[From left] Carlisle Shore, Sonia Shah, Brianna Beadle, & Colin O’Hagerty
The world’s premier climate policy event, the Conference of the Parties (COP), is organized annually by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). COP unites delegates from almost 200 nations, as well as thousands of advocates from civil society, business sectors, and youth organizations, all working together to drive essential climate action and mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Students Carlisle Shore, Sonia Shah, Brianna Beadle, and Colin O’Hagerty applied to represent UNC as delegates, an opportunity available because UNC has held “observer” status as a “Research and Independent NGO (RINGO)” within the UNFCCC framework since 2017. Since joining UNC in 2021, DDL Director Dr. Angel Hsu has led student delegations to COP as UNC’s designated point of contact.
UNC has sent delegations to the last 7 COPs, including 2024’s COP-29 in Baku, where students engaged with national and global decision-makers, gained hands-on experience in policy processes, and undertook research projects on various aspects of the science and policy of climate change. Consistent with previous years, the UNFCCC allows for sending different delegates between the 2 weeks: Week 1 (Nov. 10-15) and Week 2 (Nov. 16-21). Students Carlisle Shore and Colin O’Hagerty will attend Week 1, while Sonia Shah and Brianna Beadle will attend Week 2.
Meet the students representing UNC:
Carlisle Shore is a senior studying Environmental Studies and Political Science, with an interest in the intersection of renewable energy and geopolitics. She currently works as an environmental policy intern for the North Carolina Collaboratory, where she tracks energy-related legislation and next-generation energy research projects. Her interest in nuclear power began during her environmental capstone project on Small Modular Reactors. At COP 30, she will follow conversations on nuclear energy as a tool for climate change mitigation, especially through the Net Zero Nuclear initiative, which aims to triple global capacity by 2050. This summer she worked at Deriva Energy, siting utility-scale solar projects, and looks forward to discussions on balancing renewable energy expansion with community input and land protection. Continuing that thread of land conservation, she is eager to learn more about the Tropical Forests Forever Fund and to observe how negotiations evolve in light of the U.S. federal deprioritization of climate issues and the absence of a traditional party presence.
Sonia Shah is a senior studying Business Administration and Environmental Studies. At COP-30, she will focus on the rising concern surrounding climate adaptation and resilience, strengthening governance of rare earths, and how tax incentive policies can mobilize additional capital to meet the $1.3 trillion climate finance goal set in Baku. Further, she is also interested in seeing the role that private investors play at the conference as they reevaluate their climate pledges amid shifting US priorities. Sonia’s prior experience includes energy investment banking, climate tech research, and writing her honors thesis on shifting rare-earth supply chains, all of which will inform her focuses in Brazil.
Brianna Beadle is a third-year master’s student dually enrolled in the Public Administration and City/Regional Planning programs. Prior to coming to UNC, Brianna worked as a climate organizer in her home state of Florida, advocating for those most affected by the climate crisis, and utilizing her Jamaican background to focus on the effects of the climate crisis on Caribbean nations. Last year, she completed her Master’s Thesis Substitute for the Public Administration program, in which she studied how local governments could increase the climate preparedness and resilience of vulnerable people in mid-sized, coastal municipalities. At COP 30, she will focus on the role of local governments in implementing climate goals and how advocacy organizations, particularly youth organizations, mobilize to further intergenerational conversations around international climate policy.
Colin O’Hagerty is a senior studying environmental health sciences with interests at the intersection between urban planning, climate resilience, and public health. At COP30, he will focus on how municipal and subnational actors advance the action agenda, particularly following the inaugural Local Leaders Forum and amid shifting U.S. federal priorities. Bringing experience as an environmental consulting intern and an undergraduate researcher studying ozone pollution in Houston, TX, he hopes to explore how global negotiations inform the local policies he’s seen drive public and private movement towards the green transition.
At COP30, Colin will also examine how scientific capacity-building in the Global South is addressed in financial negotiations. While pursuing community-engaged public health and environmental justice research across the US and Ecuador, Colin witnessed a disconnect between climate finance and the low-resource communities that need it most. Without the capacity to accurately estimate emissions and evaluate policies, both public and private funding sources with strict reporting guidelines may be unattainable, a tension he hopes to unpack in Belém.
We’re eager to see how these students will contribute their new insights to the Chapel Hill community – stay tuned for more updates from Colin, Sonia, Brianna, & Carlisle!
DDL Hosted Side Event
In addition to supporting these students, DDL is hosting a side event, “Two Sides of the Same Coin: The Nature-Climate Nexus in Global Net-Zero Commitments.” This event discusses findings from the 2025 Net Zero Stocktake, the widest global review of climate pledges by governments and companies. It also explores the role of nature in achieving net zero targets and the growing reliance on nature-based carbon credits.
Speakers: Prof. Thomas Hale, The Blavatnik School, University of Oxford; Prof. Dr. Niklas Höhne, Co-founder, NewClimate Institute; Prof. Angel Hsu, Data-Driven EnviroLab, UNC; Clare Shakya, Global Managing Director of Climate, The Nature Conservancy.
The event will take place on November 15, from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM (GMT-3) in Side Event Room 3.
