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Our guide to COP26

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Feature

Our guide to COP26

Find SEI research and perspectives related to COP26, as well as contacts and events.

Photo: Photo: urbazon / E+ / Getty Images.

Published on 29 October 2021

What does COP26 need to deliver?

The science is as clear as can be: Climate change is already affecting every region of the world in multiple ways, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). However, all national climate pledges and other measures to mitigate emissions combined fail to deliver the cuts needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, instead putting the world on a path to “catastrophic changes in the Earth’s climate,” to quote the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The finance that industrialized nations promised to mobilize to support developing countries choosing low-emissions pathways and adapt to the impacts of climate change also falls short of pledges.

As the COP26 UN climate change conference gets under way in Glasgow, barriers to a successful outcome seem as high as the stakes.

Media contacts

SEI's media contact throughout COP is Annika Flensburg in Stockholm, [email protected]. On-site in Glasgow (3–10 November 2021) is Andrea Lindblom, [email protected]. We'll be tweeting @SEIclimate.

Key issues

The UK COP26 Presidency has said UN climate talks needed to deliver on “coal, cash, cars and trees.” Putting it differently, COP26 is about taking steps to ensure countries reduce emissions in any number of ways and outlining how developed countries mobilize the climate finance that developing countries need, in particular to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Reducing emissions

The world needs to halve annual greenhouse gas emissions in the next eight years, but is nowhere near doing that, the latest UN’s Emissions Gap Report found. Compared to previous plans, countries’ latest national climate plans or NDCs, plus other commitments, only take an additional 7.5% off predicted annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2030, where 55% would be needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Country pledges to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 could make a big difference, but many remain vague and delay action until after 2030.

Here are some of our insights on net zero and NDCs.

A closer look at NDCs

Special: The Production Gap Report 2021

Governments still plan to produce  more than  double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than what would be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, the Production Gap Report from SEI, UNEP and other partners showed.

Finance

Developed countries committed to mobilizing $100 billion annually in climate finance by 2020 back at UN climate talks in Copenhagen, in 2009. While the data for 2020 is not yet in, reports from the OECD and the COP26 Presidency are unequivocal that this goal has not been reached. What countries say on climate finance will be key to restoring trust enough to achieve success at COP26.

Special: Loss and damage finance

Heavy storms, extreme droughts and other weather extremes are already a reality. In particular, the most vulnerable countries and communities have not been able to adapt to these extremes that are also occurring more frequently as a result of climate change. The climate talk shorthand for climate impacts that have not been avoided through mitigation or adaptation is “loss and damage”. An SEI report looks at how finance for loss and damage can be taken forward at COP26 and beyond.

Adapting to a changing climate

The Paris Agreement has established adaptation as a global goal. Too often, current adaptation plans fail to recognize that we live in a globalized world – a world in which both the impacts of climate change and the responses to them cross borders in the same way people, goods and services do. Our work looks at this “border-crossing” or transboundary nature of climate risk and at how that changes the scope and nature of the adaptation challenge.

Experts at COP

Contact details for SEI experts that will be at COP26.

Åsa Persson
Åsa Persson

Research Director and Deputy Director

SEI Headquarters

Johan C.I. Kuylenstierna

Reader / Research Leader

SEI York

Chris Malley

Senior Research Fellow

SEI York

Zoha Shawoo
Zoha Shawoo

Scientist

SEI US

Katherine Browne
Katherine Browne

Team Leader: International Climate Risk and Adaptation; Research Fellow

SEI Headquarters

Katy Harris
Katy Harris

Senior Policy Fellow

SEI Headquarters

Profile picture of Magnus Benzie
Magnus Benzie

Senior Research Fellow

SEI Oxford

Robert Watt
Robert Watt

Engagement Director

SEI Headquarters

Philip Osano
Philip Osano

Centre Director

SEI Africa

Amy Molotoks
Amy Molotoks

Research Associate

SEI York

Events

Events

Special: Building climate diplomacy back better

SEI research commissioned by the Swedish ministry of environment looked at how moving (parts of) climate talks under the UNFCCC could increase the effectiveness, inclusiveness and transparency of this process, and address issues of mistrust and power imbalances.

Design and development by Soapbox.