COP31 Delegation

Our COP31 Delegation

This year, the University of Warwick is sending ten official delegates to COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, joining the global conversation on the future of climate action and sustainability.

Taking place from 9th to 20th November 2026, COP31 brings together representatives from governments, research institutions, businesses and civil society to discuss the challenges and opportunities shaping the global climate agenda.

Warwick’s delegation brings together a range of academic expertise and research interests, reflecting the university’s interdisciplinary approach to tackling global challenges. From climate governance and environmental justice to the role of emerging technologies in climate action, delegates will explore how research and evidence can inform international discussions and support more sustainable and equitable futures. Through their participation, the delegates will have the opportunity to engage with perspectives from across the international climate community, observe how key issues are negotiated and build connections with researchers and practitioners working to address the climate crisis.

Professor Celine Tan, Head of Delegation, said:

"We are proud to be leading the University of Warwick's COP31 delegation to the UNFCCC COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, bringing a diverse team of researchers and students to one of the world's most important forums for climate action. Through hosting and contributing to side events, exhibitions and sessions, we will share Warwick's expertise, build new collaborations and engage in critical global discussions on climate and sustainability.

Our researchers will be engaging in a range of issues from climate finance, just energy transitions, sustainable development, climate technologies and environmental resilience. We are particularly excited to support four Warwick students involved in a research project exploring the role of AI in sustainability and climate governance.

As a university committed to research, education and impact, we see COP31 as an opportunity both to contribute and to bring valuable insights back to our community and beyond."

Follow their journey as they share insights, reflections and updates from COP31 in Antalya.

Professor Celine Tan

Head of Delegation

Professor, School of Law

Profile

Professor Celine TanLink opens in a new windowheads the University of Warwick’s delegation to COP31 with Professor Stephanie Panichelli-Battala.

She is Professor of International Economic Law at Warwick Law School, University of Warwick. She is also the Co-Director of the Centre for Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy (GLOBE)Link opens in a new windowbased at Warwick Law School. She has published on issues relating to international economic law and development, sovereign debt and the global financial architecture, and sustainable development and climate finance.

Professor Tan is currently leading a project on Climate Finance for Equitable Transitions (CLiFT)Link opens in a new window, a multi-institutional and multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at exploring the climate finance supply chain within the context of the multilateral climate change regime, international financial architecture and the multi-layered landscape of international economic law. She is also Principal Investigator on a British-Academy-funded project on Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs)Link opens in a new window.

Professor Tan chairs the University of Warwick’s Multilateral Engagement Action Group (MEAG)Link opens in a new window which reports to the University’s Sustainability Committee and is co-convenor of the Warwick Network for Equity and Exchange in Climate Governance and Strategy (NEXUS)Link opens in a new window.

At COP31, she will be coordinating a project meeting on the JETPs with her project team and other stakeholders as well as engaging in broader discussions on climate action and sustainable development pathways. She is co-organising a side event on Operationalising Fairness: Just Transition, Equity, Science and FinanceLink opens in a new windowwith Third World Network, Oxfam International and War on Want. This event examines the challenges for enabling just, equitable and development-aligned transitions, including wealth concentration and the unfair economic and financial architecture. She will also be participating insessions at country and thematic pavilions.

Professor Stéphanie Panichelli-Batalla

Head of Delegation

Academic Director (Sustainability)

Profile

Prof. Stephanie Panichelli-Batalla is a Professor of Global Sustainable Development and Academic Director for Sustainability at the University of Warwick. Her research focuses on Cuba, social justice, international development and global health, with a particular emphasis on the experiences of Cuban healthcare professionals involved in international medical missions. Using oral history methods, she explores how international cooperation, health diplomacy and social solidarity shape individual lives and broader development outcomes. Alongside her research, she led the development of Warwick's sustainability strategy and now oversees its implementation across sustainable campus, education for sustainable development, research and engagement.

Her work relates to COP31 through both her research and institutional leadership. Her research examines international cooperation, social justice and sustainable development from Global South perspectives, while her role as Academic Director for Sustainability focuses on translating sustainability ambitions into institutional practice. Having led the development of Warwick's sustainability strategy, she is particularly interested in how organisations can drive meaningful climate action while ensuring that the transition to a sustainable future is equitable, inclusive and socially just.

She hopes to deepen her understanding of how universities, governments and civil society organisations can collaborate to accelerate climate action while delivering socially just outcomes. She is particularly interested in learning from innovative approaches to climate justice, education for sustainable development and international partnerships, and in bringing those insights back to Warwick. COP31 also provides a valuable opportunity to strengthen and further develop existing networks with university partners, build new collaborations, share the University's sustainability work, and explore how higher education can contribute more effectively to addressing interconnected environmental and social challenges.

