COVID-19 to hinder international climate diplomacy

Subject

Climate diplomacy.

Significance

Amid frustration at the limited outcomes of last year’s COP25 conference in Madrid, hopes had been building that new commitments on climate action would be made in 2020. The global COVID-19 crisis has broken momentum towards such goals, seeing several international climate conferences postponed, including COP26, which was to take place in Glasgow in November. With political energy now focused completely on COVID-19, hopes that COP26 would increase ambitions to meet Paris Agreement temperature goals have been dashed.

Impacts

• Trends of increasing renewable energy will remain consistent, given policy support.
• Climate ‘emergency’ rhetoric will run into public fatigue after the health emergency.
• The US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on November 4 will be a flashpoint in presidential elections.