The Bureau of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), together with leaders from the UK and Italy, announced that the 26th meeting of the COP will take place in 2021, rather than November 2020.  

The decision was taken due to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic “makes holding an ambitious, inclusive” COP in November 2020 no longer possible. The annual climate change conference brings together over 20,000 representatives from government, international and non-governmental organizations, business, and media around the world.

Among the items expected to be on the agenda at COP 26 are issues that the Chile/Madrid Climate Change Conference did not resolve in December 2019. These issues include guidance for Article 6 (market and non-market mechanisms), common time frames, long-term finance, transparency issues for the Paris Agreement, report of the Adaptation Committee, and report of the Consultative Group of Experts. The UNFCCC subsidiary bodies were expected to resume discussion on these issues during their meetings in June 2020 in Bonn, Germany; these meetings have been tentatively rescheduled for October 2020. 

In the announcement regarding the postponement, COP 26 President-Designate and UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Alok Sharma emphasized that countries are currently “focusing their efforts on saving lives and fighting COVID-19.” Sharma added that he would continue to work with partners to “deliver the ambition needed to tackle the climate crisis”. 

COP 26 is still expected to take place in Glasgow, UK, hosted by the UK in partnership with Italy. Dates for the rescheduled conference “will be set out in due course following further discussion with parties,” per the UK’s announcement.

The Pre-COP and ‘Youth for the Climate’ event, which will take place in Italy, were postponed at the same time. [UN Press Release]