COP26 Explained and why it's Important.
You must have heard of it by now – ‘COP26’ – it stands for UN Climate Change ‘Conference of Parties’ and the 26 stands for which annual meeting it is. It’s COP26 this year, because it’s the 26th year the event has taken place.
A big highlight of the UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021 is Britain’s commitment to becoming net-zero carbon commissions by 2050. But what does that mean?
Net-Zero Carbon emissions by 2050
The Government has recently just announced it’s ambitious target to slash carbon emissions by 78% by at least 2035 – a eco-positive goal, which if achieved would bring the UK ‘more than three-quarters of the way to net zero by 2050’.
Before this, the government set a legally-binding rule that the UK must make all greenhouse gases ‘net-zero’ by 2050; meaning that any emissions of greenhouse gases must be balanced out with green schemes or technology which reduce/prevent the emissions of greenhouse gases – an example of this recently, would be the news that the government would be subsidising the installation and purchase of heat pumps. There are also other ways of doing this too, by, for example, planting trees or using carbon capture and storage devices; some of which are being used in London to this day.
Of course, there are some criticisms of this goal, arguing that the UK should aim to go beyond net-zero, that we should ensure that more is being done to protect the environment and limit the amount of carbon being emitted now; rather than playing catch-up with what the figures are now.
Why is Climate Change Important?
Climate Change is important because it affects you! Now, you might only see the big natural disasters happen in places such as the USA, Africa, Asia and other parts of Europe; “but it’s never been bad here, so why should I care?” – because it will be soon.
It wasn’t too long ago, that Germany experienced it’s worse flooding and landslides ever – killing 242 people over just a few days. That could easily happen in the UK and it would be as a result of global warming and climate change.
Even if you have the mindset of ‘I’ll be long gone when this is an issue for me’, then think about the children of today and what they’ll have to live and suffer through, if we don’t make drastic changes to the way we treat our environment today. Things could be a lot better for the youth of the UK and the globe, if we all try and cut down our carbon footprint.
What else does Climate Change affect?
The price of gas and energy has sky-rocketed recently and that is because of the dependency the world currently has on fossil fuels. It’s no-brainer, that we should all be looking for other, greener and more renewable energy sources, which not only save us money, but can also help protect the environment and save our planet.
Technology such as solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric power stations are great forms of green & clean energy which can easily be adopted in the UK with ease. In fact, it’s never been easier to get solar panels installed.
You can learn more about fossil fuels and the different renewable energy sources available across the world and the UK in our article, we wrote about it all ‘The Future of Britain’s Energy’.
COP26: The History of the Event
The ‘United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’, or ‘Conference of Parties’, or ‘COP’ 26 is the 26th addition of the annual UN event, first hosted by Berlin, Germany in 1995 and then hosted by other countries such as Argentina, Mexico, India and even places like Peru. You can find a full list of the host countries for the United Nations Climate Change Conferences online.
In 2015, the most famous COP event occurred ‘COP21‘, which was setup in Paris, France – this conference was the most famous, because it is when the Paris Agreement was created.
All of these UN Conventions on Climate Change happen so that member nations can meet, to agree on and establish legally-binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Glasgow COP26
We have been voted in (the UK) to host the 26th edition of COP. Glasgow was supposed to have held the event in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic was at it’s worse, so that was not an option unfortunately, and subsequently, we have shifted it to November 2021.
The fact that COP26 is being hosted in the UK, gives us better leverage on how to navigate the conversation on how to address Climate Change throughout the world. Boris Johnson is sure to give an address about how the UK are combatting climate change and will most likely announce new rules and guidance on how to attack the issue which is affecting all of us across the world.
What can I do about Climate Change?
Climate Change and Global Warming is a scary thing for a lot of people of all backgrounds, regardless of how old you are or where you were born. It’s not just up to the Government to save us and sort this thing out. Everyone, you, me and the rest of the world, have a serious responsibility to protect planet Earth – there’s only one planet for us and we’re living on it. We need to tidy up our mess and start making amends to sav the environment; but how can you help?
Install Solar Panels
Getting solar panels installed on the roof of your home is one of the best things that you could do to help save the environment. Solar Panels aren’t just a great way to be eco-friendly either, they’re great for saving £££s on your energy bills and you can even store the energy, using solar batteries and sell the excess back to your energy provider for extra cash.
Sure, the upfront cost may sound a lot, but adding solar panels to your home could increase it’s value by over £30,000 and on top of that, could save you almost £500 per year and over £11,000 over the course of an installation’s lifetime. It gets better too… the average cost of a solar panel installation is only £12,000 – which means that you would only pay about £1,000 over the course of about 25yrs and you could even make a profit, if you sell your home.
For more information on solar panels, contact our partners, Solar Fast.
Install a New Boiler
Buy a new boiler! It’s one of the fastest and cheapest ways to lower your carbon footprint and help save the environment. Studies say that if we all got new boilers installed, we could save millions of tonnes of CO2 per year across the UK. Just like the installation of solar panels, you could also save hundreds of pounds per year on your energy bills; new boilers are far energy efficient.
You can actually get the prices and savings on brand new boilers, right here on our website – all you need to do is get a free quote from our quick-quote builder form.
