The Main Stars Of The Climate Conference
COP26 has just begun. Hundreds of countries from all round the world are meeting over the next 12 days. They will discuss climate change and as individual countries say what they can do to tackle this huge issue. It is hoped that all countries in the world will agree that they should take important and radical steps.
The main countries that are most involved in tackling climate change are Japan, the United Kingdom, China, the United States of America and Russia. Let’s look at a few.
USA
The US is working very hard to fight climate change and the US is currently the world’s second largest carbon emitter (how much carbon is being produced). This simply means that in the past the country has put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other country.
Why does it matter that the US is at COP 26?
The US is the richest country in the world which means they have the most influence on other countries, especially those not attending. The US has such a big impact on the world they can talk countries into stopping their climate habits such as burning fossil fuels and causing more climate change awareness.
Joe Biden said “that the US will cut its gas emissions by 50-52% from 2005 levels by 2030.”
China
President Xi Jinping isn’t expected to meet in person, but he is still making an effort by attending virtually which means there will be a short statement from him .
Why does it matter that China isn’t at COP26?
China is the world’s top carbon emitter, which means it’s important that they are present. China needs to make massive changes to their country to reduce their carbon issues, meaning that COP 26 is under threat of not being a major success due to China’s absence.
Even Xi Jinping said that “China had planned for an emissions peak in 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.” In other words, this means that China wants to become much more carbon friendly by 2060. Even though he isn’t attending, the Chinese President is still making an effort, which is very important to tackle Climate Change.
Russia
Why does it matter that Russia isn’t going to COP26?
Russia is the world’s largest country as well as the fourth largest emitter of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Russia has been going to all the COP conferences up until now. This is threatening the success of COP26 as countries around the world are hoping to get an agreement.
President Putin has recently signed laws in July 2021 forcing large companies to report their gas emissions. This should help in COP26 as the countries going will see this as a positive change and hope they can achieve similar successes on understanding and preventing climate change.
However, President Putin has recently made comments making claims that climate change is not a serious concern and that it is a myth. This is worrying because Russia is a key country to keeping emissions down throughout the world.
Russia’s previous climate change policy would have seen emissions increase through 2050 and not drop to net zero for another 80 years, 2100.
UK (Scotland)
Last but not least is our home country: Scotland. In 2019, Scotland and the rest of the UK said they would reach net zero emissions by 2050 and earlier this year they wanted to stick to a 78 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2035.
Recently, Prime Minister Boris Johnston faced a problem There is growing public pressure to stop new North Sea oil and gas exploration, which would leave the country more reliant on other countries for fossil fuel.
PM Johnson will be attending this year’s conference in Glasgow and says he is “very worried” over whether COP26 will be a success, but the young people of Scotland will be hopeful that an agreement will be made.
By Cameron Lobban, Farheen Amjad, Emma Neil and James Marshall
