Hi,
The next global climate conference, to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, has been postponed.
This meeting was billed as the most important since the 2015 Paris climate conference, because countries from around the world were set to submit the first of periodic five-year strengthened emissions targets.
The UNFCCC, which organises the conference released the statement: “In light of the ongoing, worldwide effects of Covid-19, holding an ambitious, inclusive COP26 in November 2020 is no longer possible.”
After weeks of cancellations and global society itself being all but put on hold, this feels like an especially cruel blow. We shouldn’t have to trade one dire existential emergency for another. We should be able to solve the coronavirus crisis and the climate crisis at the same time.
No exact rescheduling date has been set, but the UNFCCC said COP26 would take place sometime in 2021. The venue where the meeting was to be held is currently in process of being converted into a field hospital to aid coronavirus patients.
We don’t have a year to spare. The delay is already discouraging observers and causing some to ratchet back their hopes for a rebound to the disastrous COP25 in Madrid last year.
In a worst-case scenario, COP26 and a raft of other climate-related meetings will be cancelled, not just postponed.
I know what you’re asking: Why couldn’t the meeting be held online? From a developing country perspective, countries that have been fighting to have their needs be put at the centre of global climate negotiations are worried that a virtual COP, while it would save the emissions from travel, would further marginalise their voices.
Low internet bandwidth, lack of ability to meet in hallways and coffee shops, in the conference centre, even the choice of time zones for meetings (likely held in CET), would all work against delegates from under-resourced countries, especially Pacific Islands who are already reeling from the economic fallout from coronavirus.
Limiting participation means the agenda for discussion would also be limited, with those in power likely getting to call the shots.
It’s a supremely depressing development, and my best hope is that the world can come together quickly to address the pandemic effectively, so the critical work of setting ourselves on a path for a stable climate and a flourishing 21st century can continue.
Our goal in this time of global emergency, as my piece this week argues, isn’t just to restore the failed status quo, after all. Our goal is to build a new world that works for everyone.
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