"Let's be optimistic"- UEA academics attend week one of COP26
A total of twenty-five academics from the University of East Anglia will be in Glasgow for the summit this month.
COP 26 is underway and a handful of academics from the University of East Anglia are already in Glasgow for week one.
Twenty-five academics from the university are traveling up to Glasgow this month.
One of the three already there is Dr Dorothee Bakker from the School of Environmental Sciences, who specialises in oceans uptake of CO2.
Dr Bakker told us it's quite a summit to be attending: "It's really quite exciting. Its a big meeting and there's going to be many, many world leaders and important people attending. It's a very important meeting and important decisions will have to be taken on reducing our emissions, so we can keep global warming below one and a half degrees Celsius."
She went on to say that her area of speciality faces problems it needs to solve: "We need to make measurements of the carbon uptake in very remote parts of the oceans. Think of the Southern Ocean or the Artic Ocean in winter, very few people go there during winter because the weather is horrendous.
"So we are urgently looking into ways of making autonomous measurements with sensors. This needs investment, hopefully from technology businesses as well as Governments".
Dr Bakker says we all have a role to play in tackling climate change: "We can all make a contribution to reducing Climate Change, this is not just for research but also for people in general.
"We can all make contributions to reducing our emissions, small things do matter. Small things like cycling more, walking more, taking the bus more, driving less and particularly flying less. Changes in the food that we eat can also make a huge difference".
She concluded by saying that a lot can be achieved over the next 12 days or so: "I think what can be achieved, is as much as the ambitions of the politicians are. I think they could achieve a lot if the will is there. So it's really up to how much these politicians want to commit to this".