COP26 What happens now?

On Wednesday 17 November the BSCC and Centigo had the pleasure of co-hosting, HM Ambassador to Sweden Ms. Judith Gough for a breakfast seminar on the British Governments take-aways from COP26.

Ms. Gough began by using the glass half full analogy to describe the Government’s viewpoint on COP26 as a whole. Whilst she iterated that the climate conference did not fulfil all of the Government’s aims, significant gains were made in reducing emissions, climate finance, international cooperation, and climate adaptation. Ms. Gough went on to specify the following successes in particular: For the first time ever there is an agreement on phasing down coal, major emitters have committed to reducing their emissions, 130 countries have pledged to end deforestation by 2035, and Article 6 of the Paris rule book has been finalised.

HM Ambassador spoke about the leadership role that the UK and Sweden have in the struggle to keep 1.5 alive and noted that both countries had agreed to double their contributions to developing countries’ climate funds. Furthermore, she stressed that there was still a lot of work to be done on areas such as finance and getting countries to commit, but that the climate movement has momentum and that it will be interesting to see how consumers react to products from countries that haven’t signed onto the various agreements.

Ms. Gough ended her talk by focussing on the Government’s position that it is of great importance that indigenous people are represented and supported in holistic climate talks as they are on the frontline of climate change.