UK Pavilion Events Programme - Week 2
Welcome to the UK Government Pavilion Events Programme for COP29!
We look forward to your visit, where you will experience a diverse, exciting, inclusive and ambitious programme of events. So please do join us, and get involved in the conversation, as we invite global experts, heads of states, local communities, artists and more in advocating for strong international climate leadership and action.
And of course, we value the important of making COP as sustainable and accessible as possible to access for all- so we invite those of you at home to watch the events live, or otherwise catch-up afterwards with via the recordings on our YouTube Channel.
Monday, 18 November 2024
09:30 - 10:30 Baku
05:30 - 06:30 GMT
Making agriculture smart by going wild
This event will dive into the critical role of crop diversification and wild species in building resilience against climate change and enhancing biodiversity.
RBG Kew and other leading organizations are pioneering research into forgotten species and the traits found in wild relatives of cultivated crops, uncovering new, sustainable sources of food.
From the coffee served in the UK pavilion to groundbreaking work in Ethiopia with the ‘false banana’—a miracle plant capable of sustaining a family for months—along with potatoes in Peru and legumes in Sub-Saharan Africa, wild species and genetic diversification are key to creating a resilient food future.
Watch live here
11:15 - 12:15 Baku
07:15 - 08:15 GMT
Empowering Impact-Makers: How SMEs Drive Innovation in Sustainable Business Practice
Corporate Leaders Group UK Event - UK Pavilion Offical Partner
This event will focus on the critical role small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play in driving sustainable innovation across supply chains. The event will explore how large corporations are enabling SMEs to prioritise sustainability, the policy frameworks needed to support this, and the vital role of SMEs in achieving broader climate targets. A member of the High-Level Champion (HLC) senior leadership team is invited to deliver a keynote address, highlighting the importance of SMEs as 'impact-makers' in the journey towards meeting sustainability goals. The event will include a panel discussion featuring representatives from Unilever, who will share insights into their sustainable food initiatives, and how they are engaging their supply chain partners to drive impactful change, key industry groups such as the We Mean Business Coalition, the British Chamber of Commerce and Business in the Community, as well as the Founder and Director of 2030hub, the world's first UN-recognised Local2030 Hub focused on supporting SMEs. The discussion will focus on what more can be done to enable SMEs to overcome barriers and ensure that climate targets are achieved.
Watch live here
13:00 - 14:00 Baku
09:00 - 10:00 GMT
How can blended finance spark sustainable agriculture investments?
An interactive event combining presentations from experts with audience interventions to discuss blended finance as a tool for investment in sustainable agriculture. This event will consider:
- How is blended finance used most effectively to support and accelerate sustainable agriculture practices?
- What are the barriers to public and private investment?
- What enabling conditions are needed for successful implementation of blended finance in sustainable agriculture?
- What specific challenges face blended finance for sustainable agriculture? (Considering, for example, how blended finance has been used to address other environmental challenges.)
Those planning to attend are encouraged to submit an intervention in advance by contacting the event organiser.
Watch live here
16:30 - 17:30 Baku
12:30 - 13:30 GMT
Our Shared Legacy: Intergenerational Collaboration for NDC Implementation
Groundswell & We Are Family Foundation (WAFF) will host a solutions-forward showcase demonstrating the value of intergenerational collaboration to construct and enact NDCs at the national level. While the window to "keep 1.5 alive" is slimming, we will show how effective intergenerational and multisectoral partnerships can coalesce to ensure a harmonious planetary future, encouraging audience members to promote this approach as they build their NDCs in advance of the Belem deadline. Formulating ambitious and economically viable NDCs is of critical importance in 2025, presenting an opportunity to combat political insecurity, implement policy, turbocharge investment, and safeguard a livable future for future generations. Planned and moderated by youth delegates, the event will aim to demystify the NDCs, propose an intergenerational and multisectoral approach to their formulation and execution, and demonstrate how this approach can be operationalized through a panel/roundtable featuring pairs of youth leaders and industry/governmental leaders collaborating on NDC plans and solutions at the domestic level.
Tuesday, 19 November 2024
09:30 - 10:30 Baku
05:30 - 06:30 GMT
UK and Brazil: Climate and Health Action - Climate resilient health systems, Disease Threats and Surveillance
This panel discussion brings together health leaders and experts from the UK and Brazil to explore the crucial intersection of climate change and healthcare. Panellists will discuss innovative strategies to bolster health systems, focusing on sustainable and resilient healthcare, addressing emerging disease threats linked to climate change, and enhancing surveillance systems for public health protection. The event aims to inspire forward-thinking solutions that safeguard both human health and the planet. With a focus on resilience and health-conscious climate action, the discussion promises to drive impactful change at the global level, addressing two of the most pressing challenges of our time.
Watch live here
12:30 - 13:30 Baku
08:30 - 09:30 GMT
Active travel: a people-powered panacea?
Our active travel panel event will highlight the potential of active travel as a practical, low-cost and immediately available decarbonisation solution for the transport sector. We will cover:
- Why active travel is often overlooked in national strategies, even though it is a universally available part of the solution
- The wider, indirect and often unacknowledged impacts that may show its carbon saving potential is even greater than currently acknowledged
- The co-benefits including for several global challenges (oil reliance, health, productivity)
- Active travel’s role in underpinning public transport investment to create a sustainable, holistic, low carbon travel solution.
- Using active travel in planning systems to build low carbon living into our future.
Watch live here
14:00 - 15:00 Baku
10:00 - 11:00 GMT
Strengthening the voice of clinicians in climate change mitigation
Clinicians will need to play a key role if we are to achieve our international ambition on climate action - NHS England, the University of Colorado, and the University of Singapore are joining forces to form a new climate change and health, clinical sustainability fellows network. The network will develop future health leaders, undertake joint learning and research initiatives, and help deliver low carbon sustainable health systems and support wider sector mitigation. The panel session will showcase how clinicians are already transforming health systems and look forward to what the network aims to achieve moving towards COP30 and the future.
