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Chiswick and COP26
The Y13 Geography and Politics classes participated in a tense and dramatic COP26 conference in November. Despite many social media requests, Greta Thunberg couldn’t quite make it, but 14 countries were well represented by 26 students, who gave High Level Impact statements about the effects of climate change on their people and the measures they were already taking. What followed was two hours of strained international diplomacy as pledges were rejected and recriminations thrown about. Indonesia’s impassioned demands for change were matched by the Marshall Islands’ threats to punish Australia and Brazil with increased shipping taxes as countries looked for ways to protect their own interests. The snack break in particular saw a lot of ‘sofa politics’ and some slightly questionable deals cut between Saudi Arabia and several other nations.
Ultimately, it fell to the USA to make headlines at the end of the conference as they persuaded Australia to increase their pledges, and although the UK’s sartorial efforts were applauded, their commitment to fighting climate change was clearly lacking. The whole experience was a brilliant way for A Level students to really dig into the detail of environmental global governance on their course and to truly understand how superpowers interact on the world stage. Their Politics and Geography teachers were very proud of how much effort they all went to, and we are still talking about the international fall-out in lessons, weeks later!