Faith and Science: towards COP26

In the framework of the British presidency in partnership with Italy of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change COP26, the Embassies of the United Kingdom and Italy to the Holy See, together with the Holy See, will convene a meeting of religious leaders and scientists in Rome in autumn 2021 to build momentum for COP26, which is scheduled to take place from 1 to 12 November 2021 in Glasgow.

The meeting will take place after the preparatory COP26 events in Milan: the world Conference dedicated to young people “Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition” and the Pre-COP26 (28 September to 2 October 2021).

The aims of the meeting will be for faith leaders to articulate our common duty to address climate change, encouraging national governments to raise their ambition regarding their National Determined Contributions to reach the Paris Agreement goals; to show how the faiths are leading the way by greening their own operations at central and local level, and making new commitments; and to encourage the faithful to take action to slow global temperature rises. Faith leaders played a key role creating the conditions for the success of COP21 in 2015 and many of them have spoken out about the shared responsibility of people of faith to care for the whole of creation.

In preparation for this event, the British and Italian Embassies, together with the Holy See, are convening a series of virtual meetings. The first one took place on 4 February. The British and Italian Embassies asked Wilton Park, Executive Agency of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in London, to facilitate this preparatory process.

The hashtags for this event is #Faiths4COP26

Follow @UKinHolySee @ItalytoHolySee @WiltonPark for updates. Updated information can be found on Wilton Park website website.