The Met Office is pleased to announce that it is working in partnership with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to deliver the science pavilion at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference, COP26.

The conference opens on 31 October in Glasgow, bringing together world leaders, negotiators, scientists, businesses, policy makers and citizens as nations seek to reach agreement on how to tackle climate change.

The science pavilion will provide events from 01 to 12 November aligned with the COP26 Presidency programme in order to support the negotiating teams from around the world with the robust scientific evidence they need to inform their decision making. Met Office, WMO and IPCC experts, alongside colleagues from collaborating organisations, will be available to advise negotiators and other delegates on the latest climate science and services.

Met Office Chief Scientist, Professor Stephen Belcher, said; “As part of UK Government, the Met Office Hadley Centre is central to the country’s national climate capability. As a world-class research institute, we have been supporting our Government in the lead up to COP26 and are looking forward to providing authoritative and impartial science to inform negotiations.”

"In this crucial year for uniting the world to tackle climate change, the COP26 Science Pavilion will demonstrate the science community’s continued commitment to underpin action on climate change. It will provide a platform to explain the very latest policy-relevant, scientific findings," said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.

The programme of pavilion events during the first week of the conference will focus on outlining the climate problem and setting the ambition for tackling climate change. Moving into the second week, events will shift to focusing on using climate information for action and to support adaptation and resilience.

Dr, Hoesung Lee, IPCC Chair, said; “The latest IPCC report shows clearly the extent of climate change and underlines the need for action. We look forward to presenting the findings in detail at our shared pavilion at COP26 to policymakers and stakeholders and generally working with them to keep science at the centre of the COP.”

The science pavilion aims to highlight the scientific case for ambitious mitigation and adaptation policies towards a path to resilient net-zero and practical solutions. Keep up to date with the output from the COP26 science pavilion by following the Met Office on social media (#MetOfficeCOP26) and signing up to our news releases.

 

About the Met Office

The Met Office is the UK’s National Meteorological Service, providing 24x7 world-renowned scientific excellence in weather, climate and environmental forecasts and severe weather warnings for the protection of life and property. www.metoffice.gov.uk

The Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services provides world-class guidance on the science of climate change and is the primary focus in the UK for climate science. Its work is, in part, jointly funded by BEIS (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) and DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). 

About the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

WMO is the UN system's authoritative voice on weather, climate and water. It publishes a number of flagship reports which provide the latest scientific advice to governments, including on the state of the global climate, on greenhouse gas concentrations and on the state of climate services for adaptation. At COP26, it will announce some major initiatives including a new Water and Climate Coalition and a Systematic Observations Financing Facility.

About the IPCC

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.

 

The pavilion design has been supported by Chile's MERI Foundation, which will also contribute to the pavilion’s scientific programme. Support has also been provided by the Union of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions of Africa (UCESA), the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the Centro Scientifique de Monaco.