What to Expect at COP26

The question is especially timely after the latest IPCC Summary for Policymakers on the shrinking window to hold global climate change to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Jennifer Bansard led the Earth Negotiations Bulletin team that documented the June 2021 online meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where subsidiary bodies tried to find solutions to longstanding disagreements and set the stage for a successful Conference of the Parties (COP) in Glasgow later this year.

In a new video that draws on the team's full summary and analysis of the June meetings, Bansard pulls back the curtains on where climate change negotiations stand. She highlights the issues where we can expect quick agreement at COP26, including:

• Research and Systematic Observation
• the Nairobi Work Programme on Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation to Climate Change
• extension of the Least Developed Countries' Expert Group mandate

She also notes issues where countries strongly disagree on how to implement the Paris Agreement, such as what frequency governments should have to ratchet up more ambitious goals for reducing their carbon emissions (Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs).