The global United Nations climate change summit COP26 took place in Glasgow in November 2021.
Countries from across the world met to discuss climate change and how to tackle it.
SSE is a principal partner to the UK Government for the prestigious event that will help shape climate policy for decades to come.
What is COP26?
For 25 years world leaders have met annually to attempt to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing mankind – climate change.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) states every country is “duty bound to avoid dangerous climate change and find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.
Officially known as the Conference of the Parties, COP is the most significant global climate change event to take place each year. Unique in that the opinions and concerns of the poorest country carries equal weight to that of the biggest superpowers. Every country on earth, bar some failed states, is a signatory to the UNFCCC treaty – a remarkable achievement.
COP26 was held in Glasgow in November 2021 after being delayed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What happened at COP26?
After two weeks of negotiations, COP26 ended with nearly 200 countries agreeing to a new global climate change plan for the decade ahead. Known as the Glasgow Climate Pact, the new agreement calls on signatories to revisit their 2030 targets by the end of 2022 to ensure they align with the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals. The other main points of the Glasgow Climate Pact, include:
- Reducing CO2 emissions further
- Phasing out the use of coal
- Increasing money to help developing countries cope with climate change
Find out more about what was agreed at COP26, by reading the UN’s report on their website
Watch our COP26 legacy video to see what SSE Energy Solutions did during the summit.
Playing our part
Helping to achieve net zero by 2050 is at the core of SSE’s low carbon strategy that’s why our partnership with COP26 is so well aligned.
