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With less than a month until the Glasgow Climate Change Conference, we ask: Is flexibility justified in environmental action?

What should you expect from the next UN climate change conference in Glasgow?

This week, global attention turned to the dire warnings of climate scientists. This is becoming a routine.

Net zero seems to be the hot new phrase. Companies and countries are pledging to be “net zero,” several by 2050; China by 2060.

All three Rio Conventions announced in-person meetings for the final quarter of 2021. The trio of organizations—UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)—all seem to be going ahead full steam. The UNFCCC Bureau just announced it will hold three weeks of informal talks in June and agreed decision making is an in-person affair, to occur at the next formal meeting. (The day after this article was originally published, the UNCCD announced its COP will take place in 2022. A virtual ExCOP will adopt an interim budget this year.)

Still Only One Earth policy brief series considers how to advance critical environmental issues amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

La pandémie COVID-19 a causé des ravages en 2020, y compris des plans visant à intensifier la coopération internationale sur l'action climatique, la restauration de la biodiversité, la réduction des inégalités et un certain nombre d'autres crises. Pourtant, Selwin Hart, Conseiller Spécial du Secrétaire-Général des Nations Unies sur l'action Climatique, ouvre notre rapport sur L'état de la gouvernance mondiale de l'environnement 2020 avec optimisme. L'équipe du Earth Negotiations Bulletin vous invite à réfléchir à ses propos, puis à plonger dans notre analyse des leçons de 2020 en diplomatie environnementale et comment nous reconstruisons l'élan à l'ère du coronavirus.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought devastation in 2020, including to plans to ramp up international cooperation on climate action, biodiversity restoration, reducing inequality, and a number of other crises. Yet Selwin Hart, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Action, opens our report on The State of Global Environmental Governance 2020 with optimism. The Earth Negotiations Bulletin team invites you to consider his words and then dive into our analysis at the lessons from 2020 in environmental diplomacy and how we rebuild momentum in the age of the coronavirus.

Earth Negotiations Bulletin is proud to launch our new, more searchable website. This innovation will support government decision makers, researchers, civil society, and media as countries negotiate their shared responses to climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and other environmental crises.