An estimated 25,000 people are expected to attend the climate change summit taking place from October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.
The annual meeting brings together parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), and this is the 26th Conference of the Parties or COP.
The crisis is intensifying and already affects all regions of the globe, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) August report.
2021 has resulted in hundreds of deaths from floods, heat waves, hurricanes, drought and forest fires, events that scientists say have become more frequent and more intense due to climate change.
The most important number at the COP 26 is 1.5º C (degrees Celsius) because the main goal is to prevent global warming from exceeding that threshold when compared to 19th century levels. This requires drastic and urgent cuts. The main one of which is to reduce greenhouse gases emissions from burning fossil fuels.
If the 1.5° C target is to be met, CO2 emissions must be reduced by 45% by 2030. And by 2050 emissions must reach net zero (i.e., the CO2 emitted must be offset by mechanisms that absorb the gas, such as the planting of trees or technologies that capture the gas and store it underground).
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries must announce new and more ambitious emission reduction targets every five years. This is happening for the first time at COP26. It had been planned for COP25, which was to be held in Chile, but that conference had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
These goals are known in climate jargon as “Nationally Determined Contributions” or NDCs. In 2009, developed countries pledged to contribute US$ 100 billion each year starting in 2020 to help other nations transition to low-carbon economies and adapt to climate change. The commitment was later extended to 2025.
China and the United States are the two largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world, so any attempt to address the climate crisis will necessarily have to involve large emissions cuts by these two nations. China’s emissions are more than double those of the United States, but historically the United States has emitted more than any other country in the world. There are multiple factors to consider when judging a country’s climate credentials.
Nearly 200 countries have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis. Nevertheless, there is still a huge gap between what has been promised and what scientists say is needed according to a report by the United Nations Environment Program.
Despite the standstill of economic activity due to the pandemic, carbon dioxide concentrations in 2020 were 149% above pre-industrial levels, thereby breaking another annual record according to the World Meteorological Organization. This is the highest level in the last 3 million years.
Existing pledges to reduce emissions would still allow the planet’s average surface temperature to rise by 2.7° C over the century, which the UN says would supercharge the destruction that climate change is already causing by intensifying storms, exposing more people to deadly heat and flooding, raising sea levels and destroying natural habitats.
(*) Text based on several sources, including BBC and CNN.
