By Amelia
’23, Halcyonite editor
What is COP26?
COP26 was held from 31st of October until 12th of November in Glasgow. COP stands for ‘Conference for the Parties’, a climate conference organised by the United Nations. This year it was the 26th annual summit. The Paris Agreement was adopted at COP21 in 2015, which pledged to keep the rise in temperature, globally, under 2 degrees. The COP27 will be held next year in Egypt.
Why is the COP important?
Climate change affects the lives of every individual on our planet, some more significantly than others. The COP aims to set goals to reduce current rate of emissions, and limit global warming to below 2 degrees. Regardless of the urgency of the climate crisis, as was to be expected, world leaders failed to agree on goals that would limit the temperature rise to below 2 degrees. Whilst aiming to keep temperature rise below 1.5 degrees would prevent a climate catastrophe, the current pledges would only limit it to 2.4 degrees.
Mock COP26 at Halcyon
The mock COP at Halcyon was a model United Nations style debate. Each person at the debate was the delegate of a country, and had to discuss the topics from the perspective of their respective country. There were three topics debated at the Mock COP. The transition to electric cars, reducing plastic waste for aquatic ecosystems and switching to renewable energy. Each of the topics were very relevant to current issues, and hopefully provided the participants with more insight into the matter!
The Halcyonite 
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