In November, in Glasgow, politicians will gather at the COP26 summit to agree new targets to reverse the impact of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions on climate change. In this paper, John Manners-Bell, director of the Foundation for Future Supply Chain, looks at what will be discussed at COP26; its key themes and why it is so important to the supply chain, transport and logistics industry. He also helps to explain some of the jargon and acronyms which will become common currency over the next few months.
One of the key roles of COP26 will be to assess whether the commitments to reducing emissions made by the parties will be sufficiently ambitious to reach the goal of keeping temperature rises to within 1.5 degrees or not. The UK Government has structured the summit around four key themes. These are:
- ‘Nature’ – addressing biodiversity loss
- ‘Energy Transition’ – the adoption of clean energy and phasing out of coal
- ‘Finance’ – investment to support the zero-emission goals and
- ‘Clean Road Transport’ – cutting emissions in this specific sector
