COP 26 climate talks re-arranged for 2021

The COP 26 climate talks have been re-scheduled for November 2021, the UK Government has confirmed.

The talks, originally planned to take place in Glasgow in November this year, were delayed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The planned venue – the Scottish Events Campus – has now been turned into a temporary hospital in response to coronavirus.

But the UK Government has now confirmed the talks, aimed at limiting global temperature rises, will take place in Glasgow from 1-12 November 2021.

The Paris Agreement committed states to keeping temperatures rises under 1.5C, but current emissions trajectories suggest the world is on course for more than three degrees of warming, despite warnings from the IPCC that the outcome would be catastrophic for life on earth.

Tom Ballantine, chair of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, said: “When the talks arrive in Glasgow, the people of the UK will stand in solidarity with those in the most impacted countries in demanding climate action. The world is currently on a path to catastrophic climate change. To alter that we must build momentum from now including through the delivery of a just and green recovery from COVID. It is critical that our governments urgently get on track to meet their climate targets. We can and must set an example to the rest of the world before and during COP26 in Glasgow.”

COP26 president and Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Alok Sharma said: “While we rightly focus on fighting the immediate crisis of the coronavirus, we must not lose sight of the huge challenges of climate change.

“With the new dates for COP26 now agreed we are working with our international partners on an ambitious roadmap for global climate action between now and November 2021. The steps we take to rebuild our economies will have a profound impact on our societies’ future sustainability, resilience and wellbeing and COP26 can be a moment where the world unites behind a clean resilient recovery.

“Everyone will need to raise their ambitions to tackle climate change and the expertise of the Friends of COP will be important in helping boost climate action across the globe.”

Climate Change Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented global crisis which has fundamentally changed every aspect of our lives and could continue to do so for some time to come. The immediate focus for government continues, rightly, to be on protecting lives and livelihoods, but the climate emergency has not gone away and must be central to our recovery from this difficult time.

“In anticipation of a ‘new normal’, we have a chance to re-imagine the world around us, and to begin building a greener, fairer and more equal society and economy. Our starting point has most definitely changed but our ambitions need not.

“I remain deeply committed to our ambition to end Scotland’s contribution to climate change by 2045 and am equally clear that the delay to COP26 should not, and must not, mean a delay to collective global action on tackling climate change.”