With the 26th UN Conference of the Parties nearly upon us, we wanted to highlight some of the activities in response to climate change taking place in the Knowledge Quarter over the next few weeks.

This includes some of our own activity. On 11 November, we have invited an expert panel to discuss the four key goals of the COP26, and tell us why the decisions taken, or not taken, at the international level are relevant to our personal and professional lives in the Knowledge Quarter. Then, in December, we will be running a masteclass on affordable energy-efficiency strategies and tools for offices and estates.

These events are the first in a new series of masterclasses, workshops and discussion panels, that we are calling Getting to Net Zero. The series is the backbone of our aspiration to become a net-zero carbon emissions innovation district by 2030.

• COP Explained: Why COP26 matters for the Knowledge Quarter

Thursday 11 November, 15:00-16:30, Online event

Four guest speakers (two of whom will be joining us live from Glasgow) will tackle the headline goals of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), while grounding the macroscopic scale of the negotiations in the everyday reality of the Knowledge Quarter, where people live, work and study. What is at stake at COP26? And why does it matter to us?

• Somers Town Community Association

31 October – 18 November, The Living Centre & Story Garden

Somers Town Community Association invites KQ colleagues and friends to The Living Centre for a special programme of events exploring what a changing climate means for us at the local level and how we can respond as a community. Touching issues of climate justice, protest and sustainable food and fashion, the festival brings together a range of partners and community voices.

To RSVP for any events email: climateexhibition@thelivingcentre.org

• Yesterday’s Weather: Climate Change and the Arc of History (William Matthews Memorial Lecture)

11 November, 18:00-21:00 – Birkbeck

Professor Kellie Robertson, Professor of English, University of Maryland, delivers the annual lecture. Most discussions about climate science throw us into a contingent and potentially cataclysmic future. We look ahead to how different the world will be in a decade or a century, given the inevitable effects of a warming environment. This talk turns this habit of perception on its head; instead, it looks back to medieval and early modern accounts of climate crisis, arguing that such narratives are equally important for envisioning the environmental consequences of our current attitudes toward climate.

• Ethical Matters: We are “nature” defending itself – Art, Activism and Autonomous zones

Monday 15 November, 19:30-21:30 – Conway Hall

How do we radically transform art, activism and everyday life in the midst of the horrors of the Capitalocene? A new publication by artist activists from the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, Isabelle Fremeaux and Jay Jordan, grapples with these questions via their version of the incredible story of the ‘Zad’, an ultimately succesful activist encampment on a swathe of forest land in France that the French government had marked for development of an airport.

• KQ Masterclass: Reducing Carbon Emissions from your Buildings & Estates

Thursday 2 December, 13:30-15:30 – BMA + Knowledge Quarter

In this special KQ Masterclass, bought to you in partnership with the British Medical Association and Artic Building Services, we will hear from four expert companies on effective and affordable ways to keep the power on, but drive the energy bill and emissions down. This masterclass is aimed at professionals working in estates or individuals who want to make informed decisions on their office’s energy supply and performance. It is designed for both small, medium and large KQ organisations.