COP26 so far

COP26 has been bringing together parties from across the world to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Open University has official observer status at COP26 and is learning from the conference to inform the university’s wider sustainability mission and inspire students and staff to take action. Here are some of the conference’s highlights, as told by our Open University observers. 

COP26 Diary - 5 November: Dr Clive Mitchell, Associate Lecturer.

Presidency Event in partnership with High-Level Champions: Destination 2030 is about halving emissions and building resilience and capacity especially for the climate vulnerable – 4 billion people.

Views ranged from the more optimistic: that we might be at the start of an exponential increase in green technology and investment; welcome moves towards net zero disclosure for businesses; stronger alignment between public and private sector and convergence across supply chains and with wider society – including young people all creating conditions for a rapid transformation, to the many causes for despair, especially among young people.

Net zero targets are meaningless to the climate vulnerable: net zero is about action, not words. Dangerous climate change is already here. The uneven impact of COVID19 for the more vulnerable is predictable. We must address loss and damage due to climate change now, not in the future – this has been the elephant in the room at COP26 and previous events.

The people most exposed to climate change – the young and the vulnerable – are not in the room, they remain outside on the streets of Glasgow and beyond. Find hope in indigenous leaders, young voices, scientists, and despair in corporates, and greenwash. Business still focuses on short term and marginal change: the culture of large profits for a minority must change. The same thinking that caused the problem won’t create solutions. Fresh thinking needs to involve young people and people for whom the lived experience of climate change is real – include those who have been historically excluded in these spaces. Nature is not an easy fix: it cannot be an excuse for not exiting fossil fuels. Every person has the right to a healthy planet.

Summing up for the Presidency, Alok Sharma noted that climate change is the biggest security threat in the world today. Developed countries must reduce emissions. COP26 must complete Paris Rulebook so that the Paris Agreement can be implemented in full and keep 1.5 alive. A green net zero future lies ahead – but will we get there fast enough?