Professor Giuliana Battisti

Professor, Warwick Business School

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Prof. Giuliana Battisti is a Professor of the Economics of Innovation at Warwick Business School. Her research concerns the generation, production and uptake of innovations and new technologies across users and producers and industrial and innovation policy for economic growth. She co-leads the University of Warwick's Sustainability Spotlight research initiative and is Deputy Director of the Circular Economy Powered Renewable Energy Centre (CEPREC), a UKRI Ayrton Challenge project focused on the uptake of circular renewable energy technologies to empower sustainable energy access, generation and equitable transition in Sub-Saharan countries, including Namibia, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leon, Rwanda and South Africa.

Earlier this year Giuliana took part in High-Level Political Forums at the United Nations headquarters in New York and at the United Nations Climate Change meeting -UNFCCC-SB64 in Bonn on the policy and industrial framework for the sustainable energy transition of Africa. Last year she contributed to the debate on finance for circular energy systems at the United Nations General Assembly ‘Green week’ sideline event in New York and at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belem, Brazil.

Giuliana is a member of the European Commission's high-level panel of experts on R&I and industrial policies, She has been an advisor, among others, for the Bank of England, the EC JRC Institute for Perspective Technological Studies, the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Research Institute on Financial Structures and Economic Development.

Dr Tom Ritchie

Reader, Chemistry

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Dr Tom Ritchie is a Reader and Director of Student Experience in the Department of Chemistry, and Warwick’s Academic Lead for Education for Sustainable Development. A historian by training working in a STEM department, his work sits where sustainability, artificial intelligence and higher education meet. He co-chairs Warwick’s Responsible AI and Digital Sustainability Action Group and hosts the podcasts AI Ethics Now and Sustainability Matters Now.

At COP31, Tom is co-leading “Researching at the Frontier”, a Policy Support Fund project that brings four Warwick student researchers to Antalya to study how AI is being framed within international climate negotiations. The findings will inform a policy paper for UK policymakers and a model other universities can adopt for developing student researchers. Alongside the research, he is working with the Higher Education for Climate Action Pavilion on the Pavilion Sessions podcast, recording conversations with presenters and delegates to share how universities are engaging with climate action beyond the conference itself. Throughout the fortnight he will be building connections between Warwick, student researchers and the wider higher education community at COP. On 18th November, Tom will present the project with undergraduate researcher Millie Carter, sharing early findings at the Pavilion in the Blue Zone.

Dr Feng Mao

Associate Professor, Global Sustainable Development

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Dr Feng Mao is Associate Professor of Global Sustainable Development and Director of Research in the School for Cross-faculty Studies at the University of Warwick, UK.

His interdisciplinary research focuses on water security, urban resilience and sustainable development. He combines environmental data, digital technologies and participatory approaches to understand environmental challenges and support more effective and inclusive decision-making, bridging scientific research, policy and practice.

His work is closely aligned with COP31 priorities around climate adaptation, resilient cities, water security and innovative approaches to climate action. He is particularly interested in how global climate commitments can be translated into locally relevant, evidence-informed solutions that respond to the needs of different communities.

Through attending COP31, he hopes to engage with policymakers, researchers and practitioners, exchange insights into emerging climate adaptation strategies, and develop international collaborations. He is especially keen to explore opportunities to strengthen the connections between scientific evidence, technological innovation and practical climate action, contributing to more resilient and sustainable futures.

Dewan Hazif Nabil

PhD Candidate, WMG

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Dewan Hafiz Nabil is a PhD Researcher at the Supply Chain Research Group, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), University of Warwick, UK. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and previously worked as a Supply Chain Planner for one of Bangladesh’s largest conglomerates. His research focuses on clean energy supply chains, with particular emphasis on hydrogen integration to accelerate energy system transitions and support net-zero targets. His work examines how supply chains can be designed to be more resilient, adaptive and sustainable amid technological, geopolitical and systemic uncertainties.

His published and ongoing research spans supply chain resilience, risk management, digital tools for sustainability, and strategic frameworks for adaptive supply chain management, with relevance to energy security, infrastructure resilience and the wider clean energy transition. His research contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals 7, 9, 12 and 17.

At COP31, Dewan hopes to engage with researchers, policymakers, industry representatives and international organisations working on electrification, hydrogen, resilient energy systems, clean energy infrastructure and industrial decarbonisation. He aims to exchange knowledge, develop research collaborations, and gain practical insights into how evidence-based approaches can support resilient and sustainable energy transitions.

Personal website/ Contact: www.dewan-hafiz-nabil.comLink opens in a new window

Maddison Willetts

Postgraduate student, Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies

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Maddison Willetts recently completed her undergraduate degree in English Language and Literature and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in AI and Society at Warwick’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies. Owing to her interdisciplinary background, she is particularly interested in investigating how the values, opportunities, and environmental consequences of AI are understood and negotiated within international climate governance. She is eager to explore these themes through interviews with delegates and civil society at COP31.

