On Sunday 31 October I go to COP26 for a fortnight as a representative of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO). Extravagant to spend two whole weeks there, I know, but the opportunity arose due to the fact that a panel session that I am taking part in got accepted for inclusion before the date was confirmed, so I was allocated both weeks until further notice, and then since many of our WFEO delegation were unable to attend as the conference grew closer due to a combination of visa unavailability, prohibitive quarantine requirements, lack of accommodation, or expensive flights, I was able to retain the opportunity to stay for both weeks.
So staying in the spare room of a niece of a friend for the first week in Glasgow (big thanks to Isobel Pollock), and some accommodation arranged bythe Institution of Civil Engineers in Edinburgh for the second, I am all set to go, and my bags are (almost) packed.
The panel session I am taking part in is taking place on Monday 8th November in the Green (Public) zone of the conference. It is a session that is fronted by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) with representatives from me on behalf of WFEO’s Women in Engineering Committee, WES, and the Institute of Asset Management (IAM) in the UK. Other panel members are Sally Sudworth (chair and chief organiser, from WES), Ioana Price (WES) and Ashley Barratt (IAM).
The title of the session is Using the SDGs to tackle the Climate Emergency: Here’s how! and on this topic I am representing the gender, engineering and climate change nexus, and how we need to be aware of the intersection of gender in relation to all of the SDGs when addressing climate change as engineers, and what the implications are for our engineering and technology development work. At WFEO we have spent the last few months getting our messages together on this topic, as a result of two lead up webinars to discuss the question and gain stakeholder viewpoints. This is also the culmination of a longer piece of work on gender perspective in relation to the individual SDGs that can be seen here.
I will explain more about the topic of my presentation in the next blog, but I wanted to keep these updates short and readable, and I am intending to post my experience at COP26, here an on my own website here, throughout the fortnight.
The other panel session I am taking part in is on Saturday 6th November and this has the title of Increased climate action, building resilience and lowering emissions: Lessons learned. Here the key phrase for me is Lessons Learned, and at this one I will be taking the perspective that we have a lot of information about how engineering has not, in the past, always been carried out with all stakeholders in mind, and that this has resulted in a less than equitable world. As we build for a new world of net zero carbon, we must learn from these past experiences and ensure that our engineering is inclusive of all. This session is a WFEO organised session with colleagues from INWES (the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists), as well as members of the WFEO Committee on Engineering and the Environment, and the Younger Engineers/Future Leaders committee. Again, more on the details of this later.
Keep tuned for further thoughts and updates throughout the event.
So staying in the spare room of a niece of a friend for the first week in Glasgow (big thanks to Isobel Pollock), and some accommodation arranged bythe Institution of Civil Engineers in Edinburgh for the second, I am all set to go, and my bags are (almost) packed.
The panel session I am taking part in is taking place on Monday 8th November in the Green (Public) zone of the conference. It is a session that is fronted by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) with representatives from me on behalf of WFEO’s Women in Engineering Committee, WES, and the Institute of Asset Management (IAM) in the UK. Other panel members are Sally Sudworth (chair and chief organiser, from WES), Ioana Price (WES) and Ashley Barratt (IAM).
The title of the session is Using the SDGs to tackle the Climate Emergency: Here’s how! and on this topic I am representing the gender, engineering and climate change nexus, and how we need to be aware of the intersection of gender in relation to all of the SDGs when addressing climate change as engineers, and what the implications are for our engineering and technology development work. At WFEO we have spent the last few months getting our messages together on this topic, as a result of two lead up webinars to discuss the question and gain stakeholder viewpoints. This is also the culmination of a longer piece of work on gender perspective in relation to the individual SDGs that can be seen here.
I will explain more about the topic of my presentation in the next blog, but I wanted to keep these updates short and readable, and I am intending to post my experience at COP26, here an on my own website here, throughout the fortnight.
The other panel session I am taking part in is on Saturday 6th November and this has the title of Increased climate action, building resilience and lowering emissions: Lessons learned. Here the key phrase for me is Lessons Learned, and at this one I will be taking the perspective that we have a lot of information about how engineering has not, in the past, always been carried out with all stakeholders in mind, and that this has resulted in a less than equitable world. As we build for a new world of net zero carbon, we must learn from these past experiences and ensure that our engineering is inclusive of all. This session is a WFEO organised session with colleagues from INWES (the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists), as well as members of the WFEO Committee on Engineering and the Environment, and the Younger Engineers/Future Leaders committee. Again, more on the details of this later.
Keep tuned for further thoughts and updates throughout the event.
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