Take a Seat at the Climate Negotiating Table
The APRU Certificate in Global Climate Change Leadership is a role-playing exercise in which students act as delegates to the UN Climate Change Negotiations, working in multi-country, multi-disciplinary teams. It runs as a series of online sessions built around the World Climate Interactive/C-ROADS model, supplemented with short expert lectures and curated materials. Each team is assigned one of six countries or regions and negotiates across multiple rounds in breakout rooms facilitated by international experts.
By the end, students will be able to:
- Describe what contributes to climate change and its impact on human/planetary health.
- Explain global efforts — Paris Agreement, UNFCCC, COP.
- Identify adaptation vs. mitigation strategies and their impact.
- Explain why climate change hits the most vulnerable and why it's a social-justice issue.
- Practice global teamwork and cross-cultural collaboration.
- Discuss the complexity of countries' decisions (economics, negotiating power).
- Describe the challenges of international negotiation and the value of collaboration.
Day1: Aug 20/21, 2026
Opening Ceremony
Meet your delegation, hear from global climate experts, and get oriented to the simulation.
Day 2: Aug 27/28, 2026
Team Meetings
Work with your delegation to define your position, goals, and first-round pledges.
Day 3: SEP 3/4, 2026
First Negotiation
Deliver your position speech and open the first round of negotiations with other delegations.
Day 4: Sep 10/11, 2026
Second Negotiation
Tackle special topics, make your final pledges, and debrief on what your choices achieved.
Complete the simulation to receive an official APRU certificate of participation.
- Attend all sessions. This includes the main-room expert talks, your delegation meetings, and the breakout rooms.
- Certificates arrive a few weeks after the event.
Make sure to match your Zoom name to your registration name. That's how your attendance is recorded, and a mismatch can mean a missed certificate.
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Stay in the loop by checking your email. To make sure everyone can get simulation materials no matter where they're joining from, we'll send all the important info straight to your inbox. That includes prep materials, Zoom links, and your delegation details. Keep an eye on your email in the days before each session, and check your spam or junk folder if something seems missing. Add Elly Vandegrift (ellyvan@uoregon.edu) to your contacts so our messages don't get lost. And if you think you missed something or didn't get an email you were expecting, just reach out and we'll resend it.
To get the most out of the negotiation simulation, take some time to explore the resources below before the exercise begins. Watching these videos will help you understand your delegation's position and give you a stronger grasp of how climate change is playing out in different regions of the world, knowledge you'll draw on as you represent your country's or region's views at the table. What you'll gain:
- A clearer picture of how climate change impacts vary by region
- Stronger footing to articulate and defend your delegation's perspective during negotiations
Climate Change Learning and Preparation
- The Causes of Climate Change
- Climate Time Machine
- CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- What is the Paris Agreement?
The following are the speakers and their topics, along with resources to help you prepare for Day Four:
Biodiversity- Wijarn Simachaya (Thailand Environment Institute)
- Forest and Deforestation
- Grounding nature-based climate solutions in sound biodiversity science
- Biodiversity - our strongest natural defense against climate change
- Bing VideosLinks to an external site.
Climate Migration- Chris Richter (IOM)
- Top Climate Emergencies Impacting Refugees in 2022
- A new kind of climate refugee is emerging
- Climate migration growing but not fully recognized by world
- Why we need to fear the loss of biodiversity as much as climate change
Trading and Offsets- Renard Siew (Malaysian Carbon Market Association)
- Knowledge quiz: Carbon and Climate
- How cap and trade works
- Carbon Offsets, Illustrated
- The Big Problem with Carbon Offsets
- Emissions Trading (9-minute listen)
Health- Ramon Lorenzo Luis Rosa Guinto (Duke-NUS)
- Is climate change accelerating the risk of disease spreading from animals to humans? (7-minute video)
- A meta-analysis on global change drivers and the risk of infectious disease
- Climate change, its impact on emerging infectious diseases and new technologies to combat the challenge
- Over half of known human pathogenic diseases can be aggravated by climate change
- Climate Change and Infectious Diseases: What’s the Link?
Food Insecurity- Maria Tuazon (FAO)
Clean Energy- Sudhir Sharma (UNEP)
Oceans- Klyra Orbien (PEMSEA)
- Status, Trends, and Transitions in Coastal and Ocean Governance and Ecosystems Amidst the Triple Planetary Crisis and Emerging Polycrisis
- Rising Pressures, Calibrated Responses: The Changing Seas of East Asia
- SEA Knowledge Bank to learn more about the situation and our ongoing efforts in the EAS region