The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) will run in Glasgow’s Scottish Events Campus (SEC) from 31st October – 12th November 2021.
This year’s COP climate change summit will look at climate change through the lens of four key goals, each pivotal in agreeing a co-ordinated and consistent agenda to fight this global emergency:
1. Secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach
With a step change in commitments to emissions reduction
2. Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats
Strengthening reaction to climate change impacts
3. Mobilise finance
Getting money where it needs to be for climate action
4. Work together to deliver
Enhancing international collaboration, including for the COP26 campaigns on energy transition, clean road transport and nature
As countries begin to recover from the Coronavirus pandemic, we must take the historic opportunity to tackle climate change at the same time – to build back better, and greener.
Alok Sharma COP President-designate
What will negotiations in Glasgow focus on?
The Paris rulebook
Since 2015, negotiations have centred around how to codify the Paris Agreement.
The main part still left to decide is Article 6, the financial mechanism for international cooperation to reduce emissions in a cost-efficient manner. Within this, issues that are particularly difficult are how to avoid double-counting, for how long emissions reductions can be used (vintage) and how climate projects can be done respecting other values (for instance tree planting on indigenous soil). COP26 will be the first time that countries submit renewed Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and loner-term strategies to the Paris Agreement.
Enhanced action
Every five years, all the parties (countries and the EU) that have signed the Paris Agreement are to enhance/increase their climate pledges.
We are currently in the first enhancement period, and most major economies have already committed to strengthening their targets, while others use the COP to present their revised targets.
Green finance
International funding for climate actions from the developed world to developing countries was to reach USD 100 billion per year from 2020.
By most accounts, the actual sum is somewhere between 40 and 80 billion USD, and the way forward is far from clear. Linked to this is Leading up to the formal negotiations, the UK COP presidency is focusing on five key areas where stronger support from the parties is particularly needed; the switch to sustainable energy, transport, climate adaptation and resilience, nature based solutions and finance (Sweden participates in the two first).
What is COP and what is its purpose?
The Conference of Parties (a party being one of 197 nations and territories) exists to monitor and review steps being taken to achieve targets set out in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
It is not enough for us to halve our climate impact within this decade and to reach climate neutrality by 2040. At Sweco, we realize that our main impact is in the projects we conduct together with our clients, and we are now developing a methodology to prove how we reduce the climate impact for them. Together with our clients, we want to transform our societies into a sustainable direction.
COP26 represents ‘our last best chance’ to unite and accelerate climate action ‘to step up and speed up’ as we look to re-energise our collective responsibility to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. We aim to be a role model in sustainability, taking responsibility for and being part of the solution to society’s sustainability and carbon reduction challenges.
The effects of the climate crisis are being felt daily by citizens around the world. Specific knowledge and data are needed to plan and build safe and resilient future urban environments. As climate change increasingly brings flood warnings and more extreme weather conditions, special measures to ready our urban environments and societies need to be taken.
Read topical climate emergency articles and download exclusive reports in ‘Urban Insight’, our hub of industry leading expertise that’s based on a number of reports written by Sweco’s experts, based on data, fact and science.
At Sweco, we aim to be a role model in sustainability, taking responsibility for and being part of the solution to society’s sustainability and carbon reduction challenges. Our commitment is to do more to support and challenge our clients in delivering innovative solutions through expert consultancy and high-quality design.
How we can all use COP26 as a catalyst for faster change
Climate negotiations may seem too technical and detailed to be of business relevance – but most companies will agree that the Paris Agreement is highly relevant, and thus the clarifications that come out of the COP26 will be great to keep track of. This is also true for the enhanced action climate plans; familiarising ourselves with what’s in there will lead not only to positive change, but to a range of opportunities for sectors such as energy, transport, agriculture, forestry and industry.
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