COP26 Glasgow

Today is the 1st of September, and it's just two months until CoP 26 takes place here in Glasgow, where the eyes of the world will be focussed on the negotiations that'll take place between nation-states, and their governments, over a range of issues and the measures that we, as humanity, will need to implement if we are to limit the effects of climate change and keep the temperature rise to under 2 degrees.?

?

The seriousness of the current situation shouldn't be lost on us, and whilst it's nice that my hometown will spend some time in the winter limelight. I'm sure I speak for many Glaswegians saying that we'd be far happier if we'd already solved climate change or were halfway through a much more advanced "decarbonisation" plan that every President and Prime Minister on earth had; signed up to long ago!

?

But what is CoP, why the hype, and just what is it supposed to deliver?

?

Well, firstly, let's tackle the acronym.?The CoP stands for the Conference of Parties or CoP for short. It's an annual United Nations Conference between all 193 nation-states or "Parties" on the planet, from Albania to Zimbabwe, to determine progress and to set goals that will reduce Co2 emissions and mitigate climate change.?In short, it's a decision-making body.

?

The CoP meets every year, with the first (#1) held in Berlin in March 1995.?The 26th meeting will be here in Glasgow. ??The most famous CoP, ?CoP 21, was held in Paris in 2015, where an agreement was reached to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep global warming under 2 degrees, preferably 1.5. ?

?

That Agreement was a real diplomatic feat and a landmark agreement because it is a?legally binding international treaty on climate change and brought everyone together in a common cause.

?

That goal of limiting global warming?to well below 2 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels is important.?The reason being that scientific forecasting shows that a rise in temperature higher than this would have catastrophic consequences for large parts of the world.?

?

A 3- or 4-degree rise would make some regions of the world almost uninhabitable, creating food shortages and famine and generating extreme weather conditions, the type of which we've only just begun to see here in Europe and North America recently.

?

An essential task for the COP is to review the national emission inventories submitted by all countries.??It then assesses the effects of the measures taken by the Parties, or countries, and the progress made in achieving the objective of the Conference, which is to reduce Global warming.

?

CoP 26 in Glasgow is vitally important as it is the review of the consensus reached in Paris six years ago, and to ramp up those commitments alongside a clear plan of action on how the targets will be met in the short, medium and long term.

?

And to put those commitments in some kind of context by doing nothing, the world would be on track to emit about 53 to 55 gigatonnes of Co2 by 2030; this would see a rise in temperature of about 3 degrees, possibly higher.

?

To limit that rise to 2 degrees of we'd have to bring the amount emitted down to 40 gigatonnes of Co2 by 2030 and 1.5 degrees we'd need to bring it down to 24 gigatonnes or about half of what we produce just now; not to mention the abatement measure required to offset the Co2 we produce.

?

It's a massive challenge and can sometimes feel overwhelming or even impossible.?I meet sceptics and those who are apathetic, at best, about climate change every other day.?

?

But here's the thing: our children and grandchildren will feel the effects of climate change much more keenly than we will. My daughter will be in her mid-twenties by 2040, and my son in his late 30's by 2050.?

?

Reducing global warming, or at least limiting it, is not impossible; indeed, it is essential work that we, as the current custodians of the planet, have to do to hand over to the next generation.

?

I'd argue that whilst the measures we'll need to adopt as businesses, as individuals and as governments require a lot of hard work, there's an opportunity towards a greener, more sustainable economy and society.

?

If that transition is managed in the right way, that could have both a positive impact on climate change as well as how we live and work. ?