COP26

The international climate conference COP26 will be taking place in Glasgow between 31 October and 12 November 2021. Although quarantine and entry rules due to the Covid-19 pandemic have hampered the participation of civil society actors and delegations from the Global South, it is easily the most important climate conference since 2015, when the Paris climate agreement was concluded.

In the run-up to the event, there was much uncertainty about whether the conference could take place as planned due to the Corona pandemic, having already been postponed by a year. The approach taken by the British government was criticised because civil society groups from the Global South in particular do not have the resources to travel to Glasgow under the current restrictions. On the other hand, the urgency of the climate crisis makes it vital that the climate conference take place.

For there are  a number of crucial climate policy decisions to be made, above all on climate financing, adaptation to climate change and climate-related loss and damage. Furthermore, all countries need to update their national climate protection plans – the so-called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – in order to meet the 1.5 degree target and work out transparent rules for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Last but not least, agreement must be reached on the establishment of international emissions trading in accordance with Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement. To date this has given rise to considerable controversy.

The FES will also be in Glasgow. We will accompany the climate policy negotiations with numerous background talks, briefings and side events together with our partners, both virtually and on site. Our focus is on Just Transition, civil society participation and climate justice. In addition, we are present with a delegation, supporting in particular trade union and civil society voices from the Global South at COP26.

In this context we are supporting the work of the NGO Climate Tracker. Climate Tracker aims to strengthen climate journalism worldwide by training young journalists from the Global South in the context of the UN climate negotiations. They will report on their impressions here on this page over the coming days and weeks.