COP26 Climate Conference:
The UK will host the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference from October 31 to November 12.
- This year marks the 26th Conference of Parties (thus the name COP26) and will be held in the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow.
- COP comes under the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention (UNFCCC) which was formed in 1994.
- The UNFCCC was established to work towards “stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.”
- COP members have been meeting every year since 1995 (COP1 was held in 1995 in Berlin).
- It laid out a list of responsibilities for the member states which included:
- Formulating measures to mitigate climate change.
- Cooperating in preparing for adaptation to the impact of climate change.
- Promoting education, training and public awareness related to climate change.
- According to the UNFCCC, COP26 will work towards four goals:
- Secure global net-zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach.
- Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats.
- 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.
- ‘Finalise the Paris Rulebook’: Leaders will work together to frame a list of detailed rules that will help fulfil the Paris Agreement.
About UNFCCC:
- The UNFCCC was adopted in 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit, which marked the beginning of the international community’s first concerted effort to confront the problem of climate change.
- Known also as the Rio Convention, the UNFCCC established a framework for action to stabilise concentrations of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere.
- The UNFCCC entered into force in 1994, and nearly all of the world’s nations have now signed on.
- It is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Agreement. It is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
