Glasgow to host UN climate change conference in 2020

Glasgow has been confirmed as the host city of next year’s United Nations COP26 climate change conference.

The UK will host the two-week climate conference in Glasgow’s Scottish Events Campus (SEC) in November 2020 after countries around the world gave their backing. Italy, meanwhile, will host the preliminary meeting.

Up to 30,000 delegates around the world are expected to attend the conference, including climate experts, business leaders and interested citizens.

The news, confirmed by the Scottish environment secretary Roseanna Cunningham, comes after Glasgow was first chosen as the host city for the UK and Italy’s joint bid last month.

Cunningham said: ‘I am pleased that Glasgow has been confirmed as the host city of COP26 now that the joint UK and Italy bid to host the summit has been approved.

‘I have no doubt that Glasgow will deliver a highly successful conference and I look forward to welcoming delegates to Scotland.’

COP26 will see thousands of people arriving into Glasgow to discuss how to keep the world on track with the Paris Agreement, which commits countries to keep global warming below 2C.

The summit will be a key test of the UK’s climate leadership as a deadline for countries to provide stronger plans of how they will tackle the climate crisis.

The UK became the world’s first major economy to commit to ending its contribution to global warming earlier this year.

The announcement that Glasgow will host COP26 was welcomed by Glasgow City Council, who called it a ‘tremendous honour’ and said it was recognition of the ‘strides on sustainability’ Glasgow has made in recent years.

Cllr Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, said: ‘The climate emergency is the issue of our age and COP26 will be the most significant coming together of world leaders to discuss it since the signing of the Paris Agreement.

‘This is the century of the city and cities are best placed to get to grips with the global climate emergency. Here in Glasgow we are determined to become the UK’s first “zero-carbon city”.

‘Our ambition is to be at the forefront on climate action and we hope the efforts in our city can encourage the attending world leaders to deliver for our planet.’

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