École Polytechnique and the COP 30

École Polytechnique took part in the 30th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP30), held from November 12 to 18, 2025, in Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon.

Since the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (COP 27), École Polytechnique has been granted observer status as an independent non-governmental research organization (RINGO).

As such, a delegation can attend certain debates and negotiations, and can participate in events organized by official delegations. The School has thus been able to send a delegation each year, but also to organize “Bring COP to Campus” events, developed by students as part of their studies, to ensure broader participation and involvement.

For COP 30, only Joan Delort Ylla made the trip to Belém. A research engineer at the Laboratory of Dynamic Meteorology (LMD) since March 2025, he took over the duties of Patricia Crifo, professor in the School's economics department from 2019 to 2025, as head of École Polytechnique's official delegations to the annual COP climate conferences and point of contact for École Polytechnique for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“Together with the Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Department, we shared a desire to avoid the pitfalls of ”UN tourism" or participation in the COP without concrete results or clearly defined ambitions. As a result, apart from in my case, the École Polytechnique's participation was limited to a remote format, via videoconference, a choice that was also consistent with the focus on reducing our collective carbon footprint," explains Joan Delort Ylla.

École Polytechnique's involvement in the COPs is part of its ambition to integrate ecological transition into all of its training, research, and innovation activities, as well as into the operation of its campus, as formalized in its Climate Plan published in January 2022. A progress report entitled “Climate Plan 2022–2025: From Goals to Achievements” illustrates the progress made thanks to this collective effort.

“The School's participation in the Conferences of the Parties is primarily part of its fundamental mission of education. Experiencing the COP firsthand has given me a deeper practical understanding of it, which ties in with the course I teach on COPs to second-year students in the MSc&T Economics for Smart Cities and Climate Policy program,” says Joan Delort Ylla. 

“This immersion reinforces the educational relevance of this course and gives students an informed view of what a COP really is, what can be expected from it, and what it would be unrealistic to seek from it,” he continues.

The second impact of this participation relies to the international influence of the research conducted at École Polytechnique, as well as more broadly in France and Europe through scientific collaborations, he notes.   

RINGO status does not give the School voting rights or the power to oppose decisions—prerogatives reserved for signatory states—but it does allow it to participate actively in exchanges with other French, European, and international research organizations and to contribute to the negotiation process, particularly through more informal discussions and interactions.

Finally, the School's participation in COPs contributes to the dissemination and popularization of knowledge related to climate issues, both within the School's various communities and among the general public.