After months of anticipation and a full year delay, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, has arrived in Glasgow. Leaders from around the world are gathering in Scotland's largest city in an important international moment for people and planet.
We know that we are at a pivotal moment for our world and that we face an international nature and climate emergency. Nature is in crisis, with amazing wildlife and natural homes in which they live threatened, and whole habitats degraded. At the same time, we have been given a ‘code red’ alert on the climate from global scientists in the recent IPCC report and the message is clear: we must act now.
While COP26 takes place in Glasgow, with leaders, scientists and policy experts coming together, activists from all around the world are calling for a dramatic step change in ambition and for clear and tangible actions to tackle the nature and climate emergency.
RSPB Scotland are campaigning alongside activists all over the world to demand strong action in tackling the nature and climate emergency
Following COP26, the RSPB wants there to be true ambition for a more equal and just future for our world. The RSPB will be participating in COP26 to speak up for nature at this critical moment for our planet. While nature is not an official negotiation topic at the conference, it is one of the key themes chosen for COP26, with the 6 November being ‘Nature Day’. The RSPB hopes the role of nature, in both reducing further climate change and reducing its impacts, will be recognised as a crucial part of meeting the Paris Agreement goals, and within ambitions to keep the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 alive. We want COP26 decisions and outcomes to be compatible with a nature-positive future.
Scotland is in a unique position, as a devolved nation within which COP26 is taking place. Scotland does not have a formal ‘seat at the table’ at COP26, but it still has a vital role to play. Scotland can add real value to the international agenda and has already proven a willingness to increasing ambition; from being the first country in the world to declare a Climate Emergency – highlighting the urgency we need to tackle the climate crisis – to publishing the Edinburgh Declaration, setting the foundations for introducing critical targets for halting nature loss. Furthermore, the Scottish Government has demonstrated understanding of its role in meeting the Paris Agreement targets with an updated Climate Change Plan and urged action from states and regions as European co-chairs of the Under 2 Coalition.
Many of the policy powers related to nature and the environment are devolved, meaning it is the responsibility of the Scottish Government to make many of those changes.
We know that when we protect and restore nature there are benefits for the climate and people too. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, nature has been vital to our health and wellbeing and our appreciation for the natural world has been clearer than ever. Scotland’s beautiful wild spaces are part of our national identity but are also habitats of international importance for rare animals and plants, natural stores of carbon and provide us with better air and water quality and natural defences against the unpredictable Scottish weather. But if we don’t act, we will lose this nature which is so vital to our lives.
The peatlands of the Flow Country provide a home for wildlife and act as a vital carbon store
RSPB Scotland has lots of exciting projects and activities during COP26 and beyond, highlighting the actions we can take to save nature. In the Glasgow Botanic Gardens, our 'Glasgow to Globe' living exhibition features examples of special Scottish habitats as well as streets and gardens and explains the role they play for nature and climate. The exhibition also suggests ways we can all helps nature and the climate including pledging to stop using peat-based compost in your garden. We've been working closely with amazing young people across Scotland and the UK whose voices are vital for the future of the world and who have sent a message to world leaders in the Youth Statement as part of the Conference of Youth which took place in Glasgow over the weekend. Through the Climate Scotland campaign (within which RSPB Scotland are a partner), we will bring the messages and voices of Scottish people to COP26 and call for action from our world leaders. We're excited to be participating in events both in the official areas of COP26 and across Scotland and will be shouting loudly for nature and climate justice on the Global Day of Action.
The Glasgow to Globe living exhibition highlights how nature can help tackle the climate emergency
Photo credits
Header: Nick Hawkes
Climate march: Allie McGregor
Flow Country: Eleanor Bentall
Glasgow to Globe: Nick Hawkes