What Is COP26 and Why Does It Matter?

Along with a team from the Sierra Club, I just arrived in Glasgow, Scotland, to attend COP26, the biggest international climate conference of the year. Over the next two weeks, you will likely hear a lot about COP in the news and on social media. I wanted to take a moment to explain what COP26 is, why it matters, and why the Sierra Club is attending. 

What is COP26?

The acronym COP26 is thrown around by media outlets and politicians, but the term itself has not always been clearly defined. COP stands for “Conference of the Parties.” It is the annual meeting among signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC was established in 1992 to acknowledge the global threat of climate change and to begin the process of creating international agreements and responses to that threat. Part of the response outlined was an annual Conference of the Parties (COP) where the signatories of the UNFCCC would meet to review and plan the implementation of the convention. 

This year’s Conference of the Parties, i.e. COP26, is taking place October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland. There have been 25 annual meetings thus far, so this year is the 26th meeting—hence the 26 in “COP26.” The location of the conferences changes every year.

Here are some important agreements that came out of previous COPs:

• The Kyoto Protocol, which came out of COP3 in 1997, was the first legally binding international treaty intended to implement the UNFCCC goal of combating “dangerous human interference in the climate system.” It only binded developed nations, as the agreement recognizes that these countries are primarily responsible for the climate crisis.  The Kyoto Protocol called for countries to reduce their emissions by 5 percent compared to 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.  

• The Paris Agreement, which came out of COP21 in 2015, established emission reduction standards aimed at keeping global warming  below 2 degrees but preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.The Paris Agreement operates on a five year cycle where nations' actions to combat the climate crisis are intended to become increasingly ambitious. 

Why does COP26 matter?

The climate crisis is a global threat that does not care about borders. The only way to counter a threat the size of climate change is through a coordinated global response. This is where COP26 comes in. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  reveals that the extreme weather events we’re already experiencing -- including historic droughts and floods, superstorms, record-breaking wildfires, and unprecedented coastal flooding -- will continue to rapidly worsen unless the world cuts all climate pollution in half by 2030 and invests in clean energy solutions that completely end all climate pollution by 2050.  According to COP26 organizers, the conference’s top  goals this year include: making commitments to secure global net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and keep a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach, taking action to adapt to climate impacts already under way to protect communities and natural habitats, and ensuring that developed countries live up to their promise to mobilize at least $100 billion in climate finance by 2020 to deliver on the first two goals. 

The world is watching to see what developed countries will bring to the table this year, because they are the ones who have contributed the most to climate pollution (and who also have greater financial resources to deal with the consequences. Some signals offer hope that developed countries, including the US, will make meaningful commitments at COP this year.  In September, the Biden administration pledged that the US would double its funding for helping developing nations cut climate pollution and protect against climate impacts -- from $5.7 billion per year to $11.4 billion . And this April, President Biden pledged that the US would reduce carbon emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030. We are still waiting to see if President Biden successfully leads Congress to pass critical climate and clean energy investments in the Build Back Better Act and set the US on a course to fulfill this pledge.

It is important to note the limitations of COP26. Many of the policies, like the terms of the Paris Agreement, rely on nations reporting their own emission rates and abiding by their own reduction goals. Historically, this has meant that the emissions reductions have not been ambitious   enough to counter climate change as nations place profit and the continuation of the fossil fuel industry before meaningful climate action. Another limitation to COP26 is that it’s poised to be one of the most inequitable with participants from many Global South countries and other frontline communities unable to attend and participate due to COVID restrictions, inequitable vaccine access, and high cost of attendance.

Why is the Sierra Club at COP26?

Sierra Club president Ramón Cruz,  a small team of staff and volunteers, and I are here to represent the voices and success of our millions of members, supporters, and volunteers and our grassroots partners around the world. Every day, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. Our movement has led to more than half of the coal plants in the United States to retire or commit to retire, and we are working with cities and states across the country to commit to 100 percent clean, renewable energy. We bring deep knowledge of both the successes and failures of the United States when it comes to climate action. 

We are here to remind negotiators that their decisions in Glasgow must reflect the needs and demands of frontline communities. Just a couple weeks ago, Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth US hosted a Global Grassroots Leaders Climate Summit. The summit allowed grassroots leaders from around the world to meet with US climate negotiators ahead of COP26 to voice their demands. One of our main goals here in Glasgow is to uplift the demands made during the summit by these grassroots leaders, who work on the frontlines of the climate crisis. . You can watch recordings from the summit here and learn more about grassroots demands here.

This week, Sierra Club released a new report, Designing Coal Retirement Mechanisms for Equity and Impact, which examines coal retirement mechanisms and provides a framework and recommendations for ensuring they are designed and implemented with core values in mind: equity and impact. These mechanisms must deliver substantive climate and other benefits, and they must be done so in ways that are fair, equitable and reparative. 

Check out this short COP26 explainer video, and follow Sierra Club on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for real-time communications from us here at COP26.