The UK is poised to postpone the UN climate talks due to be held in Glasgow later this year to next spring as governments struggle to halt the spread of coronavirus.
The most important climate negotiations since the Paris agreement in 2015 were scheduled to take place this November to put countries back on track to avoid climate breakdown. They are now expected to be pushed back as late as May 2021.
The UK energy minister and president of the Cop26 conference, Alok Sharma, is understood to have held crunch talks on Wednesday afternoon to confirm the timing of the talks as governments around the world struggle to stem the spread of the virus.
He is expected to ask the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) for permission to delay the vital talks because of the widespread disruption caused by coronavirus.
The decision, which is expected to be announced on Wednesday evening, precedes a key preliminary meeting scheduled for Bonn, Germany, in early June, which is also expected to be derailed by widespread lockdowns and travel restrictions.
The delay will come as a blow to climate campaigners, who have urged the UK government to proceed with the conference despite the outbreak to avoid stalling progress on global climate action.
Since the Paris agreement, countries have failed to develop climate commitments that go far enough to avoid a catastrophic environmental breakdown. The Glasgow talks aimed to galvanise tougher plans to cap rising temperatures by limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
Nicholas Stern, one of the most prominent global experts on the climate crisis, urged Boris Johnson to resist calls to postpone the talks.
“At the moment we must just get on with the preparation,” he said this month. “This is such an urgent challenge and there is so much to do, and so much valuable work that is being done, that we cannot afford to lose the momentum.”
