A team from the University of Plymouth is attending the United Nations Climate Conference – better known as COP28 – in Dubai, this week.

Attendees, including politicians and scientists from all over the world, will have the opportunity to meet leading researchers and experts in the fields of offshore renewable energy, ocean science, plastics and more.

The University is working with Plymouth Marine Laboratory and Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean, and can be found at Stand 9 in the Education, Science and Technology Zone, at Expo City. 

The team is sharing the latest developments in climate challenges, impacts and options towards sustainable ocean development. And the aim is to connect science, industry, policy and society for ocean action in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) processes and strengthening Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

The centrepiece of the University’s presence at COP28 is a side event on Sunday 3 December, which is focused on scaling up community knowledge within a whole-system approach for climate-smart solutions in energy and land transitions.

A just transition for energy and resource development requires systems thinking to resolve complex challenges from land to sea. It demands negotiating conflicts of top-down and bottom-up knowledge, learning from community-led approaches to deliver evidence-based sustainability solutions, fast and at scale.