Good COP - Bad COP: What is COP26 and why is it so important? ...a Christian Perspective.

Article by Jemima Parker

SEPT 2021: In just a few days one of the most important conferences to be held  in recent years will take place. The global climate summit, known as  COP26, will be held in Glasgow during the first two weeks of  November. 
The importance and relevance of COP26 cannot be underestimated  given the domination of our news headlines, over recent months,  by one environmental crisis after another - from extreme heat  events and frequent wildfires, to catastrophic floods and  biodiversity loss. 
Events like these are becoming increasingly commonplace and, as our scientists predicted, are a result of climate change, they are  now a reality for us here in Yorkshire, just as much as they are in  distant lands. If left unchecked climate change will make life on  earth at best far less comfortable and at worst unbearable. 
There is however, still time to do something about it, if we can act  more swiftly and implement the big global wide changes that are  needed to curb fossil fuel emissions and boost nature recovery. 
These summits, known as the UN’s Conference of the Parties (COP)  are where amendments to the global agreement on climate change  are negotiated. The first COP was in Berlin in 1995 when most of  the world had yet to register the significance of climate change.  Twenty-six years later, COP26, co-hosted by the UK and Italy, will be  the most significant since COP21 in Paris in 2015. 
What emerged from COP21 is referred to as the Paris Agreement, a  landmark in the multilateral climate change process, because for  the first time a binding agreement brought all nations into a common cause, to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate  change and adapt to its effects. 
The Paris Agreement was a breakthrough because it allowed all  nations to make a pledge – or a nationally determined contribution  – which if delivered (a crucial point) should start to slow the rate of  global warming, with the ultimate aim of limiting the average level  of warming to at least 2°C, and ideally to 1.5°C. 
These figures don’t sound like much, but they are massively  significant for two main reasons. First, they are global annual  averages and there will be big variations around the world, with the  extremes being much higher and enough to trigger massive  disruptions, including making some areas effectively uninhabitable.  Second, the science is clear that 1.5°C of warming is a crucial tipping  point. Stay within 1.5°C and we retain control of our future climate  – but go beyond it and we risk triggering ‘run away’ climate change.  In other words, if we go beyond 1.5°C of warming we lose control of  our future, as a range of feedback loops kick-in where warming  unlocks natural cycles that then drive further warming. One key  natural cycle (there are many) relates to the melting of extensive  areas of permafrost which currently contain huge quantities of  methane that if released would drive further warming. 
Before the Paris Agreement, the world was headed to 4° or 5°C of  warming – well into the range of runaway climate change. The  pledges made at Paris (if they are delivered) should limit warming  to around 3°C – still well beyond that crucial threshold. But Paris  included provision for these commitments, and their delivery, to be  reviewed after five years. Glasgow is the Paris-Plus-Five COP, where  this review happens, so it is crucial that the commitments are  upgraded and each country explains how it will deliver on these  carbon cutting promises.
The prospect of accelerating climate breakdown, caused by our  fossil fuel emissions into the biosphere, and biodiversity loss, is an  unpleasant one to think about. In its most extreme form, it would  mean the end of organised human society. It’s not the earth we  need to save - it will save itself – but ourselves, from being  annihilated, as a result of making earth’s climate uninhabitable. 
Big changes are needed in humanity’s relationship with the earth - our only home. Our ancestors were not capable of affecting ‘earth  systems’, but we are, and right now our fossil fuel greedy societies  are doing just that. Times of change can be turbulent and hard for  all of us, but pretending climate change will not affect us and delaying action, as we have seen with the Covid pandemic, will lead  to harder and more costly decision further down the line. 
The good news is we have all the scientific knowledge and  technology we need to transition to a thriving carbon neutral  economy, powered by renewable energy. All that is needed is the  political will to make it happen. 
At COP26 we will be looking to our global leaders for clear strategic  action, based not on wishful thinking, but on proven pathways to  rapidly curb fossil fuel emissions, and boost nature recovery, to be  rolled out at scale and at pace. 
It is up to governments of the world to work together to forge these  international agreements. Whilst we, as citizens, have a  responsibility to remind our government - our political  representatives - of the future we want for our beautiful Yorkshire  and to show them that we are ready and willing to play our part by  embracing carbon action each of our cities, towns and villages. 
A good COP would see a global commitment from all countries to  stop subsidising fossil fuel industries and the setting in place of an  equitable agreement, where the ‘carbon polluters’ support and finance those nations and areas of the UK where climate change will  have the most climate impact. The outcome of a bad COP is not  even worth contemplating. 
Jemima Parker is the Environmental Officer of the Diocese of Leeds, Church of England. She is also the Chair of Zero Carbon Harrogate.

Parker, Jemima (2001 Sept). Zero Carbon Harrogate on why COP26 will be crucial for the future of humanity. Retrieved from https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/news/environment/zero-carbon-harrogate-on-why-cop26-will-be-crucial-for-the-future-of-humanity-3370598.