The Global Climate Conference's Challenge for COP26

The 26th Conference of Parties, or COP26, will bring the entire world together in November 2021. This world leaders' gathering is supposed to save us from the worst effects of climate change...supposed.

The U&i Global team has been working on a project related to the COP26 climate summit, which will take place later this year, for the better part of the last eight months.

Climate change is one of the most important concerns facing the modern world, with millions of young people marching to the streets in protest over the previous 18 months. At the COP26 meeting, there is no better example of institutional action.

The Program

The COP conferences are an annual event that sets the tone for dealing with one of the most serious dangers humanity has ever faced. Climate change is a reality.

The gathering of world leaders with the goal of achieving a new global agreement that will aid in the immediate reduction of emissions and the prevention of the worst effects of climate-related disasters.

We are most aware with the accomplishments of earlier COPs, most notably the Paris Agreement, COP21. Many people will be hoping for a similar accord this year in Glasgow.

I'm hoping we can come up with one. These worldwide gatherings are unquestionably necessary for mankind to meet its climatic duties. However, there is a problem. This is a topic that is rarely explored.

The Problem

Only on paper do agreements exist. And, as we all know, this is just the beginning of a worldwide movement that will require years of solid work. However, no matter how ambitious the accords are, they will always face hurdles when they are implemented on a global basis, encountering specific national and local challenges. Poverty, crime, corruption, politics, hunger...there are a slew of local variables around the world that make putting anything agreed at the COP into action exceedingly difficult.

And this is something we frequently overlook when focusing solely on the single flavour of climate conferences. The problem will not be solved by a single agreement among those in charge of foreign relations. Despite its importance, the matter will be resolved in millions of local communities around the world.

We wanted to see how any worldwide accord would deal with this problem. How will it be able to return to the global spectrum? What are the obstacles to putting global accords into action at the national and local levels? Will COP26 make a difference for drought-stricken farmers in the eastern Cape, or indigenous tribes in the Philippines who have been swamped out of their homes?

When we consider climate change not only as a worldwide concern, but also as a series of local difficulties that affect people in their communities individually, the problem becomes much more human. It comes to life.

The Campaign for COP26

With all of this in mind, we set out to investigate how this worldwide agreement would be implemented in three distinct countries:

• The United Kingdom
  
• The Philippines are a country in Southeast Asia.
  
• South Africa is a country in Africa.
  

The United Kingdom

Because the majority of the U&i Global staff is British, exploring our local area was a no-brainer. But, more importantly, the United Kingdom has a unique relationship with the climate change discussion. As the world's first industrialised nation and the host of the COP26 conference, the United Kingdom bears a special responsibility for solving this issue.

For several more years, the UK will be protected from the harshest consequences of climate change as a Western European country. While increasing sea levels may trigger a massive migration problem in southern Asia and civilisation-ending droughts in Sub-Saharan Africa, the UK, as part of Western Europe, will be protected from the worst of these effects, at least for the time being. How does this sense of relative safety influence people's, communities', businesses', and government's responses to climate change in the United Kingdom?

The United Kingdom aspires to be a global leader. It can't be done without taking a stand on this issue.

The Philippines are a country in Southeast Asia.

The Philippines is the polar opposite of the United Kingdom, which is a closed Western European nation. The Philippines, an archipelago nation in East Asia, is one of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries.

The Philippines is witnessing climate change firsthand, with monsoons, catastrophic weather events, and increasing sea levels.

How will climate change affect a country that has contributed a disproportionately modest quantity of pollution?

Understanding the serious nature of this issue for people on the other side of the world, not only in the UK and Glasgow, is essential for the legitimacy of any global deal at COP26 to be truly successful.

The Philippines provides an east Asian perspective to our endeavour, as well as a sense of climatic despair.

South Africa is a country in Africa.

South Africa has created yet another extremely diverse situation.

In the 1990s, the Sub-Saharan African country was the poster child for post-Apartheid development, but things have since gone wrong. The rainbow nation is not living up to its full potential, with unprecedented levels of corruption, violent crime, inequality, and social tension.

The recent riots in response to former President Jacob Zuma's indictment demonstrate how unstable the country has become. It's easy to see why, with unemployment rates exceeding 30%.

With such pressing issues for the people of South Africa, how can the COP agreement and the climate crisis be implemented successfully? When you combine this with the fact that South Africa is one of the world's most water-scarce countries, you have a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.

The Most Important Question

How can a single accord address climate change in communities all around the world? Is it too much to expect COP26 to completely restructure our global systems in order to achieve a more sustainable future?

This question, and hence this campaign, has a global reach.

The U&I Multinational COP26 campaign investigates these topics with everyone who has an answer, including local communities, small and global corporations, national governments, and representatives of important international agencies.

The three countries respond in one of the most different ways we could have hoped for.

We don't expect to discover solutions to these kinds of inquiries. We hope to motivate individuals to join us in answering the question.

With U&I Global, our goal is to motivate the global community of young professionals to take the lead in the movement for sustainable development. I'm hoping that this initiative can help in some manner.