Illustration by Lisa
COP stands for Conference of the Parties, the term given to a range of global conferences that cover different United Nations conventions or UN ‘organisations’. In this case, COP26 is the 26th meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was created in 1992. The first meeting of the Convention 'COP1' was held in 1995 and there has been a COP every year since. The only exception was 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two notable COPs you may remember hearing about were held in Kyoto in 1997, where the Kyoto Protocol was signed off. That agreement pledged greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets from developed countries, up to 2020; the first time such an agreement had ever been reached. And in 2015 in Paris, the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, was completed. Now the Kyoto Protocol period has ended, the Paris Agreement implementation period must begin.
COP26 is going to be all about the implementation of the Paris Agreement, with the aim to ensure that enough global action is happening to keep global temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. This is the aim of all of the Parties to the Convention, nearly 200 countries (rather than just developed countries, as was the case for the Kyoto Protocol).
This COP is not about getting a new global deal, despite what some of the media coverage has implied. We have a global deal – the Paris Agreement – and this COP is about whether countries are doing enough on their pledges, both on reducing emissions and in adapting to the effects of climate change that are now unavoidable and already happening. There is a real sense of urgency for this COP because we know from climate scientists around the world that we are running out of time to reverse the escalating climate crisis.
Despite the pledges and action to date, global greenhouse gas emissions are still increasing, and with them, concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is changing our climate at a very fast rate. The global scientific consensus on climate change is set out in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and their latest report is clear.
Global warming of at least 1.5°C is now largely inevitable, and to keep temperature rise from increasing further, greenhouse gas emissions must start to fall rapidly, now. This COP is so important because there needs to be an acceleration of action from all countries to do just that. And alongside, there will be calls to do more on adaptation, including increasing finance for developing countries which are bearing the brunt of climate change impacts so far.
There will be tens of thousands of people attending COP; both national delegates who will negotiate on behalf of each country, and observers. We will be there representing The Wildlife Trusts as observers, and doing three things:
Our goal for COP26 is to put nature recovery at the heart of increased ambition on climate change; in the UK and globally; and on both mitigation and adaptation. We have published an updated version of our Let Nature Help report that sets out the specifics of how we want to see nature and climate integrated in the COP discussions.
I last attended the COP as a negotiator back in the period between 2003 – 2005 (COP9, 10 and 11). Some things won’t have changed, including the complex format to the negotiations, which is inevitable when 200 countries are trying to reach agreement. But some things may change this time around. We may finally start to see the real change in global ambition that is needed to get greenhouse gas emissions on a downward trajectory. We may see adaptation to climate change and support for developing countries getting equal billing as a top priority. And, we may see real recognition that the twin crises of climate change and nature loss must be tackled together. We’ll be keeping you posted.
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