Cop26, also known as the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, will start this Sunday in Glasgow and features numerous world leaders, experts and climate change activists who will converge on the SEC Centre to further discuss how to tackle the climate crisis.
The two-week conference, which has been delayed 12 months because of Covid-19, is being co-hosted by the UK and Italy with the Italian contingent expected to lead debates and push important topics.
This year’s meeting will mark six years since Cop21 in Paris where, significantly, every nation in the world agreed to new accords to stop climate change.
The importance of this year’s event is more prescient than ever as the entire planet has witnessed the devastation that climate change can have. Numerous world leaders will be amongst the 30,000 people expected to be in attendance in the Scottish city. Here is a full list of the confirmed politicians at the event:
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Politicians:
- Boris Johnson, United Kingdom Prime Minister
- Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister Scotland
- Naftali Bennett, Israeli Prime Minister
- Scott Morrison, Australian Prime Minister
- Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish President
- Emmanuel Macron, French President
- Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister
- Mario Draghi, Italian Prime Minister
- Ivan Duque, Colombian President
- Stefan Lofven, Swedish Prime Minister
- Guy Parmelin, Swiss President
- Moon Jae-in, South Korean President
- Narendra Modi, Indian prime minister
- Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian President
- Nana Akufo-Addo, Ghanaian President
- Alberto Fernandez, Argentinian President
- Pietro Parolin, Cardinal Secretary of State of Vatican City
- Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
- Frans Timmermans, Vice President of the European Commission
- Xie Zhenhua, Chinese climate envoy
- Alok Sharma, President of COP26
- Patricia Espinosa, Executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change
- Roberto Cingolani, Italian environment minister
- John Kerry, Former US senator and presidential candidate, signed the Paris agreement in 2015
- Joaquim Leite, Brazilian environment minister
- Felix Tshisekedi, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, current chair of the African Union
Notable in their absence are Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, both citing Covid as the reason that they won’t be attending.
Elsewhere, journalists, lobbyists, negotiators, protesters, business leaders and NGOs will also be in Glasgow. Here are the most notable figures confirmed:
Non-politicians:
- Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall
- Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton
- Sir David Attenborough, Documentarian, COP26 People’s Advocate
- António Guterres, UN Secretary General
- Greta Thunberg, Climate activist
- Nigel Topping, High-level champion for Climate action
- Mark Carney, Former Governor of the Bank of England
The Queen was set to attend but will no longer be travelling to Glasgow due to medical advice after a recent short spell in hospital.
