Preparing for COP26: a primer

Top lines

In the first two weeks of November 2021, the UK and Italy will co-host the latest iteration of the UNFCCC climate summit, COP26. Ahead of the event, this briefing sets out the key questions and debates surrounding COP26.

The 2015 Paris Agreement set a target to limit global warming to 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels. Time is running out to achieve this goal. Several other related issues - including climate finance, adaptation, loss and damage and enabling a just transition to a green economy - also remain up for discussion at COP26.

The UK must use its Presidency of COP26 to reinvigorate the UNFCCC process, create momentum behind the 1.5 degrees goal and persuade the major emitters to increase the ambition of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Despite the severity of the climate crisis, world leaders from several of the key countries will not be attending COP26 in person. The UK must find a way to build a more ambitious consensus despite these absences.

A frequent failing of the COP process has been its marginalisation of voices from lower income countries, who are often the most affected by the impacts of climate change. The UK must work to ensure that the needs and priorities of the global south, indigneous communities and young people from across the world are reflected at the highest level of the negotiations.

One major area of scrutiny should be the UK government’s own climate strategy. While the UK has announced an increased NDC, and a detailed net zero strategy in the run-up to the conference, high-profile decisions such as tax cuts on domestic air travel have raised concerns over the extent to which the UK can act as a role model on climate action.

Another concern, one which goes beyond UK policy, is the extent to which the solutions championed by the COP process remain rooted in the market-based systems which caused the climate crisis in the first place. ‘Green growth’ may be a buzzword during COP26, but its merits are far from proven.

On overall climate strategy, UK domestic policy and inclusion at COP26 the Labour Party must do more to challenge the government on its handling of this critical event.

Photo: Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Sir David Attenborough talk to school children at the Science Museum for the launch of the UK’s hosting of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26). Andrew Parsons/No. 10 Downing Street via Flickr.