The spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus and its crippling impact has prompted the United Nations (UN) to delay their crucial climate summit until late 2021, officials told Reuters. The summit was scheduled to take place in Britain.
The meeting called COP26 summit is regarded as one of the most important summits since the 2015 talks where the Paris Agreement was produced. The public pressure for greater global climate action has been building up, and world leaders were expected to respond to the same by pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions more rapidly.
The UN’s climate body has decided that the summit will now happen between 1 and 12 November 2021. Glasgow in Scotland will continue to remain the host city for the event, and a warm-up summit will happen prior to that in Italy.
Alok Sharma, a British climate official told Reuters that the delay would give countries more time to rebuild their economies, with climate change as a priority.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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