This is the first, in a series of blogs by Simon Anderson, Alliance Chair and Senior Fellow at IIED that will introduce the key moments and issues that will shape COP26 in Glasgow later this year.
In the run up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP), or COP26 as most of us know it, technical representatives from all signatory governments meet in what are called the sessions of subsidiary bodies (SB) to progress work programmes that lay the ground for political agreements and commitments at the COP.
Ahead of this year’s delayed COP26 in Glasgow, the subsidiary bodies are meeting over the next few weeks – 31st May to 17th June. There is a high volume of work accumulated because sessions did not go ahead in 2020.
Registered participants (including civil society observers) can follow and take part in meetings via a new virtual conference platform. The public can follow the broadcasts of selected events such as the plenary meetings and press conferences, live or on-demand. Details and links to public broadcasts are here.
You can also join the conversation or follow updates on social media, using hashtag #SB2021.
At the SB sessions, the issues under discussion include:
- Nairobi Work Programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation
- Adaptation Committee report for 2019-‘21
- Report from the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage
- The Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform
- Development and transfer of technologies
- Agriculture
- The Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement
Full details of the subsidiary bodies sessions are available here.
A digest of progress achieved at the subsidiary bodies session will be inlcuded in my next blog.