Queen Elizabeth II to attend COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow: Organisers

British Queen Elizabeth II will attend the COP26 summit scheduled to be held in Glasgow later this year, the conference organisers confirmed on Friday. The announcement has been confirmed by President of the summit Alok Sharma who said that he was “absolutely delighted” that the 95-year-old monarch had agreed to attend the climate change conference. The summit scheduled to take from October 31 to  November 12 is expected to witness 120 world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and Pope Francis and teen activist Greta Thunberg.

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) was originally scheduled in November last year but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The conference, jointly hosted by the UK and Italy, is now planned to occur at Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow. According to the official website of COP26, the conference aims to protect and restore ecosystems and build resistance against climate change.

'We're getting dangerously close to when we might be out of time': Alok Sharma

This comes as summit chief Alok Sharma said that this will be the clearest warning yet that human behaviour is drastically exacerbating global warming, and they have to take important measures. He also stated that they can't afford to wait for two, five, or ten years and now is the moment, adding that unless all nations act now, we will tragically be out of time. 

"I don't think we're out of time but I think we're getting dangerously close to when we might be out of time. We will see a very, very clear warning that unless we act now, we will, unfortunately, be out of time," Sharma said, predicting that the failure would have "catastrophic" consequences.

The International Energy Agency (IAE), based in Paris, has cautioned that if the aim of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is to be met, all fossil fuel production and exploration must end this year. He added that future fossil fuel licences will have to comply with the fact that they have committed to net-zero by 2050 in legislation and any licences will be subjected to a climate check.

Image Credit: AP