On Wednesday 17th November we held our very own mock COP26 with 58 students from AHS, AGS and The Royal Latin. COP stands for the Conference of the Parties, and the 26th one was held in Glasgow this year. COP26 was a congregation of countries from around the world who gathered together to discuss and debate the issues surrounding climate change that we face globally.

The aim of our COP was to debate (albeit on a much smaller scale) issues and topics similar to those debated in Glasgow, with small groups of students representing the beliefs of the country they were assigned.

Each group had to make a presentation around one minute long, introducing their country. Following this, they then split into four areas of discussion: cities, energy, forests&food and oceans. Groups then debated and compromised for the next hour, and they came together with a set of agreements to present. It was really interesting to see how different countries reacted and how they agreed based on their different stages of development and needs. The quality of the presentations and debate were excellent.

Feedback showed that everyone enjoyed it, and learned valuable skills such as communicating, working as a team, public speaking and quick thinking. At the end, the countries presented their agreements back to the whole group and had a small discussion on how they could convert their country goals into goals that we can carry out as a school. A big thank you to Sophie and Jess for organising this event, which was a huge success.

By Jess Year 12, Buckinghamshire Schools Sustainability Network