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COP26 Media Pack

COP26 has now ended but please find below some information you may still find useful and a list of the press announcements we made during COP26.

Met Office announcements

31/10/21 – 20-year global temperature passing iconic threshold
03/11/21 – Climate change drives Europe’s record 2021 summer
05/11/21 – Dashboard highlights urgency of climate action
08/11/21 – Future extreme rainfall more extreme than first thought
08/11/21 – Ground-breaking research in the Amazon announced
09/11/21 – One billion face heat-stress risk from 2°C rise

 

Everything you need to know about COP26 – the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference can be found on our COP26 information page. 

Met Office science at COP26

The Met Office is recognised as a world-class research institute, the Met Office Hadley Centre is central to the UK’s national climate capability.

It is essential that policymakers in the UK and internationally have the scientific evidence to deal with future climate change. The Met Office has a long history of leadership on global climate change science, from the foundations of the first UN climate change reports to providing negotiators from around the world the latest science to inform their decision making at COP26. 

The Met Office Hadley Centre recognises the evolving requirements of climate science decision makers and responds accordingly, providing policy relevant climate services to support UK government negotiations at the COP26 international climate change talks.  

  • Landmark report stresses urgency of climate crisis - The latest report from the IPCC published in August, 2021 stresses the urgency to protect the most ambitious target of the Paris Agreement for global temperature rise to remain below 1.5°C. This report provides the most authorative through assessment of the latest climate science. This report, which includes significant contributions from Met Office scientists, is one very important way that the science feeds in to the negotiations at COP26. 
  • Europe experiences warmest year on record in 2020 - The latest edition of the State of the Climate report published by BAMS in an annual series of global climate reports shows that Europe experienced its warmest year in 2020, with the five highest annual temperatures all occurring from 2014 and the Arctic is continuing to warm at a faster pace than lower latitudes. 

  • Climate change continues to be evident across UK - State of the UK Climate 2020 published in The Royal Meteorological Society’s ‘International Journal of Climatology’, shows UK’s climate has continued to warm, with 2020 the first year to have temperature, rain and sunshine rankings all in the top 10.

  • Met Office science: narrowing the range of climate uncertainty - Many hopes are pinned on the final outcomes from the climate talks at COP26, but before decision makers can begin to agree meaningful action, it is vital for them to have access to the best-available climate data and predictions. The Met Office’s contribution to the UN United in Science 2021 report has concentrated on two principal areas: monitoring of global temperature and sea ice; and narrowing the uncertainty about what will happen to the climate in the next few years.

  • Risks to the UK from climate change now higher than ever, says major new report - The UK COP Presidency has set clear goals. It will call on all countries to update their emissions reduction targets, so that they are in line with holding temperature rise to 1.5 degrees and securing global net zero. The CCRA3 Technical Report highlights the implications of climate change for the UK’s ability to meet their commitment to net zero emissions. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) published their Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk Evidence Report earlier this year. Informed by a 1500-page technical report led by the University of Exeter in partnership with the Met Office. It sets out the latest understanding of current and future risks climate change brings to the UK, both directly to the country itself and also via impacts elsewhere in the world, and on adaptation actions aimed to reduce these risks.

We have also developed a FAQ page on climate change here.

International science pavilion at COP26

The Met Office, WMO and IPCC jointly hosted the science pavilion at COP26. This sat alongside the UK pavilion. The pavilion programme can be found here. The science pavilion aimed ‘to provide authoritative and impartial science to inform COP26 negotiations’. 

  • Week 1 Focus:  Science and evidence base - monitoring and observations, requirements for net zero, and climate impacts 
  • Week 2 Focus: Action and adaptation - using climate science for climate solutions to inspire action and to support adaptation and resilience.