What is COP26 and Why is it Such a Big Deal?
Time is running out to save our planet
You’ve probably heard of COP26 by now unless you’ve been living under a rock. COP26 is the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow, Scotland in the first two weeks of November. COP stands for “Conference of the Parties” and this year is the 26th of these gatherings.
Paris Climate Agreement
So why is this one so significant? It was during the COP21 when the Paris Agreement was born where 196 parties agreed to work towards keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees celsius (or 2°C if all else fails) above pre-industrial levels - that is, the levels before humans done messed things up. The countries agreed to get back together every 5 years to update their plans, which is where COP26 comes in.
Running Out of Time
Earlier this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Report stated that climate change is intensifying and we’re falling short of those promises. The report finds that “unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach.”
To understand the significance of a 2°C global warming, here are just a few facts from
NASA.
- More than 70 percent of Earth’s coastlines will see sea-level rise greater than 0.66 feet (0.2 meters) .
- Loss of species and extinction - 18 percent of the insects, 16 percent of the plants and 8 percent of the vertebrates will see their habitat reduced by more than half.
- Increased heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and extreme precipitation - as if we don’t already have enough of these weather patterns.
- Coral reefs will become all but non-existent.
All the above will affect our health, our homes and our livelihoods. You know how nobody thought much about toilet paper...until it was gone? It’s the same thing here. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached a record high this year, sounding a clear alarm that we are running out of time to save our planet. The world has already warmed 1.1°C, and the IPCC report predicted that warming will exceed 1.5°C within the next two decades.
What to Expect from COP26
The commitments that governments make during COP26 are unlikely to be ambitious enough to prevent temperatures from rising 1.5°C or even 2°C, according to the
Council on Foreign Relations. What the conference is doing, however, is bringing renewed attention to the climate crisis from across the world.
One interesting topic on the docket is cutting methane emissions, which we wrote about in
Reversing Climate Change Through Composting. Our own family has cut the amount of waste we send to the landfill by HALF simply by composting, thus reducing methane production. Leaders at the climate conference will formally pledge to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030, and 12 countries have already signed on.
Be sure to follow history in making at the conference since our collective failure to save our planet will result in us becoming history.
