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COP26: Success or Failure for the World?

Was COP26 a failure or a strong foundation on which the world can build for the future?

“This is not a success or failure, it’s a process..” – Marion Briggs, Chairperson Friends of the Earth

What now for the world? Governments have reached a climate deal which gets us closer to holding temperatures rises to 1.5C. But a last-ditch effort from India and China to water down pledges to phase out coal has led some to consider COP26 a failure.

Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Glasgow during the conference and took to the podium to criticise COP26 for not going far enough. Activists say that the time for ‘small steps in the right direction’ is gone and without an agreement to implement drastic annual emission cuts the next generation will face an increasingly inhospitable climate. In the words of Thunberg ‘winning slowly, equals losing’.

But others have declared COP26 a mild success. The process has shown that 196 nations, with 196 competing goals, are willing to come together and pull in the same direction. They have signed up to an agreement to end and reverse deforestation, cut methane emission levels by 30% and greatly reduce reliance on coal power. Yes, COP26 could have achieved more but this agreement is a strong foundation on which the world can build for the future.


Speakers

SPEAKERS

Bim Afolami

MP for Hitchin and Harpenden and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Renewable and Sustainable Energy


Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden since 2017. He is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Group for International Conservation and is member of both the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Climate Change and the Conservative Environment Network. In 2020 he authored the report Unlocking Britain: Recovery and renewal after COVID-19, looking at ways in which Britain’s economy can recover after the COVID-19 pandemic in a climate-friendly manner.

Clover Hogan

Climate activist, researcher on eco-anxiety, and the founding Executive Director of Force of Nature


Climate activist, researcher on eco-anxiety, and the founding Executive Director of Force of Nature - a youth non-profit mobilising for climate action. She has worked alongside the world’s leading authorities on sustainability, consulted within the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, and supported students in over 50 countries to realise their power as change-makers.

Caroline Lucas

Former leader of the Green Party and MP for Brighton Pavilion


Former leader of the Green Party and Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion since 2010. She has served as Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Climate Change and Limits to Growth as well as the Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency, and Deputy Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

Adair Turner

Chair of the Energy Transitions Commission


Chair of Energy Transitions Commission, he was formerly Chair of the UK Financial Services Authority, first Chair of the UK Climate Change Committee, and Director-General of the CBI. He played a leading role in the redesign of global banking regulation following the 2008 financial crisis. The author of Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit, and Fixing Global Finance, Lord Turner has been described by The Economist as “as a man for all policy crises”.
Chair

Helen Czerski

One of the UK’s most popular science presenters


Oceanographer, physicist and television presenter. Her many programmes for radio and TV include Radio 4’s Inside Science, Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey, numerous Horizon documentaries, The Sky at Night, and Dara O Briain’s Science Club. She is a Research Fellow at University College London, and holds a PhD in experimental explosives physics. She is the author of books including Storm In A Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life and the new title Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World.

 

 

Speakers are subject to change.