COP26 activities at West Lothian College

West Lothian College will be supporting COP26 with events allowing everyone to get involved.

COP26 is the 2021 United Nations climate change conference. For nearly three decades the UN has been bringing together almost every country on earth for global climate summits – called COPs – standing for ‘Conference of the Parties’. In that time climate change has gone from being a fringe issue to a global priority.

This year will be the 26th annual summit – giving it the name COP26. The UK will act as President, with the conference taking place in Glasgow from Sunday, October 31 until Friday, November 12.

Activities at the college will start on Monday, November 1 with a volunteer week providing opportunities for staff and students to get involved with local ecosystems, community groups, biodiversity and to learn about how we can help with climate change.

Activities on campus will include: creating a new wildflower area, installing bird boxes, installing bee and insect hotels and much more.

Running across this week and throughout the following week until November 11 will be a COP26 Market within the college with a variety of small local business showcasing their sustainable products.

The college held similar events with its first Sustainability Summit just before lockdown began in 2019, where it announced the elimination of single-use plastics on campus and it hopes to build on this effort to reduce its effect on climate change.