COP26: Stepping up climate action?
The pandemic forced most large international meetings to be postponed from 2020 to 2021, including the pivotal COP26. Now, after a year and a half of lock downs and economic recession with only months left until the conference: is the world ready to step up ambition and climate action?
The starting point for the conversation is that the “2020 Year of Climate Action” has been largely moved to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In many ways, the pandemic has slowed climate action as it has consumed a large portion of political capacity and left the world in an economically strained state.
Simultaneously, the conditions for an ambitious COP26 are in other aspects better than last year. The U.S. has reentered the Paris Agreement, many large emitters have submitted their nationally determined contributions and the need to rebuild economies after the pandemic presents an opportunity to make a green transition. Furthermore, the hosts for COP26 in Glasgow, the UK and Italy, are coincidingly chairing the G7 and G20 which could allow for more climate oriented summits.
What is the status of international negotiations and ambitions on climate change in the months leading up to COP26?
Speakers:
Ms. Judith Gough, British Ambassador to Sweden
Mr. Vinicio Mati, Italian Ambassador to Sweden
The talk was moderated by Dr. Elin Jakobsson, researcher at the Programme for Global Politics and Security at UI.