COP26 (also known as The UN Climate Change Conference) is a global United Nations summit where world leaders come together to talk about climate change and how to tackle it. This year, it’s hosted by the UK Government in Glasgow between the 31st October and the 12th of November.
COP stands for Conference of the Parties — meaning a gathering of countries — and 2021 will be the 26th time that it’s taken place. Hence: COP26.
The spotlight is now on the UK to provide global leadership that raises ambition and turns promises into desperately needed action to tackle the inseparable nature and climate crises.
These conferences have happened every year since 1995 (apart from 2020 which was delayed to 2021 due to the pandemic). So, what makes this one so important?
Why is COP26 so important?
The summit has been hailed as the biggest climate moment since the Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2015. The Paris Agreement is a historic international treaty signed by almost all countries in the world. Its aims to keep the rise in the global average temperature to ‘well below’ 2°C above pre-industrial levels, ideally 1.5°C.
Right now, the planet is 1.1°C hotter than it was when we first started burning fossil fuels in 1850s and the world is on track to get 1.5°C hotter by the 2030s. If Earth gets even hotter still, disasters are increasingly likely to unfold around the planet. Every fraction of a degree of warming will make a huge difference to the future of life on earth, so it was a big moment when leaders agreed to aim for 1.5°C.
To have a chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C, global emissions must halve by 2030 and reach ‘net-zero’ by 2050. The 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report said that it is still possible to achieve 1.5°C but only if unprecedented action is taken right now.
Every five years, countries that signed the Paris Agreement must put forward updated plans (called Nationally Determined Contributions) showing the highest possible level of ambition to reduce their carbon emissions. COP26 is the first time these will be updated – giving us an opportunity to understand whether the world is on track to achieve the 1.5°C target. But without radical pledges to reduce emissions — more ambitious than we've ever seen before — the world won't come close.
In addition, the pandemic has also presented the world with a weird, unique opportunity. Lockdown measures to contain the virus resulted in the largest global recession since World War Two, and some countries are preparing to fight back with historic levels of public spending that will aim to get their economies back on track. That spending can either acknowledge the climate crisis through green investment — or it can be used to return to business as usual. Will leaders at COP26 take advantage of this opportunity?
Why does COP26 mean for nature?
Nature’s recovery is vital for tackling climate the climate crisis. Thriving habitats can safely lock up vast amounts of carbon, while providing other vital benefits that help us adapt, such as flood prevention, clean water and improved health and wellbeing.
But these natural carbon stores are in decline and at high risk of degradation from increasingly extreme climatic conditions. And, as these habitats are lost or degraded, carbon can be released back into the atmosphere and our ability to deal with the impacts of global heating is undermined.
As we embark on COP26, it is vital that leaders place nature’s recovery at the heart of the talks and their commitments to tackling the climate crisis. COP26 is an opportunity to mainstream the role of nature in tackling the crises we are facing. We must see nature-based solutions included in countries’ climate plans (Nationally Determined Contributions) and investment in nature driven by governments around the world.
Find out more about nature-based solutions
What can I do?
By taking actions and showing that you’re doing your bit for nature and climate, together we can demand politicians to do more too. We need the people in power to create better local spaces, for people, for climate, and for nature.
Locally, our councils have a significant impact on ensuring nature’s recovery and helping local communities make their lives greener. Over COP26, we are demanding that councils declare a nature emergency, putting in a strategy and targets in place to tackle the decline in wildlife and let nature help fight the climate crisis.