Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow postponed until 2021

The UN climate talks due to be held in Glasgow later this year have been postponed as governments around the world struggle to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Mark Carney, the ex-Bank of England
governor and now Cop26 finance adviser
to the prime minister, launches the
 private finance agenda for the talks in London.

The most important climate negotiations since the Paris agreement in 2015 were scheduled to take place this November to put countries back on track to avoid climate breakdown. They will now be pushed back to 2021.

A statement from the UN on Wednesday night confirmed that the meeting of over 26,000 attendees would be delayed until next year. It said new dates for the conference would be decided in due course.

The UK energy minister and president of the Cop26 conference, Alok Sharma, held crunch talks with the UN and several other countries on Wednesday evening to confirm the timing of the summit. “The world is currently facing an unprecedented global challenge and countries are rightly focusing their efforts on saving lives and fighting Covid-19. That is why we have decided to reschedule Cop26,” he said.

Read the story from The Guardian by Jillian Ambrose and Fiona Harvey - “Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow postponed until 2021.”

Meeting to proceed

(New restrictions introduced today by the State Government about the numbers of people who can meet both indoors and outdoors throws some doubt on tomorrow night's meeting - inquiries today, March 30, revealed that a decision about what was to happen with the scheduled meeting would be made later today)

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Greater Shepparton City Council will make a decision tomorrow (March 31) on whether it wants to declare a climate emergency.

After the March 17 ordinary meeting was postponed due to a lack of quorum, the meeting will now go ahead this week, but at Riverlinks Eastbank.

Minimal changes have been made to the agenda, and the council will still decide on declaring a climate emergency.

Council is set to start the meeting with a verbal update from the chief executive officer on COVID-19 and council’s response, according to the meeting’s agenda.

Council will also make decisions regarding buying land at Kialla, consider changes to its welcome to country and consider approving a gas supply contract.

Council said the new venue would allow it to practice physical distancing.

Function rooms one and two at Riverlinks Eastbank will be joined to create a space large enough to hold the meeting safely.

Interested members of the public are still able to attend the meeting with strict physical distancing measures to be followed and a limited number of gallery seats available.

The meeting will start at 5.30 pm and the agenda is available on the council’s website.

Council will live stream the meeting on its Facebook page and encourages residents to make use of this function at this time, particularly with the Victorian Government direction to minimise day to day activities outside of your home.

Story by James Bennett from  The Shepparton News.