🔎 What’s going on?
International Development Secretary, Alok Sharma has been appointed as the president of COP26 to oversee the delivery of the climate conference in Glasgow this year.
🤔 Hold on, didn’t we already have a president?
Yup, we did. Alok Sharma is replacing former energy minister Claire O’Neill in a radical reshuffle as the UK prepares to host COP26 in Glasgow. Oh and he’s also the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) - a pretty powerful job. Earlier in January, former Bank of England governor Mark Carney was appointed as the Prime minster’s finance minister for COP26.
👌 Okay, so what can we expect?
Let’s start by looking at Alok Sharma’s previous track record to understand what we can expect from this duo (Sharma and Carney) in the coming months.
With a background in accounting and banking 💸, last year, Sharma set up a new commission to boost infrastructure projects in developing countries - including promoting renewable energy in cities. Last month, he also announced East Africa’s first green bond to fund environmentally-friendly infrastructure projects in Kenya. But, he doesn’t have the best record for voting on climate policies in the UK.
Meeting the Paris Agreement (signed in 2015 by 196 countries) requires a fundamental shift of the global economy. This reshuffle gives us a peek into the key themes we can expect from the COP26 meetings - crucial international diplomacy to unlocking finance required to achieve net-zero by 2050.
❓Why should I care?
This year’s COP 26 is particularly important because as part of the Paris Agreement, countries are due to review and re-submit their National Determined Contributions (NDCs) in 2020. NDCs are a country’s plan on how it’s going to achieve net-zero by 2050. Currently, each country’s NDCs just aren’t ambitious enough.
🚦 So where do we need to be?
COP26 will be a massive success if progress is made on these two key issues: 1) Countries commit to higher ambitions with their NDCs (i.e. pass net-zero by 2050 into law, invest in clean energy and sustainable infrastructure) and 2) Countries agree on rules for a carbon market (strict regulation that allows trading carbon between countries).
👤What can I do about it?
Educate yourself on what your country’s NDC includes and doesn’t include - you can take a look here.
Similarly, learn what a carbon market is and use your voice as a citizen - at home, work, city, and country.