Statement From Ken Berlin, President and CEO of the Climate Reality Project, on the Postponement of UNFCCC COP26

“The health and wellbeing of all citizens must be first and foremost in the minds of all climate activists during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we fully understand the decision of the UNFCCC’s COP Bureau representatives to postpone both the June climate negotiations and November’s COP26 in Glasgow. 

“The scale of the COVID-19 public health crisis is a sobering example of the urgent need for worldwide cooperation to find and advance solutions to our greatest global challenges, including the climate crisis. During this postponement, it is critical for nations to enhance their climate ambition by significantly strengthening their commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions justly and fairly, as required by the Paris Agreement. We urge governments to use this time to further align their own decision making with the will of their citizens, who have shown that they support climate action, including expanding progress on clean energy, transportation, and agriculture, as core principles of relief and recovery efforts. By doing so, we can achieve a cleaner, healthier, and better future and ensure that the world that we want emerges from this crisis to help us avoid the next.”