COP 27 Conference – hosted by Sawston Village College
12 schools from across the region came together at Sawston Village College to take part in a mock COP27 style eco conference. The eco teams from each school took part including 12 from CVC. There was a very interesting key note talk from Dr Simon Morley from the British Antarctic Survey.

This then led into the main event a mock COP. Each school represented an assigned country and had to make a speech requesting a certain amount of money from a total “budget” of £1 billion to solve climate-related issues within their country. This ranged from flooding defences to funding for solar panels, and every request was expressed articulately from each school. Comberton represented Brazil, with Natasha Audeon (9V) delivering a speech focusing on the Amazon Rainforest and how we would use the £40 million requested to end deforestation and support those whose livelihoods depended on it to greener jobs. After every school had spoken, we had fifteen minutes to decide on who our five votes would go to. There was a lot of negotiation between different schools, with deals and snubs, before we had to settle down and vote. Out of the thirteen schools represented, and twelve possible votes, Comberton got a whopping ten votes, the highest number of everyone by two! It then went to the final round, where every school had to vote yes or no on the three highest-scoring schools hypothetically receiving the money they had asked for. For any money to be given out, it had to be a unanimous vote in favour. Sadly, every school was blocked and no-one got any of the hypothetical money, but it was an incredibly interesting experience and taught everyone involved a huge amount about negotiation, politics and how hard it is to get things done on an international level.
Freya – year 9


There were then a range of options including tree planting and talks by Natural England and about the Babraham Forest Garden.

Tree planting
At the eco conference a group of us listened to a talk on forest gardens. These are areas of forest which are planted by humans to act like a normal forest. They could contain lots of fruit and berries. The garden which they’d most recently started growing contained apples, nuts, berries and garlic. The ground was designed to be covered in shrubs and bushes. This area will take many years to grow full but in the end will be an area for animals and people to use and enjoy.
Ada – year 8

The last workshop was for the schools to jointly deicde on some shared projects for our schools. There were loads of great ideas and these were then voted on. It was an excellent conference, organised by the County Council and hopefully we can continue to work together as schools on such an important issue as this.

