The day began with a short recap and agreement of the day’s agenda, and afterwards an opening speech to begin the conference from Azerbaijan, the host country of COP29. All of the countries/schools gave their opening statements on how they were affected by climate change and their goals for sustainability. Balcarras represented the USA and consisted of Amelie R, Amy P, Bluebelle L, Delilah H, Matthew J and Thalia O-J. We found that the first part of the day, the mock conference and debate, the most fun. During the debate there was a lot of questions targeted at us because of the newly elected president of the U.S however since he won’t be in office for a few more weeks, we were still representing the Biden administration.

Just before midday we had our breaktime. By then we were massively behind but managed to get back on track towards the end. In this section of the day, we looked at cities, energy, oceans and ‘forests and food’. Here we collaborated with Uganda and Brazil. The Uganda team was very spirited and were passionate about the U.S being the enemy, even going as far as threatening to ‘drill baby drill’ (Uganda threatened to drill their oil if they weren't compensated to leave it in the ground. ) if we didn’t invest in their sustainability.

After lunch we had a look at a marketplace of local charities and organisations that work in sustainability, representing everything from local park, Cheltenhams Clean Air plan, the councils 'Net zero' targets, through to wildlfe and re-wilding projects.

The final event of the day was a Q and A session with a panel of visitors who work in sustainability, it gave us the chance to see the careers that people have in this field and some of the latest projects they were working on. 

Amy Pallister even managed to get interviewed by BBC points west on the event and her thoughts on the importance of taking action to combat climate change.

Amelie Rowe 901