Her previous research on the ethical implications of Generative AI in higher education introduced her to broader questions surrounding AI and data ethics, as well as the role of technologies in both preventing and supporting more equitable and sustainable environmental solutions. At COP31, she hopes to explore how AI is being framed and how negotiations are shaped by the tensions between AI’s potential to accelerate climate innovation and its substantial and unevenly distributed environmental costs.

Beth Stephens

Undergraduate student, Politics, International Studies and Global Sustainable Development

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Bethan Stevens is a BASc Politics, International Studies and Global Sustainable Development student at the University of Warwick. Her research interest examines how artificial intelligence is being framed as a tool of governance, and whether it reinforces inclusive or extractive patterns within existing socio-economic structures.

Her most developed work, presented at the International Conference of Undergraduate Research on an interdisciplinary panel on AI development, treats bias amplification as a structural trait of AI: it explores how feedback mechanisms can perpetuate traditional gendered archetypes and deepen ideological polarisation. That project used European Social Survey data and showed where further empirical evidence is needed. Her plan for her dissertation is to extend this inquiry to UK local government, asking how councils can govern AI to create public value and which institutional conditions allow it to improve services. A module on the Politics of Artificial Intelligence this year will add to the theory behind this.

What excites her most about COP31 is seeing at first hand how AI gets handled in a multilateral setting: who is driving the conversation, where it is situated on the agenda and whether it is excluded from it altogether. She also wants to get a feel for the full cast of actors in the COP process and how they end up shaping the headlines. Beyond the research, she is looking forward to preparing with the Warwick team on the road to COP and to the people she will meet in Antalya.

Millie Carter

Undergraduate student, Life Sciences and Global Sustainable Development

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Millie Carter is an undergraduate Life Sciences and Global Sustainable Development student. Her studies and interests lie in science communication, particularly the gap between climate science, policy and public understanding. She is interested in making science accessible to wider audiences, including youth, as well as communicating it effectively to specialist bodies like governments. Her dissertation examines how media and government sources frame ocean-climate phenomena, building on a background in ocean science and a semester at Monash University studying climate change communication.

Through her degree, she has seen how differently climate issues are understood depending on who is communicating and who is listening. This connects directly to COP31, where science, policy and public audiences meet and Pacific concerns are high on the agenda. Her coursework in climate change, ocean science and policy has given her a foundation in both the evidence being discussed and how it is translated into decisions.

By attending COP31, she hopes to investigate these debates first-hand, developing her interviewing, observation and policy skills alongside experts in the field, and contribute to research that informs UK policy as she works towards a career bridging climate change, science communication and policy. Alongside the research, she is working with Tom and the Higher Education for Climate Action Pavilion on the Pavilion Sessions podcast, putting her science communication interests into practice by helping share the conversations taking place at the Pavilion with wider audiences.

Mithuna Mulloth

PhD Candidate, Warwick Business School

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Mithuna Parvans Mulloth is a PhD researcher in the Organisation and Work group at Warwick Business School. Her research explores how digital technologies, including data platforms, AI and data centres, shape climate action and environmental justice.

She is particularly interested in how communities, organisations and technology providers shape the way these technologies are used, and why their effects differ across places and people. Through her work, she aims to contribute to a better understanding of how technology can support climate action while addressing the social and environmental inequalities it may create.

Technologies are increasingly used to address climate challenges, but their wider social and environmental impacts deserve attention. Her research connects to COP31 themes of climate justice and a just transition by exploring how technologies and data centres shape climate action, and how their effects are felt by different communities.

Her work brings an organisational perspective to discussions on how digital innovation can support climate action while ensuring that its wider consequences are not overlooked.

At COP31, she hopes to gain first-hand insight into how technologies, like AI, are discussed and used in international climate action. She wants to understand how policymakers, researchers, businesses and civil society organisations approach the opportunities and challenges these technologies present, particularly in relation to climate justice and a just transition.

She also hopes to build connections with researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of technology, climate governance and environmental justice.

University of Warwick staff and students will be joining the COP31 negotiations online, contributing to global discussions on the future of climate action and sustainability.

Professor Christine Schwöbel-Patel

Professor, School of Law

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Professor Christine Schwöbel-Patel is a Professor of Law at Warwick Law School, University of Warwick. She is a critical legal scholar whose work focuses primarily on the political economy critique of international law, with recent research exploring extractivism and anti-extractivism.

Her research connects closely with COP31 themes through her work examining the legal dynamics underpinning the green transition. In particular, she is interested in how powerful corporate actors use legal frameworks to advance their interests in extraction and shape the transition towards a greener economy.

At COP31, she hopes to engage with discussions surrounding the green transition and critically examine how the concept of a 'just transition' is being used, including whether and how it may deflect criticism of 'green colonialism', and by whom. She is also interested in discussions around treaty regimes relating to the green transition, the key stakeholders involved, and, in particular, the ways in which actors from the Global South are included or excluded from these processes.

