London Climate Action Week
25 June 2019
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared a climate emergency. As part of London’s response to this, the first ever London Climate Action Week will be held from 1-8 July. UCL is involved in three events across the week. Shape the debate by getting involved too!
![London Climate Week](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainable/sites/sustainable/files/styles/large_image/public/london_climate_week.jpg?itok=51o8mbQg)
Attend an event
The week will bring together London’s climate expertise and talent from across sectors to run events across the city focused on taking local, national and international action. These events will highlight the scaling up of practical solutions and identifying new solutions to help cut our carbon emissions to keep global temperature increases within 1.5C and support the Paris Agreement.
The Mayor is working with E3G and other partners to convene events by Londoners, businesses, civil society groups and local, national and international governments.
Events UCL has contributed to:
- Change The Debate - Schools Climate Conference
Wednesday 3rd July, 2019
#changethedebate
‘The most important thing you can do to fight climate change is talk about it.’
Professor Katherine HayhoeYoung people have demonstrated their power to change the debate. This conference, held at UCL, is designed to provide rigorous knowledge, skills and motivation to allow young people to change the debate in their schools and local communities. Green Schools Project, School 21, and WE will bring together 200 young people aged 9-17 from 10 schools, academics, climate scientists and politicians to discuss what is required from the education sector to respond to the climate crisis. This conference was initiated by Philip Bel, UCL IOE allumni on the back of the climate strikes, he wanted to help students communicate sustainability to their peers. Philip got in touch with UCL Sustainability, who introduced UCL's cohort of academics leading change within the area. UCL academics will be supporting the debates.
- Climate security
Date:Tuesday 02 July 2019
The Netherlands has long been a champion of human and planetary security – including through its support of the Planetary Security Initiative. Similarly, the UK has a long history of pushing these agendas in international fora through the UNFCCC, Agenda 2030 and the UN Security Council. Both countries are now part of a coalition supporting the Resilience track as part of the Climate Action Summit that UN Secretary General António Guterres is organising in New York in September.
The climate-security agenda is fast evolving, with defence, diplomacy and development actors all stepping up their activities. In recent years as climate impacts have intensified, the science has become even more unsettling and public calls to action have grown louder. Particularly in the Netherlands and the UK, but increasingly in many other countries as well, climate change is included as key aspect in security risks analysis, including scenarios of the armed forces. With people on the streets of London calling for the Government to declare a Climate Emergency, the security implications of climate change and the need to build resilience are increasingly moving from a topic of government backrooms to a topic of public debate.
Here there are many opportunities for cross-fertilisation with the climate resilience agenda. At present the climate resilience and climate-related security risk agendas have developed in parallel. Through exploring opportunities for increased UK-Dutch cooperation there is an opportunity to deepen synergies and deliver outcomes that are greater than the sum of their parts at the UNSG’s Summit.
Speakers confirmed:
General Tom Middendorp, Chair of the International Military Council on Climate & Security (IMCCS) & Senior Research Fellow, the Clingendael Institute
Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti, Honorary Professor and Director of Strategy at University College London
Dr. Louise van Schaik, Head of Unit, Clingendael Institute and lead author of Climate Adaptation & Security paper for Global Commission on Adaptation
Dr. Amiera Sawas, Senior Research and Policy Specialist, ActionAid UKThe event is organised by E3G, the Clingendael Institute and the Planetary Security Initiative, in partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the United Kingdom.
The discussion will be followed by a drinks reception. Due to space constraints the event is invitation only with 60 seats available, but will be made available to the public via livestream.
We encourage policymakers, students, young professionals and journalists to get in touch to request an invitation.
- Camden's Citizen's Assembly on the Climate Crisis
UCL has been supporting Camden to set up the UK’s first Climate Citizen Assembly. Richard Jackson, UCL Sustainability Director sits on the Advisory Board, Mark Maslin, UCL Professor is the key note speaker at the first meeting and Joanna Marshall-Cook, UCL Senior Sustainability Manager will be speaking at the second meeting.
This July will see the launch of Camden's Citizen' Assembly on the climate crisis with the first of a series of three assemblies to help us to decide how the borough should address the climate crisis. Camden has already reduced its CO2 emissions by 32% since 2010. We want to drive this change further and are asking you for your ideas.
The first assembly on 01 July will help to set the scene of the climate crisis in Camden including facts and challenges. To achieve we have invited experts in the subject including Prof Mark Maslin (UCL) and Farhana Yamin (Extention Rebellion).
In addition to this, the council launched a public platform to give everyone in the borough the opportunity to share their ideas with the Assembly about what we should all do to reduce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2). The platform was launch on 01 June and can be accessed via this link: https://camdenclimateassembly.commonplace.is/