Oct 27, 2021 - Energy & Environment

COP26 head warns Glasgow summit will be "harder than Paris"

Alok Sharma, U.K. COP26 president.

Alok Sharma, U.K. COP26 president, in Milan on Sept. 30, 2021. Photo: Stefano Guidi/Getty Images

U.K. COP26 President Alok Sharma told reporters Tuesday that the upcoming talks in Glasgow, widely viewed as the last chance to avoid some of the worst consequences of global warming, will be extremely difficult.

Driving the news: Sharma sought to temper expectations and note that the agenda features some of the toughest items that negotiators have punted on at previous summits.

  • "What we're trying to achieve a Glasgow is in many ways harder than Paris," Sharma said, referring to COP21 that yielded the Paris Agreement.
  • "We are, if I can put it like this, getting towards the end of the exam, particularly on the issue of the rulebook after six years, we still have some of the most difficult questions to answer. And we're effectively in the last half hour of the exam," he said.

Go deeper: What to know about COP26 in Glasgow

Go deeper