What is COP-26 and why is it important for women and youth to have a voice in climate change mitigation?
What is COP? For nearly three decades the UN has been bringing together almost every country on earth for global climate summits – called COPs – which stands for ‘ Conference of the Parties’. In that time climate change has gone from being a fringe issue to a global priority. This year will be the 26th annual summit, giving it the name COP26. With the UK as President, COP26 takes place in Glasgow. COP21 took place in Paris in 2015. For the first time ever, something momentous happened: every country agreed to work together to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees and aim for 1.5 degrees, to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate and to make money available to deliver on these aims. The Paris Agreement was born. The commitment to aim for 1.5 degrees is important because every fraction of a degree of warming will result in many more lives lost and livelihoods damaged. Under the Paris Agreement, countries committed to bring forward national plans setting out how much they wou