COP26

What is COP26 and why does it matter?

COP26, the UN climate summit, (aka last chance saloon / do-or-die / eleventh hour) starts today in Glasgow. World leaders are determining the future state of the planet, working together as a global team to stop the Earth’s temperature from increasing.

COP26 is the follow up to the groundbreaking 2015 Paris Agreement in which these leaders committed to limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels this century, as well as pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Three years after the Paris Agreement, in 2018, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced that the world had already warmed by 1 degree Celsius since industrial times.

COP26 is urgent. It’s already a year later than intended due to Covid. 

“1.5 degrees? That’s not much! What’s the big deal?”

Rising temperatures is caused by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. When carbon mixes in the air with oxygen it creates CO2, making the atmosphere warmer by trapping heat. Here’s a summary of what havoc global temperature rises can cause:

Sea Levels

At 1.5 degrees of warming, we can expect 48cm of sea level rise by the end of the century, which is roughly twice as much as current levels. Two degrees of warming would lift sea levels by 56cm, according to Global Citizen.

By 2050, rising sea levels mean that Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, and Mumbai, one of India’s biggest cities, will no longer be liveable due to rising sea levels and storms at sea.” According to The Climate Crisis Advisory Group (CCAG) head Sir David King.

Ocean Temperature

The ocean is absorbing the majority of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases which threatens the plants, animals and coral reefs that depend on them. Rising ocean temperatures threaten a key source of income and food for coastal communities.

Heat Waves

This past decade was the hottest in recorded history, and this decade is on pace to break that record. Heat waves and higher temperatures in general are an extreme public health threat that predominantly affect the world’s poorest communities. 

More  / Less Rain + Extinction

Extreme rainfall can unleash waterborne illnesses and cause people to drown, while droughts can fuel dust storms and forest fires. Australia’s ‘Black Summer’ (2019-2020 bush fires) burned 72,000 square miles of territory, killed dozens of people, and likely wiped out several endangered species.

Harder to Grow Crops

A number of speciality crops that we take for granted such as coffee and chocolate, are harder to grow. Many of the staple crops that form the basis of nutrition are also being threatened by warmer temperatures and that lead to rising hunger worldwide. 

What do we need from COP26:

  1. Dramatic interventions to reduce / eliminate our collective carbon footprint, securing global net zero by 2050 and keep 1.5 degrees within reach.

  2. Wealthy nations need to put billions a year into the Green Climate Fund to support climate action in developing countries, promised in 2009 at COP15 in Copenhagen, but never delivered upon.

  3. Protect communities and natural habitats to help restore ecosystems

  4. Work together as a global team. Can anyone actually believe that Trump said climate change didn’t exist?