Cop26: it’s finally here

The Science Weekly podcast is in Glasgow where we will be bringing listeners daily episodes from Cop26. Each morning you will hear from one of the Guardian's award-winning environment team. Today, environment correspondent Fiona Harvey explains why this climate summit is so critical

For almost three decades, world governments have met nearly every year to forge a global response to the climate emergency. This year is the 26th iteration, postponed by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is being hosted by the UK in Glasgow.

Guardian environment correspondent Fiona Harvey tells Science Weekly host Madeleine Finlay why this year's summit is so critical. Under the landmark Paris agreement, signed in 2015, nations committed to holding global temperature rises to well below" 2C above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing efforts" to limit heating to 1.5C. To meet those goals, countries also agreed on non-binding national targets to cut - or in the case of developing countries to curb the growth of - greenhouse gas emissions in the near term, by 2030 in most cases.