Dr Mücahit Özden

Assistant Professor, WMG

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Dr Mucahit Ozden is an Assistant Professor (Teaching Focussed) at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), University of Warwick.

His teaching and research focus on supply chain and operations management, with particular interests in sustainability and digital transformation. He is especially interested in how organisations, educational institutions and policymakers can encourage more sustainable decision-making through evidence-based interventions.

At COP31, he hopes to contribute to discussions through a workshop and presentation entitled “Nudging for Sustainability: Empowering Youth through International Academic Cooperation.” Currently at the concept stage, the initiative seeks to address the gap between environmental awareness and sustainable action among young people. Rather than presenting a completed project, the workshop aims to bring together researchers, educators, policymakers and youth leaders to explore how behavioural nudges can promote sustainable lifestyles and climate engagement. A key objective is to attract interested partners and establish an international network to collaboratively develop a more systematic, evidence-based approach to climate education and behaviour change.

Through attending COP31, he hopes to engage with a diverse international community of researchers, policymakers, educators and practitioners working on climate-related challenges. He is particularly interested in identifying opportunities for collaboration, exchanging knowledge on innovative approaches to climate education and youth engagement, and contributing to discussions on how higher education institutions can play a greater role in supporting global climate action. He also hopes to strengthen international partnerships that can support collaborative research, capacity building and the development of practical solutions that empower young people to contribute to sustainability and climate resilience.

Dr Jess Savage

Reader, Global Sustainable Development

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Dr Jess Savage is a Reader and Director of Graduate Studies for the School for Cross-Faculty Studies, specialising in Global Sustainable Development at the University of Warwick.

Her work focuses on human-environment interactions and how environmental policies influence the relationships between people and the natural environment. The work of the UNFCCC relates directly to her research interests, particularly through its efforts to shape how people use and manage environmental resources, including carbon and other natural resources.

Through attending COP31, Jess hopes to gain a better understanding of plans for the management of natural resources beyond 2030. She also sees the opportunity as a way to update and strengthen her teaching, ensuring that the content delivered to students in climate-focused modules, as well as the wider Warwick community through the Climate Literacy programme, reflects the latest international climate discussions and developments.

Stephanie Lee You Voon

Undergraduate student, PPE

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Stephanie Lee You Voon is a final-year Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) student at the University of Warwick.

Growing up in a small island developing state on the front line of climate change, Stephanie recognised that climate change is far more than an environmental challenge. Rising climate risks threaten ecosystems, economic security and the social well-being of present and future generations. This perspective has shaped her research, where she explored how environmental policies can be more effective when they reflect countries’ different economic structures, development needs and climate vulnerabilities. Her interest has also extended beyond the classroom through youth networks, where she collaborates with young people from different countries on sustainable development and intergenerational equity.

Alongside this, her degree has deepened her appreciation that climate solutions cannot be assessed solely by their environmental ambition; they must also be ethically justifiable, politically feasible and economically viable. This interdisciplinary perspective is particularly relevant to UNFCCC priorities, including climate finance, just transitions and the implementation of nationally appropriate climate action. COP31 will provide her with an opportunity to explore these interconnected dimensions in a setting where international climate priorities are debated and negotiated.

Attending COP31 marks an exciting next chapter in Stephanie’s journey. She looks forward to experiencing international climate discussions firsthand and bringing new perspectives into her final-year dissertation. She also hopes to share what she learns with the wider community, helping translate the ideas and international commitments discussed at COP31 into practical action.

Anaya Nabeel

Undergraduate student, Global Sustainable Development

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Anaya Nabeel Bari is studying Global Sustainable Development at the University of Warwick.

Her research focuses on the intersection of sustainable cities, urban adaptation, climate resilience and gender. Her most recent project examined the impact of climate shocks in informal urban settlements on women’s socioeconomic security in Karachi, Pakistan. She explored how climate shocks interact with infrastructure vulnerabilities, gender inequalities and existing socioeconomic norms to shape women’s security before and after climate disruptions.

Anaya’s work aligns with COP31’s focus on climate-resilient cities and adaptation. By examining how infrastructure vulnerabilities and existing gender inequalities shape the impacts of climate shocks, her research highlights the importance of understanding local vulnerabilities, institutions and sociocultural structures when developing effective adaptation and resilience strategies. Her work also connects to broader discussions on sustainable urban development and climate justice in the Global South.

Through attending COP31, Anaya hopes to gain a deeper understanding of how climate research informs international climate policy and the implementation of adaptation and resilience strategies. She is particularly interested in discussions on sustainable urban development, gender and climate challenges in the Global South. She also looks forward to engaging with diverse perspectives and exploring how evidence-based research can contribute to more effective climate policies and development outcomes.