Faculty of Social Sciences researchers attend COP29
In November, researchers and students from the Faculty of Social Sciences will attend COP-29 (either in-person or remotely), which is this year hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The University of Leeds is an official observer of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and will send a delegation from various Faculties across the University.
Among those delegates will be researchers from the School of Law and the School of Politics and International Studies, who will be involved in hosting and speaking at events as well as conducting research. Their role is to ensure the accountability of the process and meet with a wide range of key stakeholders.
Social Sciences delegates
Jan Selby, Professor of International Politics and Climate Change at the School of Politics and International Studies will be attending remotely. Jan’s research focuses on the links between climate and other environmental changes, and structures and dynamics of politics and power. At COP29 he will be following progress on methane policy and regulation, as well as the impacts of the current international political conjuncture, especially the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, on climate negotiations. Jan’s hopes for COP29 can be found here.
Also attending is Erika Moranduzzo, a PhD researcher at the School of Law, whose area of research expertise is climate induced migration towards European Union with (also) a focus on the role of the civil society in relation to the legal recognition of climate refugees and is a member of Centre for Law and Social Justice and of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures.
As Erika says, “Migration of people across international borders due to the adverse effects of climate change. This is an area of growing concern as environmental degradation worsens and some areas become increasingly uninhabitable. People are already on the move to find relief from climate events and to seek better living conditions. However, there is no existing legal framework that addresses this category of migrants and discussions at UNFCCC level are still ongoing and not fully integrated into the COP agenda items yet.”
Find out more about Erika’s work as a W7 advisor at the G7 Summit here.
Catriona Flesher, is a PhD researcher at the School of Law, whose thesis is funded by the Extinction Studies Doctoral Training Programme (DTP) convened by the Leverhulme Trust and the University of Leeds.
Her research explores the framing and governance of Loss and Damage from climate change, examining its emergent legal arrangements from international climate negotiations, placed in dialogue with the experiences of climatic losses and damages in a rural community in Malawi.
Catriona sits within both the School of Law and School of Earth and Environment, and is a member of the Centre for Law and Social Justice and the Sustainability Research Institute in each School respectively.
Meet the delegation
On Thursday 7 November 2024, 12-1pm, there will be an opportunity for the University of Leeds community to meet members of their COP29 delegation. This will include an introduction, with an overview of COP29 and its importance: both scientific and political. You will then hear from several members of the delegation about their planned activities and hopes for the negotiations. Finally, you will have an opportunity to ask questions and share any messages that you would like to be taken to COP29.
