For COP Sake — Everything you need to know about this year’s summit

What is COP26, why does it matter and what to expect?

With just days to go before COP26 starts, I am lifting the lid on what on earth is COP, what does it mean and what we should expect from this year’s summit.

Who, what and where

Scheduled to take place in 2020 and postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, from 31st October to 12th November 190 countries will descend on Glasgow, Scotland for COP26. The 26th Annual meeting of the UN Climate Change ‘Conference of Parties’ (COP) will convene world leaders, tens of thousands of negotiators, business leaders, government representatives and members of the public to reach an agreement on what to do about climate change. This year’s conference has been jointly organised by the UK and Italy, who hosted several pre-cop events in Milan including Youth4Climate and Pre-COP. The summit has been led by COP26 president Alok Sharma, who was previously Secretary of State for BEIS.

Format

COP26 will take place in Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus, a winner of the Gold Green Tourism Award and home to five enormous exhibition spaces. The various COP events and areas are divided between the Blue Zone and Green Zone. Access to the Blue Zone is restricted to individuals and organisations recognised by…