MUN Faces the Challenges of Climate Change

Eight King’s School pupils were delighted to participate in the online “Good Cop Bad Cop” conference last week.

This annual conference is organised by Engage with China, a registered UK educational charity building China literacy in schools, and was a real testament to what the Head of Sixth Form at Marlborough College termed, “global education as a reality.”

The world’s focus last Autumn was on The UAE, which hosted the international summit of COP28 on the challenges of climate change. The resolutions voted on by nations will have a major impact on the world as we know it, and there are undoubtedly tough challenges ahead. These challenges will fall to the next generation to solve.

An impressive total of 21 schools participated in this conference from four continents, all connected online. Each school represented a different country from its own, to give students the experience of debating from a perspective that might be very different from that to which they are used. Six resolutions were debated at this year’s conference, based on the outcomes of COP28. These were: Resolution 1, Carbon Mitigation; Resolution 2, Financing of Adaptation; Resolution 3, Compensation for Loss and Damage due to Climate Change; Resolution 4, Plastic Waste; Resolution 5, Food Waste; Resolution 6, Promoting Sustainability in Fashion Design and Production.

It was a particularly exciting conference for Upper Sixth Student Riya M, who guest-chaired one of the committees discussing Resolution 3. This was a very high pressure role, as she had to manage a virtual breakout space and allow all the participants to have their say if they wished to do so.

The conference allowed students to develop a multitude of skills in the process of planning, preparation and participation in the conference, including research, debating, listening, empathy, leadership, team-building, cross-cultural collaboration and, of course, negotiation.