Our young diplomats excelled at MockCOP 23
The schools were assigned different countries to research, and then sent a ‘delegation’ of students to the conference representing that country.
St David's sent delegations for Uganda, Brazil and the UK.
During the event, the students proposed resolutions and amendments and negotiated their country’s position.
The well-known Diplomat Carne Ross kindly gave up his time last week to prepare our students to take part in the conference.
After graduating from Exeter University, Mr Ross joined the British Foreign Office and worked at the UK embassy in Bonn, Germany, before moving to the UK mission to the United Nations. He also worked as a British diplomat in Norway, Afghanistan and Kosovo, specialising in conflict matters.
In 2004 he founded the non-governmental organisation- Independent Diplomat.
He now advises democratic countries about climate change, including the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, where there is huge alarm over rising sea levels.
He told the pupils that the world is not doing enough on climate change and how there is no more important topic for humankind.
“Climate change will severely change our way of life, and it’s happening so incredibly fast,” said Mr Ross.
The Brazilian delegation performed exceptionally well at the conference, with the only country that had two resolutions passed.
Head of Sixth Form Owen Davis said: “The MockCOP was a fantastic opportunity to deliver cross-curricular learning.
“They had to carry out a lot of research, developed their public-speaking and it absolutely raised their awareness of climate change.”
He added: “They had to become decision makers and I was very proud of them today, they did well.
“They’ve already said they’d like to get involved next year and would prefer to do it in person.”
Freddie from Year 12 said: “I learnt a lot about how climate change affected countries globally but especially in the southern hemisphere.
“The MockCOP also gave us an understanding of world politics, it was really good.”
