IUCN COP26 Report
Overview
Convened under the Presidency of the United Kingdom in partnership with Italy, the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP26) was held in Glasgow, Scotland from 31 October to 13 November 2021 together with the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties serving
as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP16) and the 3rd session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA3). Sessions of the subsidiary bodies of the Convention – the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA52-55) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI52-55) – were also convened during this period.
The Glasgow Climate Change Conference took place after a year-long postponement due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Almost 40,000 people registered for the conference, including nearly 22,000 representatives from Parties and observer States; 14,000 observers; and over 3,500 representatives from media.
The main objective of COP26 was to finalize the outstanding items of the Paris Agreement Rulebook necessary for its full implementation. These were particularly in relation to the rules and guidance for Article 6 (market and non-market mechanisms for international cooperation), common timeframes for nationally determined contributions (NDCs), common metrics for non-CO2 emissions, long-term finance, as well as methodological issues related to the enhanced transparency framework under the Paris Agreement, among others.
The overarching decisions emerging from CO26/CMP16/CMA3 (each entitled ‘the Glasgow Climate Pact’), which capture the main outcomes of the Glasgow conference – including on science and urgency of ambition and action, adaptation and adaptation finance, mitigation, means of support, loss and damage, implementation and collaboration – can be viewed in the links below (advance unedited versions):
Decision 1/CP.26: https://unfccc.int/documents/310475
Decision 1/CMP.16: https://unfccc.int/documents/310489
Decision 1/CMA3: https://unfccc.int/documents/310497
Advance unedited versions of other COP/CMP/CMA decisions adopted by Parties in Glasgow can be seen here. Final versions will be made available in the Documents and Decisions webpage in due course.
The COP decided, among other things, that the dates and venues of its 27th and 28th sessions will be 7-18 November 2022 in Egypt, and 6-17 November 2023 in the United Arab Emirates, respectively. A more detailed description of the conference proceedings can be accessed here: https://enb.iisd.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/enb12793e_1.pdf
IUCN COP26 report
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