What is COP26 and why is it important?
COP26 is the 26th annual meeting of the ‘Conference of the Parties', a UN-convened forum where the world's governments gather to tackle climate change. It was originally due to take place in 2020, but was delayed by the Covid pandemic.
This year's meeting has a particular significance. To understand why, we need to look back to another critical COP meeting - COP21 in Paris, in 2015. This was the meeting where for the first time, governments agreed on a common objective to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees, and aim for 1.5 degrees - known as the Paris Agreement. Countries committed to bring forward national plans (Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs), setting out how their plans to cut emissions - and agreed a five-year review cycle to update these plans, with the upcoming COP26 meeting the deadline for these to take place.
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