Currently underway is the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties – known as COP26 – the biggest climate change conference since landmark talks in Paris in 2015.

The UK is hosting the event in Glasgow which started on 31 October and runs until 12 November 2021.

World leaders are in attendance along with around 25,000 delegates and thousands of businesses and activists. The conference aims to unite the world to tackle climate change. 200 countries are to set out their statements of progress in cutting emissions against the terms of the Paris Agreement.

The deal that was adopted in December 2015 and united all the world’s nations in a single agreement on tackling global warming and cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. Participants agreed to make changes to keep global warming ‘well below’ 2˚C above pre-industrial levels – and to try to aim for 1.5˚C. If net zero targets are to be reached by 2050 then countries will have to keep making bigger emission cuts.

The conference will put the spotlight on climate change and sustainability for us all. If the lead up to the event was an indicator, COP26 will trigger a flurry of announcements and initiatives about changes we need to make in our everyday personal and business lives to drive head on our net zero aims. In the days before COP26 the UK government set out its strategy towards achieving a virtually zero-carbon economy including grants for electric vehicles, street charging points and for homeowners to install low-carbon heat pumps to replace gas boilers.

Over the course the conference this list is expected to grow. We’ll be keeping a close eye on support available for businesses and any energy and equipment grants and initiatives that could help our industry. We’re already covering in this issue about access to funding from the Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in their Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator (IEEA) programme and we’re sure more announcements will come. In other news, the lead up to COP26 also saw the launch of the first ever Earthshot Prize fronted by Prince William. 15 projects from across the globe were shortlisted across five categories – clean our air, nature, waste, climate and our oceans – initiatives designed to incentivise change and help to repair our planet ‘improving life for us all, for generations to come.’

All finalists will be supported to scale up their project aims but the winner in each category takes away a one million-pound prize to drive forward and realise their ambitions. The event will take place each year for the next 10 years, providing at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest environmental problems by 2030. One of the Earthshot finalists is a 14-year old from India who has developed a solar-powered ironing cart as a ‘clean alternative to the charcoal powered street irons that press clothes for millions of Indians each day.’