The appointment is in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November. In Scotland – one year late due to Covid – the COp26, or the 26th Conference of the Parties, the annual meeting of the 197 countries that adhered to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change approved almost 30 years ago, in 1992.
Glasgow is the most important conference after the one held in Paris in 2015, when for the first time all countries agreed to undertake to limit theglobal temperature rise well below 2 degrees, aiming to limit it to 1.5 degrees. The historic Paris Agreement was born in which each country undertook to draw up a national plan for the reduction of own emissions, known as Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) or “nationally determined contribution”.
In Paris it was decided that every five years the governments would present an updated plan. Hence the importance of Glasgow: everyone will have to communicate where they are on their way to decarbonizzazione. The problem is that the commitments made in Paris are nowhere near enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. A much greater effort is needed and the scarce decade leading us to 2030 will be decisive.
In the graphs below there is a snapshot of the situation to date and how we got here.
Earth temperature variation
Monthly increase, in degrees, of the temperature of the land and ocean surface, compared to the average temperature of the 20th century. Source: NOAA
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