In November 2021, the COP26 climate change conference will take place in Glasgow, Scotland. COP26 was originally planned for 2020, which was set to be a key year for climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Not only was 2020 supposed to kick-off the ‘Decade of Action’ on achieving the SDGs, it was also when formal negotiations on a new global climate finance goal were set to begin. It was also the deadline for countries to review their 2015 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), which are national climate action plans, and either present existing or updated NDCs. However, as with many events in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic led to the postponement of the COP26 climate conference. Thus, key opportunities to build trust and demonstrate commitment were placed on hold, since only technical sessions were held in 2020 and there were no political COP negotiations.

This toolkit aims to inform those who are new to COP processes and provides suggestions on how to engage in COP26. Specifically, this toolkit explains what the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is, looks at the Agreements that operationalise the Convention and covers some of the many technical bodies of the UNFCCC. Two of the Funds that serve the Paris Agreement are also examined, specifically the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Adaptation Fund (AF). The report then goes on to outline the significance of COP26, and what the opportunities are for civil society organisation (CSO) engagement in COP26. The toolkit concludes with a set of policy recommendations for COP26 on climate finance.

Read the report