The most important climate convention in recent memory is right on the horizon
On October 31, Justin Trudeau will join other world leaders from nearly 200 countries at the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP26) to set new emissions reduction targets and tackle climate change on the world stage. COP26 will be taking place in Glasgow, Scotland and it is expected that over 20,000 activists, diplomats, academics, and industry leads will be in attendance. There has arguably never been a more important climate convention as scientists say, with data supported from the latest IPCC report, that nations must immediately stop pumping fossil fuels out of the ground along with a whole other host of emissions intensive actions if we want to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. This conference is a pivotal moment as commitments and emissions reduction targets leaders make will determine if we are able to prevent the worst effects of climate change, which we have seen this summer, are in the not-so-distant future. The official conference website notes that COP26 “has a unique urgency” and may be “the world’s best last chance to get runaway climate change under control.”
This year COP is coming off the heels of a sobering last IPCC’s latest report which warned that within the next two decades, temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, breaching the commitment of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The report showed that the Paris ambitions were not stringent enough, especially because many nations, including Canada, did not comply with them and emissions continued to rise. Therefore, ambitions set at this conference, policy measures, and a shift of the global economy are unequivocally the only chance we have at ensuring these levels of warming do not occur. It is the hope that Glasgow is a turning point in the crisis and world leaders act with urgency that is needed to secure the planet’s, and our, future. António Guterres, the UN secretary general, warned: “[This report] is a code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.”
The UN has mapped four goals for the event: keep 1.5 C of warming within reach and secure net-zero emissions by 2050, Preserve natural habitats by maintaining and restoring ecosystems, which includes preparing communities for the impacts of climate change, Complete rich countries’ promise to put forward at least $100 billion in climate finance per year by 2020, and push international financial institutions to contribute to net-zero initiatives, and Work together to finalize rules proposed during the Paris Agreement and collaborate to tackle the climate crisis.
The running theme of COP26 is to “keep hope alive,” because at this point, containing the global temperature rise to under 1.5 C seems unavoidable because of G7 countries’ appetite for fossil fuels and the disparity of aid being given to lower-income countries to transition to net-zero. But hope cannot be lost, because as colloquial as it sounds, it is our best weapon in fighting climate change. The faith that conferences such as this will produce ambitious pledges that will lead to policies that will prevent intense heat waves and drought and deadly wildfires. Hopefully the global attention on world leaders will give them the push needed to take bold action.