Professor Whiteman, the director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business and Professor-in-Residence at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), will be attending the WBCSD annual CEO/Council member meeting during the conference. She will report on the key global processes to scale up business solutions for climate change and sustainability. 

The WBCSD Council Member meeting is exclusively for WBCSD Members and invited guests. However, Professor Whiteman has facilitated the participation of Lancaster students at the WBCSD event, together with Dr Alison Stowell – Lecturer in Organisation Work and Technology.

Other Lancaster researchers attending COP21 include:

• Professor Nigel Paul (Professor of Plant Science and Director of Lancaster’s Centre for Global Eco-innovation), and Dr Ruth Alcock (Head of business partnerships in the Lancaster Environment Centre) will be hosting a side event with the African Development Bank. The event is titled “Eco-innovation strategies for tackling climate change in Africa” and is scheduled for Monday 7 December at 12:00–13:30 in Salle 1 of the Africa Pavilion.
• Dr Giovanni Bettini – Lecturer in Global Climate Politics will be hosting, with a number of partners, a side event on “The importance of social science research for understanding climate change induced migration”, scheduled for Tuesday 1st December, 11:30-13:00 in The Conference Centre, Paris, Room 8, Le Bourget Site.

The first ‘Earth Summit’ was held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 and brought nations from around the globe together to form a legally binding contract to stabilise greenhouse gasses.

This year will mark the 21st annual meeting of the original signatories to the agreement, plus additional members who have subsequently signed up. 

The conference will be held in Paris, from 30 November to 11 December.

The eight students will be tweeting about their experiences at the conference using the hashtag #LancUniatCOP21. Follow them on Twitter