Eight researchers and students from University College Cork are to attend the upcoming COP26 global summit in Glasgow.
UCC is the only Irish university with official observer status at the conference, which is seen as a crucial meeting to limit the levels of global warming and climate change.
The delegation plans to make its way to Glasgow in a low carbon way - by boat and train - to contribute to events at COP26.
It will be led by Brian Ó Gallochóir, Professor of Energy Engineering at UCC and Director of MaREI - the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine at UCC.
"This is a critical time for global climate politics. The ambition to stay within 1.5C global warming was agreed in Paris in 2015. Unfortunately, however we are seeing greenhouse gas emissions growing again after a temporary pause for COVID-19," he said.
"In UCC, we are doing research on the required solutions to deliver on this political ambition. As individual countries bring increased ambitions to COP26, I'm hoping to see stronger commitments to action from Governments to match their ambitions and to deliver the necessary solutions, including from Ireland."
Last night, the university organised a 'mock COP26' on its campus, where students took different countries positions to give them the sense of how difficult these negotiations are.
UCC Law student and climate activist Alicia O'Sullivan, who represented Ireland at the first UN youth climate summit in New York, is among the delegates.
"With our Mock COP, we gave students the opportunity to speak about issues that matter to them. We can then bring this with us to COP26, so that the views of all UCC students are be heard," she said.
