COP26 and what it means to Treloar’s

Treloar’s is working towards Eco School Status this year. The College has set up an Eco Council which will complete an environmental review of the site and select three projects to work on throughout the year. This term students have been learning more about COP26, the global united nations summit about climate change.

COP26 East Hampshire

On the 8th October College students, Keira and Ben attended the COP26 East Hampshire environmental event that aimed to help residents and businesses do more to combat climate change. The aim of the event was to raise awareness of what is being done locally to reduce carbon emissions and the steps local people and organisations can take for themselves. Over 40 local businesses and community groups exhibited how they had successfully reduced their carbon footprint.

The students enjoyed finding out about electric cars and bikes, how to reduce our plastic use, eco refillable shops and how to look after our water supply. They left with lots of ideas to support our Eco Council.

We have an opportunity to empower our students to consider protecting the environment for the future. Our focus this term has been the 5R’s: Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Refuse and Repair.

Over the last 12 months we have worked hard to develop the outside learning environments, the latest addition being the rainbow shelter in the Primary Playground. We have also seen the addition of our new Outdoor Forest Library, the completion of our Outdoor Learning Centre and the revamped outdoor classroom at Willow Way.

What is COP26?

The COP26 event is a global united nations summit about climate change and how countries are planning to tackle it. COP stands for Conference of the Parties, and will be attended by countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) – a treaty agreed in 1994. The 2021 meeting will be the 26th meeting, which it why it’s called COP26.

This year it will take place in Glasgow and will be the biggest meeting of world leaders that the UK has ever hosted.

World Leaders including Boris Johnson and Joe Biden will agree targets for the future, with the aim of reducing greenhouse gases and protecting the planet. These decisions affect people all over the globe, they help us all work together to become greener and more sustainable.

What can you do?

Here are some ideas we’ve shared with our students and their families this half-term.

• Learn about recycling and ensure you use your local recycling facilities
• Visit a charity shop to learn about donations
• Visit your local recycling area
• Upcycle an old item into something new
• Have a go at composting
• Before you throw something out consider could someone else use it, can it be recycled?
• Learn about local initiatives like the Alton Climate Action network and the Repair Café