Students ‘anxious but hopeful’ at mock COP30 talks

How COP30 climate change meeting in Brazil As it draws to a close, University of Leicester students have held their own climate talks.

Students played the roles of different countries, gave speeches and “negotiated” international agreements with each other at the Mock COP conference on Wednesday.

Mohammed Siddiqui, an engineering graduate student and chairman of the student union's sustainability council, said it allowed participants to take on the role of world leaders.

“As our generation inherits the next era of decision-making and governance… we want to ensure that we have a planet that we can support, but that future generations can support as well,” he said.

Geography student Andrew Alvedro, who chose to represent Spain, said there was a “discontent and anxiety” among young people, but also a “feeling of disappointment”.

“When I told some of my friends I was going to an event like this, they asked, 'What is COP?' “It’s a little worrying,” he said.

“I think it's kind of a show that some of us are just sticking our heads in the ground.”

He added that he was “cautiously optimistic” about progress in tackling climate change.

“We know the science, we have the technology to deal with this crisis, but instead of fighting it, we are going in circles,” he said.

“We need to sort out the politics because the science has already worked.”

This year marks ten years since a landmark climate agreement was reached at COP21 in Paris, where countries pledged to try to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

However, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that temperatures “exceeding” 1.5°C is now inevitable, and the limit was exceeded in 2024 for the first time in a whole year.

Nour El Iman Boubecoeur, studying French and English law, represented her home country France at Mock COP.

“I'm very concerned, but I have some hope for humanity,” she said.

“We have managed to secure important agreements, such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, so I still hope that we are not completely lost.”

“We can still make some changes, but we need to make those changes now if we don't want to live in a nightmare.”

Politics and International Relations student and “Australian Delegate” James Charlton echoed the feeling of anxiety mixed with hope.

“When we discuss what's going to happen in 20, 30, 50 years, I end up thinking: This is my life, this is the world I'm going to have to live in,” he said.

“There are so many people my age and younger who are fully committed to trying to do better.”

Patricia Severnoha, an exchange student from Germany studying media and communications, said she decided to represent the United Kingdom because she wanted to learn more about British politics.

She said she felt “sad and disappointed” by the actions of some world leaders.

Ahead of COP30, Most countries have not submitted updated plans to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases.

“Sometimes it feels like they're kind of pushing these issues onto our generation, that it won't be a problem for them,” Ms. Severnoha said.

Donald Trump did not attend COP30 and the US government said it would not send senior officials.

IN speech at the UN in SeptemberThe US President has called climate change “the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on the world.”

He also criticized the scientific evidence of rising temperatures.

The vast majority of scientists and experts agree that climate change is human-caused and very real.

COP30 officially ends on Friday 21 November.