The COP26 climate summit is set to begin. Will it actually do anything?
Global News
The 26th yearly climate change summit, which brings activists together to discuss the most world's most pressing environmental concerns, will convene from Sunday until Nov. 12.
World leaders are in Glasgow this weekend to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26.
The 26th yearly summit, which aims to bring activists together to discuss the world’s most pressing environmental concerns, will convene from Oct. 31 until Nov. 12 and is expected to focus on accelerating progress made on the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
But following a year of record-breaking forest fires, extreme weather and poor air quality, some experts are saying the summit is all talk, yielding little to no action.
“Most of this is simply wishful thinking,” said Dr. Bjorn Lomborg, founder of think tank Copenhagen Consensus Center and former director of the Danish government’s Environmental Assessment Institute.
COP26 officials say this year’s summit will prioritize reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, helping countries affected by climate change protect and restore their ecosystems, pushing countries to deliver on previous promises to contribute at least $100 billion in funding per year and finalizing the rules needed to implement the Paris Agreement, according to a recent report.
Leaders say “there will be a lot of work being done” this year.
Speaking at a joint press conference Friday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that he is “still positive” because “there is no way not to do this.”
“The two of us will work very hard to do whatever we can to bring our colleagues along in the G20.”