COP26@City is a series of events and actions which demonstrate City’s commitment to reducing our environmental impact and playing our part in responding to the global climate challenge. Join the conversation online with #CityCOP26.
COP26 is the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties and this year it will take place in Glasgow between 31 October – 12 November. The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Click the individual event links for more information on the speakers and to register.
What's on at City
Mobilising business to tackle the climate emergency: Prospects and perils
Thursday 28th October | 11am – 12.30pm
Online panel discussion
Bayes Business School presents a panel event, featuring three talks that will explore the ways of mobilising business to tackle the climate emergency, and critique the role that businesses play in shaping climate policy. Speakers: Professor Paula Jarzabkowski, Dr Aneel Keswani, and Professor Bobby Banerjee.
COP conversations: Justice, accountability, and law in the climate emergency
Tuesday 2nd November | 3pm – 5pm
Online panel discussion
The City Law School presents four speakers and four different, thought-provoking ideas, with topics including protecting environmental activists from violence, the greening of commercial finance, criminalising climate denial, and decolonising the climate debate itself. Speakers: Dr Jesse Elvin, Professor Jason Chuah, Andrea Pelliconi (PhD Research Student), and Professor Richard Ashcroft.
Apocalypse yesterday: The graphic novel in the Anthropocene
Wednesday 3rd November | 1pm – 2pm
Online talk
The School of Arts & Social Sciences presents a talk by Dr Dominic Davies. In the age of the Anthropocene, humans have become geological agents and we live with the consequences of actions our ancestors’ committed decades ago. This talk will explore how the Anthropocene's overturning of our conventional narrative structures can be communicated – and perhaps reimagined – through the narrative space-time of the graphic novel.
Tackling climate change; through activism or innovation?
Tuesday 9th November | 6pm – 8pm
In-person panel discussion, Better Space, 127 Farringdon Road
During the peak of the pandemic many countries were able to report reductions in fossil fuel consumption, largely due to reduced economies and sweeping social restrictions. Join our panel to discuss how we can make real impact to affect climate change. Can innovative products quietly change consumers' habits to an increasingly sustainable society? Will activists' loud actions be heard by governments and lead the changes they seek? Or is there another way? Panelists: Professor Bobby Banerjee, Victoria Poon, Dr Andrew McNamara.
Food Thinkers: Is there food on the table at COP26?
Wednesday 10th November | 5.15pm – 6.45pm
Online panel discussion
The School of Health Sciences presents a special edition, 'Food Climate Thinkers' event. Food systems are responsible for around one third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and represent some of the most important routes to reducing emissions and stabilising the climate. Join Dr Tara Garnett, who established the Food Climate Research Network, and Paula Feehan, from City's Centre for Food Policy, to question whether evidence about the importance of dietary change has been integrated into national climate plans – and if not, why not, and what are the potential pathways for change?
The impact of IT on the future of energy consumption
Thursday 11th November | 6 – 7.30pm
In-person talk and Q&A: Room B200, University Building
The School of Mathematics, Computer Science & Engineering present an event, chaired by Professor Lorenzo Strigini, with speaker Professor Mootaz Elnozahy. Estimates show that data centres currently consume approximately 2% of the total electricity produced in the developed world, predicted to reach about 10% by the end of the decade. This talk will explore the fundamental paradigm shift needed in the way we develop, deploy, and use information technology, to enable a more sustainable future.
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