The major UN climate change summit (COP 26) which was set to take place in Glasgow in November has been postponed until 2021 amid the worldwide coronavirus outbreak. It was thought that the talks would have been the most important since the Paris Agreement in 2015.
The Cop26 meeting was set to take place at Glasgow’s Scottish Events Campus – which is being turned into a temporary coronavirus field hospital – from November 9 to 20.
But an announcement from the UN’s climate body, the UNFCCC, and the UK Government said the summit would be pushed back to 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision to postpone was taken by the UNFCCC with the UK and its Italian partners in hosting Cop26, with dates in 2021 set out after further discussion.
UK Business and Energy Secretary Alok Sharma said: ‘The world is currently facing an unprecedented global challenge and countries are rightly focusing their efforts on saving lives and fighting Covid-19. That is why we have decided to reschedule Cop26.
‘We will continue working tirelessly with our partners to deliver the ambition needed to tackle the climate crisis and I look forward to agreeing on a new date for the conference.’
UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa said: ‘Covid-19 is the most urgent threat facing humanity today, but we cannot forget that climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity over the long term.
‘Soon, economies will restart. This is a chance for nations to recover better, to include the most vulnerable in those plans, and a chance to shape the 21st-century economy in ways that are clean, green, healthy, just, safe and more resilient.’
A mid-year UN climate meeting scheduled for June in Bonn, Germany, which would have laid groundwork for the November talks, has been delayed to October.
Original Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/