UN Climate Conference Postponed until 2021

The annual UN climate change conference, scheduled for November in Glasgow, Scotland, has been postponed until 2021, organizers announced.

A new date for the 26th edition of the conference, called COP26, is still being discussed.

According to interviews with veterans of the UN process, the rescheduled conference will allow negotiators to absorb the implications of two momentous events: the Covid-19 pandemic and the U.S. presidential election.

“There is an opportunity in the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis to create a new approach to [economic] growth that is a sustainable and resilient economy in closer harmony with the natural world,” Nicholas Stern, a leading climate economist, told the Guardian. “That will be the challenge and opportunity of Cop26 next year. We must use this time well.”