UCC at global climate conference
University College Cork (UCC) has sent a group of students and researchers to the ongoing global summit COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
UCC is the only Irish university with official observer status at the United Nations COP27 conference, which will bring together nations that have signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, or the Paris Agreement to assess global efforts to limit the levels of global warming and climate change.
Hannah Daly, Professor in Sustainable Energy and Energy Systems Modelling at UCC and MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine, who will be attending COP27 said: “Against a backdrop of worsening impacts of climate change at home and across the world, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of this climate summit. This will be the COP of implementation: governments, businesses and civil society must come together to collaborate on the millions of individual actions essential to drive emissions down rapidly.”
Egyptian citizen Omar Ibrahim from UCC’s School of Engineering and MaREI will also be among the UCC delegation.
He said: “Personally, COP27 is not just special because it’s a representation for Africa - it’s held in my home country. Joining the Irish delegation under UCC’s flag as an Egyptian is live evidence that different perspectives are encouraged to engage in the conversation, and even shape it. I hope to see an implementation COP, where countries share clear roadmaps and strategies about meeting climate targets relative to their contribution to carbon emissions.”
Included in the delegation is Natasha Sutton, an undergraduate from UCC’s School of Law and the UCC Students’ Union Environmental & Sustainability Representative. She said: “I believe it is incredibly important that young people be at the forefront of discussions around climate destruction etc. UCC are sending a very young delegation which reflects on the fact that they will be affected by climate change in years to come - and are already affected.”
Wishing the delegation well ahead of their attendance at COP27, UCC President John O’Halloran said: “Our UCC Futures programme of research, together with our practice-focussed award-winning green campus, has singled out Sustainability as an area of strategic importance, and we are working on creative, innovative, and inter-disciplinary solutions to the greatest challenge facing us all.”
The UCC delegation also consists of experts in carbon emissions & budgets, transport, societal change, sustainable cities, air & water pollution & energy efficiency. Follow the UCC delegation in Egypt at #UCCatCOP27.