What Is COP26 and Why Is It Important?

Perhaps you’ve heard rumblings of the Paris Agreement or nations getting collectively to speak about local weather change someday quickly underneath the banner of the United Nations. Amidst the maelstrom of every day life, it’s truthfully laborious to recollect. Don’t fear, you’re not alone.

Even individuals who have spent a whole lot of time fascinated by and performing on local weather change usually don’t know concerning the United Nations local weather course of—which, sadly, occurs to be each some of the essential and most complicated issues taking place on the planet. World leaders and hordes of negotiators are gearing up for what’s referred to as COP26, which is lower than a month away. It’s seemingly the world’s finest shot to lastly begin winding down greenhouse gasoline emissions tied to burning fossil fuels. Here’s your primer to grasp what the heck this COP26 factor is, what on the Earth the UNFCCC is, and why you need to care about what occurs. Welcome to COP101!

What is COP26?

COP is an acronym for “Conference of Parties.” In UNspeak, a COP is analogous to a gathering of Congress or one other legislative physique, besides they’re simply speaking about local weather change on a regular basis. (Imagine if Congress have been like that!) In local weather land, COPs convene to cope with issues associated to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, which is the large UN treaty that dictates that nations want to come back collectively to determine this entire cease this entire international warming factor.

Once a 12 months, representatives from all of the nations within the treaty collect in the identical bodily house to hammer out worldwide local weather change motion and coverage associated to the UNFCCC. COP26 is the precise title of this 12 months’s massive local weather change assembly that’s slated to happen this fall.

So, does the “26” imply there have been 25 different COPs?

Yep. The UNFCCC was created in 1992, when 154 nations signed a brand new treaty about local weather change. That treaty went into impact in 1994. The first COP occurred in 1995 in Berlin, and COPs have met virtually yearly since then. (The math is barely off as a result of final 12 months’s COP received postponed as a result of pandemic.)

Geez, that’s a whole lot of conferences. Why haven’t we mounted local weather change by now?

The scale of the issue is just not solely fairly massive (duh), however the UN course of is, let’s be charitable and say, fairly convoluted. Most COPs are crammed with lengthy discussions about minute technical particulars that pertain to completely different UN guidelines and parameters. Some COPs are mainly devoted principally to determining technical particulars of specific agreements.

In between all this process, you’ve received some fairly massive inquiries to reply, like how (and if) to carry greater nations accountable for his or her fair proportion of worldwide carbon emissions; how a lot monetary support smaller nations ought to get; and what the world can realistically accomplish versus what science says we have to do. When you’ve gotten practically 200 nations, all with their very own pursuits, clamoring for enter on points massive and small, you’ve gotten a recipe for consensus being robust to achieve and plenty of conferences. Civil society and even fossil gasoline firms additionally present as much as attempt to affect the talks, including one more layer. (Unfortunately, leaders appear to listen to the latter greater than the previous up to now.)

If it’s referred to as COP26, why do I maintain listening to about Glasgow?

Glasgow is the place this year’s COP is being held, because the UK is internet hosting COP. Every 12 months, the “presidency” of a COP—the nation that runs the present and mainly makes positive everybody will get alongside and stuff will get executed—switches, and the assembly is usually held in a metropolis inside that nation. That mentioned, current COPs have been held in nations apart from the host. Chile held the presidency of COP25, however it moved the convention to Spain because of protests about rising inequality. (Chile was solely the host as a result of Brazil backed out after Jair Bolsonaro received the presidency.)

But often, the title of the town the place talks are held is synonymous with that exact COP. In 2015, France was the host of COP15, which is how we received the title of the Paris Agreement.

I do know the Paris Agreement is essential, however are you able to clarify it to me once more?

At the Paris COP, 192 nations got here to an settlement to get the world off fossil fuels and to attempt to keep away from, at most, 2 levels Celsius (3.6 levels Fahrenheit) of further warming by the tip of this century. The settlement units an aspirational goal of avoiding 1.5 levels Celsius [2.7 degrees Fahrenheit] of warming as effectively due to the advocacy of small island nations. As a part of the Paris Agreement, nations agreed to submit their very own plans that may element how a lot they plan to chop greenhouse gasoline emissions.

This type of settlement might sound very fundamental, however it was an enormous deal for the UN course of. Back in 2009, nations have been hoping to succeed in an analogous settlement, however the negotiations, as an alternative, ended dramatically on the final day of the convention in what amounted to a diplomatic meltdown. Agreeing on these things is robust!

If the world signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, shouldn’t we be executed with these conferences by now?

Paris was by no means meant to be the ultimate phrase on how the world would sort out local weather change. Consider it extra of a starter blueprint. The settlement is modeled on nations submitting more and more aggressive plans for reducing emissions each couple of years. We’ve additionally seen within the intervening years how fragile the settlement is. The Paris Agreement is a relatively bare-bones settlement to do one thing about rising greenhouse gasoline emissions. 

But it’s additionally nonbinding, which is why former President Donald Trump was in a position to pull the U.S. out with no sanctions or penalties. It’s additionally why President Joe Biden may simply rejoin it and submit a brand new pledge like nothing occurred.

OK, so what’s going to occur at COP26?

Each of the 192 nations who’ve signed on to the Paris Agreement will ship a cohort of delegates to signify them within the negotiations. It’s a lot of individuals: Around 20,000 delegates are registered to attend. This 12 months, 120 heads of state are anticipated to come back, too. These of us will spend a lot of the 2 weeks in conferences.

The precise negotiations are closed to the general public, however there’s a whole lot of exercise that goes on outdoors the conferences as effectively. Thousands of spectators from what’s referred to as “observer organizations”—NGOs, youth organizations, companies, coverage teams—come to COP to cheer the delegates and the method on, attempt to goad them a method or one other, and usually contain themselves within the negotiations as a lot as potential from the sidelines.

Plenty of these teams placed on demonstrations, discussions, and different occasions—many together with celebrities and world leaders that get a whole lot of information consideration and may, to some extent, inform what’s happening in discussions. Countries can even placed on their very own occasions, a few of which could be fairly telling about these nations’ priorities contained in the negotiations. (At COP24, the Trump administration placed on a woefully unhappy panel solely dedicated to defending coal.) 

Is COP26 additional essential?

There are a few key benchmarks within the Paris Agreement that can characteristic on this 12 months’s negotiations, so this COP isn’t going to be all about technical particulars—we’re positive to see some throwdowns and fights over massive points.

Perhaps equally importantly, there’s additionally been a whole lot of science and analysis since we’ve final held a COP that illustrates the urgency of performing as shortly as potential on local weather. The International Energy Agency mentioned earlier this 12 months that each one new fossil gasoline exploration wanted to finish solely by 2022 as a way to maintain us underneath 1.5 levels Celsius (F). And in August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, one other UN physique, launched a report outlining simply how a lot the planet has modified—and the way severe issues are going to get if we don’t act now. It’s ample to say that the worldwide ambiance round local weather change in all probability hasn’t been this intense going into some other COP.

Will issues change after COP26? Are we going to repair local weather change?

Not to magnify, however there’s quite a bit using on this specific COP. If the UN can buck the development of seeming each assembly ending with contentious non-agreements and are available collectively in a uncommon second of unity, we’ll have a powerful framework to work with as we determine get emissions down over the following couple of years. If enterprise proceeds as common, effectively… cross your fingers.