COP26:
Hopes, expectations and fears
article series
Commentary, explanation, and criticism of the 26th Conference of the Parties, in 2021.
It is now just over two weeks since COP26 ended. Most reports agree that it was a failure, but with a few minor positive outcomes. Not a complete failure, but not too far off.
Wednesday 3 November is when world leaders discuss the provision of finance for lower income countries to help them deal with the climate crisis. But finance will also be a thread through the whole of the conference.
China is the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. It surpasses even the resource intensive economy of the United States. With this tag comes some responsibility to take action to reduce emissions.
One bright spot in the approach to COP26 has been the reinvigoration of the commitment of the United States to take action to overcome the worst effects of climate breakdown.
COP26 is a huge event that involves much more than just the headline conference. This brings together many, many people in one location and together with the pre-conference and other associated events will emit a massive amount of greenhouse gases.
Over time, these conferences have grown to the extent that the number of people attending COP26 in Glasgow may be more than 30,000. But this is not the whole story.
COP26 was initially scheduled for November 2020. But as we all know, some of us to our cost, the worldwide outbreak of Coronavirus began to develop in late 2019 and really took hold in February 2020.
I will begin with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, sometimes known as the UN FCCC.
The 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN FCCC) will take place in Glasgow between 31 October and 12 November this year. This sounds like something that will only interest climate geeks and policy wonks! But please do not just move on, because this is important for all of us!