University of Delaware undergraduate student Drew Martin and Saleem Ali, Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment, were among thousands of international participants at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP30, held in November 2025 in Brazil.

From campus to climate conference

Article by Adam Thomas Photos courtesy of Drew Martin February 03, 2026

UD undergraduate and Climate Scholar Drew Martin participates in United Nations Climate Change Conference

Drew Martin, an undergraduate student at the University of Delaware, experienced extreme weather events and temperature fluctuations throughout his childhood in Tennessee. Witnessing those events first-hand sparked his interest in studying climate change and inspired him to use his academic career to get to the root of the problem.

“Where I grew up, summers kept getting hotter, and I remember it used to snow once or twice during the winter. Now if it snows, it’s an extreme event, and we get iced in for a long period of time,” Martin said. “Part of climate change is extreme weather events, and people in places that haven’t experienced those events don't know how to handle them. Growing up and seeing these climatic changes and asking my parents, ‘Why is it happening?’ got me interested in climate science.”

Martin got a chance to experience climate science on a global scale when he and Saleem Ali, Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment, joined thousands of world leaders, scientists, politicians and members of the private sector in Brazil as part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP30, in November.

These U.N. Climate Change Conferences take place every year and are the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change, bringing together a multitude of countries from across the globe.

UD undergraduate Drew Martin is pictured with Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States.

Martin, a geography major with minors in history and German, has a specific interest in renewable energy and is developing skills at UD in Geographic Information Software (GIS) and mapping to combat climate change. He said it was an amazing experience to engage with the international community on climate change.

“I enjoyed getting to see that there were thousands of people that were all trying to work together to solve this problem,” said Martin, who is also a UD Climate Scholar.

Dana Veron, professor and co-director of the Gerard J. Mangone Climate Change Science and Policy Hub, said the event was an incredible opportunity for Martin.

“Drew got to learn how climate policy and climate actions are developed at an international level,” Veron said. “This type of experiential learning is a key component of the Climate Scholars program.”

Ali, who holds joint appointments in the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment and the Joseph R. Biden Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, said they were able to attend COP30 through the networks he had built with the United Nations during the past four years. He also said that the members of the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences were grateful to donors to the department of geography gift fund, which allowed them the opportunity to support enrichment activities for promising scholars like Martin.

At COP30, participants visited pavilions to learn about the challenges facing different communities. Listening to panel talks and interacting with participants, Martin learned about measures being taken at the community level across the world.

He said it was interesting to see how specific communities are dealing with climate change, as well as to get their different views on how local leaders should approach climate change adaptations.

In the Australian pavilion, Martin learned that consistently supporting renewable energy policies is the best driver of change.

“That consistency gives investors a certainty that they're going to make back their money, and it gives the communities the certainty that a project is not going to be pulled out from under them,” Martin said.

Martin said he was honored to participate in the discussions happening at COP30.

“There were thousands of people at this event, and the number of connections, conversations, discussions and actions around climate change was incredibly large,” he said. “This talk and idealism, when given the willpower and the space to collaborate, can really translate into actual policy solutions and agreements.”