Cisco partners with COP26, the United Nations Climate Change conference taking place in Glasgow, UK, from 31 October to 12 November 2021.
Physical and remote communications
For those physically present, Cisco’s secure networking systems will provide connectivity to the entire venue. For remote participants, Webex will connect speakers and attendees, allowing them to participate in discussions, side conversations and press conferences. The vast majority of the events at the conference will contain a digital element in order to foster inclusivity, this digital support will be provided by Cisco Gold partner ITGL.
“Cisco is proud to be helping policymakers and their teams from around the world to join the most important climate negotiations to date. We believe that it’s on all of us to ensure that the future is inclusive,” said Fran Katsoudas, Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer, Cisco. “The actions that we take to protect our planet today are foundational to achieving that mission. This is a defining moment for climate policy and the future of our planet, so we are incredibly proud to be partnering with COP26.”
Multilingual and spontaneous
The discussions will be facilitated by Legislate for Webex, a platform designed to aid in secure hybrid discussions among participants. Cisco’s partners, ITGL and Davra developed a custom version of the system to meet the needs of COP26 participants. Spontaneous discussions will make use of secure Webex sessions and live interpretation and closed captioning will be facilitated through Legislate for Webex.
To provide reliable connectivity for up to 25,000 people over a two-week period, Cisco will deploy state-of-the-art, secure networking technologies, embedded with powerful visibility and network intelligence from Cisco ThousandEyes. As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to reducing its environmental footprint, all the equipment will be reused following the conference.
COP President-Designate Alok Sharma said, “We are committed to hosting a safe and secure in-person summit and our work with Cisco is a vital part of this. I look forward to working with Cisco and all our Partners ahead of the summit as we ensure a successful and inclusive COP26.”
