Could it Change the Future of Business?
While US President Joe Biden has achieved a great deal during his first 100 days in charge, the appointment of John Kerry as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate remains one of his most interesting decisions.
After all, 2004 Presidential candidate Kerry boasts strong environmental credentials, having served as Secretary of State within the Obama administration and signed the Paris Climate Agreement on behalf of the United States in 2015.
However, Kerry has now questioned whether the Paris Climate Agreement is enough to combat the environmental challenges facing the wider world. Given this and the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, now is the ideal time to drive further reform and reshape the business landscape across the globe.
What to Expect at Glasgow’s 2021 UN Climate Change Conference
We’ve seen climate change become a huge political issue in recent times, especially now that Donald Trump has been removed from the role of US President.
On these shores, Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged that 2020 would be the “defining year of climate action” after launching the United Nations climate change conference alongside the iconic David Attenborough.
Also referred to as COP26, this event represents a global United Nations summit, which is focused solely on climate change and the specific issues that are impacting on the environment across the globe.
However, it had to be postponed from its initial dates between November 9th and 19th 2020 due to Covid-19, having since been rearranged to commence on November 1st of this year. The event will run until November 12th, with more than 200 world leaders expected to attend from all four corners of the globe.
The term ‘COP’ stands for the ‘Conference of the Parties’, while the attendees will include all nations that originally signed the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC).
This treaty was agreed way back in 1994, while the allegiances that it created also helped to underpin the world-renowned Paris Climate Agreement which was signed in December 2015.
What Challenges will COP26 Look to Tackle?
Interestingly, the 2021 meeting will be the 26th overall, hence the moniker ‘COP26’. It will also look to tackle many of the unresolved issues that remained after COP25 in Madrid, at which little was agreed other than a desire to cut carbon dioxide emissions across the board.
At the heart of the upcoming meeting will be the status of the Paris Climate Agreement and its various criteria, which includes keeping global temperature increases well below 2C (3.6F) and spending $100 billion per annum in climate finance to help support poorer countries achieve similar objectives.
Crucially, COP26 will discuss the best ways to achieve these goals, particularly in terms of the environmental, social and governance measures that can prioritise long-term sustainability.
There will also be a focus on addressing precisely what has been achieved since COP25, especially the efforts put in place to reduce harmful emissions and the role that businesses are playing in driving such change.
Similarly, there will surely be a focus on how such measures will impact on businesses and the commercial landscape, as continued growth and a healthy global economy is seen as pivotal to the success of any sustainability plans.
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