What is COP26?
COP26 is the annual United Nations climate change conference and is considered as the world’s best last chance to get runaway climate change under control. For nearly three decades the UN has been bringing together almost every country on earth for global climate summits, called COPs, which stands for "Conference of the Parties". In that time climate change has gone from being a fringe issue to a global priority. This year will be the 26th annual summit, giving it the name COP26. With the UK as President, in partnership with Italy, COP26 took place in Glasgow, with the presence of more than 120 world leaders and 25,000 delegates from 197 countries.

The importance of the Paris Agreement
COP21 took place in Paris in 2015. At that time, every country agreed to work together to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees and aim for 1.5 degrees, to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate, and to make money available to deliver on these aims. The Paris Agreement was born, under which countries committed to bringing forward national plans setting out how much they would reduce their emissions, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, or “NDCs”. They agreed that every five years they would come back with an updated plan that would reflect their highest possible ambition at that time. Glasgow was, therefore, the moment (delayed by a year due to the pandemic) when countries updated their plans for reducing emissions. So as momentous as Paris was, countries must go much further than they did even at that historic summit in order to keep the hope of holding temperature rises to 1.5 alive.

The goals of COP26

– Secure global net-zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach. Countries are being asked to come forward with ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets that align with reaching net zero by the middle of the century. To deliver on these stretching targets, countries will need to: accelerate the phase-out of coal, curtail deforestation, speed up the switch to electric vehicles, and encourage investment in renewables.

– Adapting to protect communities and natural habitats. The climate is already changing and it will continue to change even as we reduce emissions, with devastating effects. For this reason, we need to work together to enable and encourage countries affected by climate change to protect and restore ecosystems, build defenses, warning systems, and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods, and even lives.

– Mobilise finance. To deliver on our first two goals, developed countries must make good on their promise to mobilise at least $100bn in climate finance per year by 2020. International financial institutions must play their part and we need to work towards unleashing the trillions in private and public sector finance required to secure global net zero.

– Work together to deliver. We can only rise to the challenges of the climate crisis by working together. We need to accelerate action to tackle the climate crisis through collaboration between governments, businesses, and civil society.

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