The long-awaited new climate summit already has a date: November 2021

A year late. A lot of time wasted on an issue of such importance as the climate crisis but the Covid-19 pandemic seems to impose the rhythm.

If there are no new changes, which everything can be in these uncertain times, the new and long-awaited climate summit will be held in Glasgow (Scotland, United Kingdom) from November 1 to 12, 2021, that is, in a year and a half.

As will be recalled, the 26th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention against Climate Change was to be held at the end of 2020, twelve months after COP25, which accidentally took place in Madrid (which assumed the role initially assigned to Santiago de Chile).

The agreement of new date for this international conference was adopted on Thursday, May 28 by the Bureau of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP Bureau of the UNFCCC) after analyzing the proposal of the government of Reno Unido and the delegation of the COP in this country – to whom the organization of the meeting has been assigned.

Meeting of great importance

The COP26 or Glasgow Summit was scheduled for November 9 to 18, 2020 but on April 1, the secretary of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change and the government of the United Kingdom communicated the agreement to postpone this international meeting until 2021 (see in La Vanguardia).

This agreement in principle did not set a timetable but various sources had indicated that the meeting could be scheduled for spring 2021, a possibility ruled out soon after.

The health and political uncertainty caused by the pandemic has now caused the British government to propose that COP26 be held from November 1 to 12, 2021, according to a letter from the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom addressed to the United Kingdom office of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).

COP26 is presented as a meeting of great importance because, among many other reasons, the commitments adopted by most of the signatory countries of the Paris Agreement on reducing their greenhouse gas emissions are now completely insufficient to reach levels of warming (below 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era) that scientists consider “safe”, to avoid major climate catastrophes.

The Covid-19 pandemic is hindering the already complex climate negotiation and delaying the adoption of possible proposals for progress, as evidenced by the current proposal to postpone the meeting scheduled in Glasgow.

Source: The Vanguard