Preparations for COP26 begin

The United Nations Conference on Climate Change in 2021 is the twenty-sixth conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to which 197 countries belong, with 33 from Latin America and the Caribbean . This will take place from 1st to 12th November this year in Glasgow, Scotland .

In this edition, the parties will seek to accelerate actions towards the fulfillment of the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the Convention. Host country UK has shown interest in and commitment to "working with all countries and joining forces with civil society, business and people on the front lines of climate change to inspire climate action ahead of COP26 ". Thus, it has had different virtual spaces to develop and discuss the main topics that will be discussed at COP26.

For example, on March 8 in London, Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and John Kerry, special envoy of United States President Joe Biden, met. The visit is part of a tour of Europe that Kerry is doing before April 22nd, the day on which the international climate summit will be held. Alok Sharma, president of COP26, was also part of the meeting .

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Likewise, on March 1, the virtual forum " The road to COP26: a year of recovery and climate ambition " was held, organized by the British embassy in Spain, in which Sharma himself, Teresa Ribera, fourth vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge of Spain, and Roberto Cingolani, Minister of the Environment of Italy, participated. The main conclusion of the forum was the need for greater ambition in reducing emissions globally. COP26 is also expected to "serve as a catalyst" to avoid the climate catastrophe that is looming due to the lack of compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals. This meeting also focused on analyzing the priorities not only of NGOs and governments around the world, but also of civil society itself.

Along these lines, the event also worked on the Climate Change Law in Spain, an ambitious proposal from the Commission for the Ecological Transition of Congress that seeks to raise the emission reduction targets in order to achieve the much-needed climate neutrality by 2050 . Specifically, there was talk of the need to take advantage of European recovery funds, and that this law could be insufficient and late if energy multinationals do not change their inaction in the fight against the climate change.

Although this meeting focused largely on Spain, the points discussed and the modality in which they were addressed serve as an example for other countries and also as a preamble to COP26. Above all, it is important to highlight that both the entities, experts and civilians who were part of the event drew attention to the need to take into account countries that do not belong to the European Union when financing the reduction of the footprint of carbon and greenhouse emissions.