notify you by Wednesday 30 June if your application is successful.

Format of the event

You will be assigned to a cross-university team with 3-4 others, representing a state, party or organisation as diverse as the Alliance of Small Island States to Royal Dutch Shell. From Thursday 5 July, you will be provided with the pre-event materials, including preparatory online content, and opportunities to attend pre-event talks and discussions with expects. Participants are expected to review these materials and carry out some background research on their country or organisation team to assist in your participation in the negotiations. These will also help to build your understanding of the COP, and how science and society can inform the negotiation outcome.

On Model COP day (Thursday 15 July), you will participate in a full day event as your assigned team and mimic UN negotiations between different parties. It will be a unique opportunity to learn about the processes of high-level negotiations involved in consensus decision-making at the COP talks. You will gain an understanding of the different actors’ perspectives, why they might vote in certain ways and why achieving a resolution satisfactory to all parties is not always easy.

The outcomes of the event will be shared with our partners at the Cabot Institute at University of Bristol to feed into a side event with policymakers at the COP26 in Glasgow in November. We also hope this will be the first of many Model COPs for London students, and you will have the opportunity to form part of this legacy programme.

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