The United Nations have been organising annual UN Climate Change Conferences, and the 26^th Conference of the Parties (COP26) is being held in Glasgow from 31^st October – 12^th November 2021.

In 2015 the Paris Agreement was agreed by the leaders of 195 countries when they attended COP21. The agreement says nations must:

• Reduce the amount of harmful greenhouse gasses produced and increase renewable types of energy like wind, solar and wave power
• Keep global temperature increase “well below” 2C (3.6F) and to try to limit it to 1.5C
• Review progress made on the agreement every five years
• Spend $100 billion dollars a year in climate finance to help poorer countries by 2020, with a commitment to further finance in the future.

The main elements of the COP26 Glasgow Climate Pact are:

• An agreement to re-visit emission reduction plans in 2022 in order to try to keep the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement target achievable
• The first ever inclusion of a commitment to limit (“phase down” rather than “phase out”, as strongly debated) the use of coal
• A commitment to climate finance for developing countries 

In short, work needs to continue. There has already been some progress around renewable energy – for example, Norway with its hydroelectric power and Denmark with its wind power have been sharing energy, and in October 2021 a power cable link between Norway and the UK was formally launched. There is also a project under way for a similar cable link from Dorset to a source of solar power in Morocco.

MITIGATION:

A range of approaches to the Paris Agreement targets

ADAPTATION:

Strategies to deal with increasing refugee movements, including boatloads of people already crossing the Mediterranean and the English Channel.

CAMPAIGN:

• Countries need to continue to talk to each other
• Scientists worldwide are being invited to sign up to “World Scientists Warnings into Action” by Scientists Warning Europe

FURTHER READING:

This page was last updated on 17^th November 2021.