Watch live here
16:00 - 17:00 Baku
12:00 - 13:00 GMT
COP29 Youth Consultation Workshop - What's next ?
The COP29 Youth Consultation Workshop - What's Next? will be an engaging, forward-looking session designed to empower youth voices in shaping the post-COP29 climate agenda. Participants will focus on the desired outcomes from COP29, ways to amplify youth representation in climate negotiations, and the resources necessary to empower young people in global climate action. The workshop will conclude with a collaborative session summarizing actionable recommendations and a networking session for interregional collaboration.
Watch live here
Wednesday, 20 November 2024
09:30 - 11:00 Baku
05:30 - 07:00 GMT
It's the (Bio) economy, stupid!
Sustainably harnessing natural resources offers a pathway to support alternative livelihoods and a green economy, reducing the need for traditional land clearance that contributes to deforestation and exacerbates biodiversity loss and climate change.
This event will explore how we can harness the bioeconomy as we move away from fossil-fuel based economies, with a focus on key challenges such as ensuring authentication of natural ingredients, traceability of product origins, and the development of sustainable supply chains. The panel will consider other countries’ approaches and how to ensure that local communities receive fair benefits, contributing to both biodiversity conservation and climate resilience.
Watch live here
11:45 - 13:15 Baku
07:45 - 09:15 GMT
From Rio to Reality: Accelerating Action across the Rio Conventions
Climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification are interconnected global crises demanding coordinated action. The Rio Conventions (UNFCCC, CBD, and UNCCD) offer a framework for this. In this triple COP year, building on this political momentum around increasing Rio Convention linkages, this event will explore and highlight successful synergies between these conventions, inspiring further collaboration and innovation.
Using nature as a lens to explore synergistic action, we will bring together high-level speakers from the Rio conventions, national governments, civil society, and scientific communities to engage in a solutions-oriented discussion on accelerating synergistic action.
Watch live here
16:15 - 17:15 Baku
12:15 - 13:15 GMT
Response to Climate Change: The Special Case of Small Island UK Overseas Territories
The UK has a collection of small island Overseas Territories spread across the Caribbean, Atlantic, Pacific, Antarctic and the Indian Ocean known as UKOTs.
As custodians of 94% of the UK's unique biodiversity and stewards of the fifth-largest marine estate globally, UKOTs have a crucial part to play in global environmental conservation and climate resilience efforts. At the same time, the UKOTs are grappling with some of the most extreme impacts of climate change.
Through this event, the UKOTs will share lessons learnt and showcase stories of amazing scientific discoveries – sharing initiatives and innovation with the global community – while presenting the devastating effects of climate change. UKOTs will also share their unique challenge in accessing climate finance, being ineligible to access any of the global UN climate funds, and creative ways OTs are exploring to finance their urgent adaptation needs.
With support from UKG and home-grown initiatives, the UKOTs are rising to the challenge by undertaking ground-breaking research and leading innovative new projects to realise dual benefits for climate and nature.
Particularly in the ocean, the UKOTs are world leaders in conservation and have a vital role to play in delivering the UK’s global commitments. Already, more than 4.3 million km² (75%) of UKOT oceans have been protected – including earth’s largest coral atoll and biggest penguin colony. Drawing on UKG funding through Blue Belt and Darwin Plus, the UKOTs have a broad spectrum of marine projects with climate adaptation and mitigation benefits which can be usefully showcased to global parties at COP29.
Watch live here
18:00 - 19:45 Baku
14:00 - 15:45 GMT
Turning the Tide: Translating the ocean-climate ambition into action
The next round of NDCs represents a critical opportunity to translate growing ocean-climate ambition into tangible action ahead of COP30. This event will showcase tools, case studies, and best practices to enhance the role of marine nature-based solutions in climate change mitigation and adaptation. It will provide a space for policy makers to connect with and learn from peers and a variety of sources of expertise.
Thursday, 21 November 2024
10:00 - 11:00 Baku
06:00 - 07:00 GMT
Nature and Biodiversity - Coffee Connect
Join us as we make use of our fabulous climate-resilient coffee (from colleagues at Kew Gardens and Union Coffee) to network with other like-minded colleagues on all things nature and biodiversity!
13:00 - 14:00 Baku
09:00 - 10:00 GMT
The UK's Net Zero Systems Tool Demonstrated
Remote session where UK officials (Adam Jones from the DESNZ UK Net Zero team) showcase the award winning Net Zero systems tool as a way to visualise the interconnection of the policy decisions we take in terms of their decarbonising impact on net zero.
15:00 - 16:00 Baku
11:00 - 12:00 GMT
An Afternoon with Rachel Kyte, UK Climate Envoy
Fireside chat with Rachel Kyte, about her role as a climate envoy and experience at COP29, followed by informal networking.
17:00 - 18:30 Baku
13:00 - 14:30 GMT
Road to Belem - viva la COP30
19:30 - 20:30 Baku
15:30 - 16:30 GMT
Climate Pub Quiz
Friday, 22 November 2024
10:00 - 11:00 Baku
06:00 - 07:00 GMT
Coffee Connect
Join us as we make use of our fabulous climate-resilient coffee (from colleagues at Kew Gardens and Union Coffee) to network with others as we draw to a close on COP29 and look ahead to COP30
12:00 - 13:30 Baku
08:00 - 09:30 GMT
We are the Possible
14:00 - 14:30 Baku
10:00 - 10:30 GMT
Thank You and Goodbye