After a hiatus of two years, the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26 and associated meetings) is taking place in Glasgow, the United Kingdom from 31 October 12 November 2021.
The COP26 is happening against the backdrop of the latest IPCC Report which showed that unless there are rapid, sustained and large-scale reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5 degree Celsius will be impossible to reach. It was followed by the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) Synthesis Report, an assessment of all national climate action plans, showing that under our current path temperatures could rise to 2.7C, with devastating results for humanity.
The Bhutanese delegation to COP 26 is led by Lyonpo Yeshey Penjor, Minister of Agriculture and Forests. Speaking at the opening of the High Level Segment of the conference on 9th November 2021, Lyonpo highlighted that under the strong environmental stewardship of the Monarchs, Bhutan continues to lead the way towards sustainable development and a low emission climate resilient development pathway. Lyonpo emphasised on the urgent need for COP to deliver ambitious, concrete and enhanced climate actions and called upon countries to scale up finance for adaptation, loss and damage, technology transfer and capacity building to enable vulnerable countries cope with climate induced challenges. Lyonpo also underscored the need to make finance easily accessible with lesser procedural challenges.
As the Chair of the 46 member countries of Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group for Climate Change, Bhutan called upon Parties to reaffirm their commitment to the 1.5°C temperature goal and to the Paris Agreement by operationalizing all aspects of the Paris Agreement Rulebook including the outstanding elements under the enhanced transparency framework (Article 13), rules on carbon markets (Article 6) and a common time frame for the Nationally Determined Contributions.
Towards the end of the COP26, Bhutan will hand over its responsibility of chairing the LDC Group for Climate Change negotiations to Senegal from Africa. The Chair of the Group rotates amongst member countries for a two-year term.
