Science Weekly Podcast is currently in Glasgow. We will be broadcasting daily episodes from Cop26 to our listeners. Every morning, you'll hear from a member of the Guardians Award-winning Environment Team. Today's environment correspondent Fiona Harvey discusses why the climate summit is so important
Nearly every year for almost three decades, the world's governments have met to discuss the global response to climate emergencies. This year's 26th iteration was delayed by one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is being hosted in Glasgow by the UK.
Fiona Harvey, Guardian environment correspondent, tells Madeleine Finlay of Science Weekly why this year's summit is so important. The 2015 Paris Agreement, which was signed by 195 nations, committed them to keeping global temperature rises below 2C, and pursuing efforts to reduce heating to 1.5C. In order to meet these goals, the countries agreed to non-binding targets to reduce or, in the case for developing countries, to stop the growth of greenhouse gases emissions in the immediate term. This was usually by 2030.
Recent UN reports indicate that the current nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are still inadequate, even if they have been submitted or modified by the US, EU and more than 100 other countries. These would lead to a 16% increase of emissions, which is far less than the 45% reduction required. There is still much to do.
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