What you need to know about the COP26 climate summit

Over the next two weeks, governments around the world will meet at a highly anticipated summit on climate change billed as the “best last chance” to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and prevent the worsening effects of climate change. is convened for

Here’s how to make sense of all the news about the COP26 summit.

What is Climate Summit?

The climate summit in Glasgow is called COP26. It stands for the 26th Conference of the Parties and represents the gathering of all countries that have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Climate Agreement.

The group meets annually to discuss progress in combating climate change and negotiate how the terms of climate agreements will be implemented.

With last year’s face-to-face meetings postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, COP26 marks the first time that countries have come together since the United Nations’ latest climate science report issued a dire warning that the impacts of climate change are becoming more severe. I am going to have a meeting. falling short to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

COP26 President Alok Sharma said there was pressure on world leaders to increase their ambition to tackle the climate crisis at the summit.

At a press conference hosted by Covering Climate Now, an organization that works with journalists and newsrooms, he told reporters: climate range.

who is there?

President Joe Biden and more than 100 world leaders will speak during the first two days of the summit, outlining their countries’ plans to cut emissions and potentially announcing new climate goals and commitments.

However, key leaders of the world’s biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, such as China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, are expected not to attend, citing concerns over COVID-19. It has been.

Influential figures such as former President Barack Obama and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will also attend and discuss the importance of taking action to limit the impacts of climate change. Climate activists like his teenage Greta Thunberg in Sweden are expected to lead mass protests outside official venues, putting pressure on world leaders to do more. It has been.

After high-profile statements to kick off the summit, other national officials and negotiators prepared technical documents detailing agreements on climate policy, and high-level officials such as Presidential Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry Officials meet with the other party to negotiate any issues.

what is the agenda?

Negotiators at this year’s Climate Summit will focus on how to limit the impacts of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and how countries will adapt to climate change in parts of the world where the impacts are becoming more severe. You will be faced with questions about how to help.

The most important item on the agenda of the Climate Summit is for almost all countries to step up their commitment to reduce the emissions that contribute to climate warming as soon as possible. Even with current commitments to cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, the United Nations says the world will fall short of its goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Current efforts put the world on track for a warming of 2.1-2.7 degrees Celsius, according to the latest United Nations analysis. This could lead to more dangerous effects of climate change, such as worsening severe weather and drought conditions that could begin to impede food production in parts of the world. It makes community survival more difficult.

“The time for diplomatic goodwill is over,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at this week’s UN conference on climate change.

“If governments, especially the G20 countries, do not stand up and lead this effort, humanity will face terrible suffering,” he added.

Negotiators should not only step up efforts to prevent climate change from worsening, but also how to deal with the impacts of climate change that are already being felt, and how to address vulnerabilities that are suffering from changes such as worsening storms and rising sea levels. We also face the question of how to help a country with .

The Paris Agreement promised $100 billion in annual financial assistance to developing countries to tackle climate change, but the wealthy nations expected to contribute the most to that goal have not materialized. We will also discuss how much more we will increase in the future as the impacts of climate change continue to worsen. The fund aims to help poor countries build renewable energy infrastructure to avoid expanding fossil fuel use and make adaptive changes.

But representatives of these countries say that is not enough.

Perennis Alofa, National Coordinator for Kiribati’s Climate Action Network, said COP26 was critical to her island nation’s future and that conversations on climate change finance should include compensation for countries affected by climate change. said it needs to help residents relocate or recover from deterioration. Frequent severe storms.

Alofa said Kiribati and other island nations face an existential crisis from climate change as rising sea levels and worsening tropical storms threaten their livelihoods and ability to produce food.

“As residents of the islands of Kiribati, the loss and damage caused by climate change is now a permanent feature of our lives. This is not a one-off event or disaster. It’s about rising sea levels,” she told reporters at a briefing.

What does success look like?

The UN Secretary-General has said COP26 has a “high risk of failure”, but there is no single outcome that will solve all the challenges posed by the global climate crisis.

Experts say they will watch to see if negotiations in Glasgow make concrete progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement on steps that lead to real and measurable results.

Ultimately, however, COP26, even if successful, is still a step in the right direction rather than the ultimate solution to the climate crisis.

“By next year or the year after that, we have to turn a lot of corners, otherwise we don’t have a chance to stay at 1.5.” [degrees Celsius] Alive,” Jake Schmidt, senior director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s International Climate Program, told ABC News.

Watch ABC News and ABC News Live, or check abcnews.go.com for special coverage of the COP26 Climate Summit, Climate Crisis: Saving Tomorrow.