Stepping up climate action ahead of COP26: Opportunities for researchers

WHAT? The Priestley International Centre for Climate and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) are hosting a webinar that will outline the role that researchers can play in raising the ambition for climate action in the lead up to the 26^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26).

This webinar will include a keynote presentation by Dr Martin Frick, Senior Director for Programmes Coordination at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Martin will provide an introduction to the UNFCCC and highlight the significance of COP26, before outlining how researchers and research institutions can effectively engage with the negotiations.

WHY? Five years on from the Paris Agreement, COP26 is a critical moment for the UN process and global attempts to combat the climate crisis. With the meeting delayed until 2021, it is now more important than ever to ensure that ambition is high and action is forthcoming. The research community has an important role to play by ensuring that commitments are grounded in science, and are being delivered in a fair and transparent manner.

WHO should attend? Researchers and research managers seeking to engage in UNFCCC processes in the lead up to COP26.

Speakers

Dr Martin Frick is Senior Director for Policy and Programme Coordination at UN Climate Change. With a background in Human Rights, Martin’s work has been about the human face of climate change since 2007. He worked with Kofi Annan on issues of climate justice and is passionate about linking development and climate action. As Director for Climate Change at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations he focused on smallholder farming as the nexus between fighting poverty and climate change. Overseeing the substantive programmes of the UN Climate Change secretariat, his work focuses on the synergies between adaptation and mitigation, on directing financial flows to climate action and ensuring that the climate change action resonates with the SDG agenda.

Professor Richard Beardsworth is Head of School and Professor of International Politics at the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds. Richard’s work increasingly focuses on establishing political narratives around climate change responsibility and the possibility of systemic change. He chairs the COP26 taskforce at the University of Leeds. His previous roles have included E.H.Carr Professor of International Politics and Head of Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University, Professor of International Theory at Florida International University and Professor of Political Philosophy and International Relations at the American University of Paris.

You can watch the previous webinar in this series here: What is COP and why does it matter?