Scarlett Scott-Nadal
First-year single honours GSD student

"In preparation for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, the Climate Exp0 conference provided five days of informative and engaging research surrounding climate issues. Climate Exp0 was co-organised by the COP26 Universities Network (of which the University of Warwick is a participating university). The conference aimed to allow a diverse group of environmental enthusiasts, from students to policymakers, to collaborate and discuss the current scientific information on climate change and existing initiatives to combat it. The conference spanned from the 17^th May to the 21^st May and explored a variety of topics, including green recovery, nature-based solutions, mitigation solutions, adaptation and resilience and finance and regulation. Keynote speakers included, among others, Alok Sharma, President of COP26; Roberto Cingolani, Italian Minister of Ecological Transition; and Dr Emily Shuckburgh, Director of Cambridge Zero.

The job of a student volunteer

As a student volunteer at the Climate Exp0 conference, I was privileged to attend the session “You’re surrounded! Regionally led, globally relevant, nature-based solutions of water” as part of the “Nature-based Solutions” theme. The session was chaired by Dr James Dyke from the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter and featured three main speakers: Dr Chris Clements, University of Bristol; Dr Jannis Wenk, University of Bath; and Prof Isabelle Durance, Cardiff University. The panel lasted for roughly 75 minutes and focused on the connection between water-related issues and the climate emergency. Although the research presented was amazingly detailed and comprehensive, I was required to summarise the session into just five main points.

Five-point summary of the session

The main takeaways from the session are as follows:

1. Water security relates to water quality, freshwater biodiversity, water scarcity, and water-based extreme weather events;
2. In order to effectively manage freshwater ecosystems, we need reliable tools to predict the future, yet this is accompanied by significant challenges, such as high expense;
3. Nature-based solutions involve working with nature to improve management of water security in a way that is beneficial for the economy, society and the environment, however, this is difficult due to a lack of funding, and difficulty in getting different actors to agree, due to uncertainty about the costs and benefits;
4. The best way to ensure effective water management is to try and build evidence to achieve a shared, agreed vision on water management; and
5. A suggested form of management, treatment wetlands, can be low energy, used for recreational purposes, habitat and carbon storage and can improve water quality, addressing some water security issues.

Review of volunteering

The opportunity to volunteer at such an influential conference was an astounding experience and I therefore greatly recommend getting involved in similar events in any way you can. Whether it be to simply gather more information to ameliorate the quality of climate-focused assessments, or to feed your passion for environmental protection and stewardship, opportunities like this one should be seized. The event would not have been as successful without the other dedicated volunteers who worked diligently to record timestamps of important moments or summarise a session as I did. The climate emergency needs more passionate and devoted people in order to continue to see progressions in research and introductions of and amendments to policies and frameworks.

I sincerely hope everyone who participated and attended felt as equipped and determined to combat the climate emergency as I did.

Collaboration and teamwork to share and amplify our understanding of the climate crisis are undoubtedly essential for change."