Thomas Hale, Associate Professor of Global Public Policy, is one of four researchers who have been awarded COP26 Fellowships to engage with the international climate negotiations in the run up to the 26th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26).
Tom will be focussing on how cities, businesses, subnational and non-state actors can catalyse international climate policy. He said: “COP26 is a critical moment to put action at the centre of the Paris Agreement. I’m excited to think through how we can build an ‘All Society’ COP that maximises action from all different kinds of actors.”
The COP26 Fellowships, sponsored by UKRI through the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and offered through the Place-Based Climate Action Network (PCAN), will support the international climate negotiations through the provision, synthesis, translation and interpretation of scientific evidence.
The opportunity to become a COP26 Fellow proved very popular, with 129 applications made through video submissions and an online form. The Fellowships will be awarded for the academic year 2020/21 and run until mid-November 2021, covering the pre-COP26 process and COP26 itself.
