The UK was due to hold the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as COP26) in Glasgow in 2020; however this has been postponed until November 2021 due to the recent COVID19 outbreak.
The conference is a collaborative global summit on climate change to address what individual nations are doing to tackle the issues, with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals likely to be at the heart.
‘COP’ stands for ‘conference of parties’, and sees world leaders from 197 member nations and governments attend. All member nations have signed a climate action treaty, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change or ‘UNFCCC’.
The conference is important because goals made for sustainability through the Paris Agreement (where COP21 was held) will need to be taken seriously and reset to ensure global warming is kept below 1.5°c – an increase that could lead to devastation for vulnerable communities across the world.
In 2021, the UK as hosts will be in the spotlight.
