COP26 Climate Summit

The 26th Conference of the Parties AKA COP26 is scheduled to take place in Glasgow, the U.K from 31st October to 12th November 2021. President Biden, Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ, PM Borris Johnson, Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland are the few notable attendees. President Xi Jinping of China has not yet RSVP’d despite being the largest carbon emitter.

The first COP was held in Berlin in 1995 after several nations ratified the climate convention. The Kyoto Protocol came into effect after 2 years which required nations to manage their carbon emissions. The then President, George W. Bush rejected China, India, and other developing nations from joining the protocol and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

The conference is held by the United Nations to discuss the participating countries’ pledge towards safeguarding the environment and taking appropriate measures to balance factors that contribute adversely towards climatic changes.

In 2015, over 200 countries signed the Paris Agreement after several disputes on which country contributes adversely towards climate changes. The U.S. dropped out of this agreement under Trump’s presidency and got reinstated during Biden’s.

While many promises were made to make good the loss many of them remained unfulfilled until this day. The Scottish Event Campus, Glasgow’s largest exhibition center will host around 20,000 politicians, diplomats, and other authorities of power to discuss the future of curtailing carbon emissions. Activists like Greta Thunberg, business leaders, and academic experts plan to monitor the same.

China, Australia, Russia, and India have not yet submitted their pledges to cut pollutants in their respective cities. It’s also not sure that they will submit their pledges before the summit.

The goal of the COP26 is to prevent the global temperature from rising above 1.5° Celsius than that existed before the Industrial Revolution. Several wealthy nations have come forth to help developing nations by funding their pollution control initiatives.