The UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has confirmed dates for COP26, which is to be held between 1 and 12 November 2021 in Scotland.
“The Bureau of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), with the UK and its Italian partners, agreed today new dates for the COP26 UN climate conference, which will now take place between 1 and 12 November 2021 in Glasgow,” BEIS stated.
The event, at Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus, had been postponed from this November due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Secretary of state for BEIS Alok Sharma said the new dates will also allow the UK and Italy to “harness the G7 and G20 presidencies in driving climate ambition”.
Commenting on confirmation of the date and location Scotland’s climate change secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: “I welcome confirmation of a new date for COP26.
“The UK Government has already confirmed that Glasgow will host the rescheduled gathering and we look forward to welcoming delegates to a successful event that can build on green recovery plans and help set the world on course to net-zero in a way that is fair and just.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented global crisis which has fundamentally changed every aspect of our lives and could continue to do so for some time to come.
“The immediate focus for Government continues, rightly, to be on protecting lives and livelihoods, but the climate emergency has not gone away and must be central to our recovery from this difficult time.
“In anticipation of a ‘new normal’, we have a chance to re-imagine the world around us, and to begin building a greener, fairer and more equal society and economy. Our starting point has most definitely changed but our ambitions need not.
“I remain deeply committed to our ambition to end Scotland’s contribution to climate change by 2045 and am equally clear that the delay to COP26 should not, and must not, mean a delay to collective global action on tackling climate change.”