For nearly three decades the UN has been bringing together almost every country on earth for global climate summits – called COPs – which stands for ‘Conference of the Parties’. In that time climate change has gone from being a fringe issue to a global priority.This year will be the 26th annual summit – giving it the name COP26. With the UK as President, COP26 takes place in Glasgow.In the run up to COP26 the UK is working with every nation to reach agreement on how to tackle climate change. World leaders will arrive in Scotland, alongside tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses and citizens for twelve days of talks.Not only is it a huge task but it is also not just yet another international summit. Most experts believe COP26 has a unique urgency. Vaibhav is an economist who leads The Council's work on Low-Carbon Pathways. His research focuses on energy and climate change mitigation policy issues, especially those impacting India, within the integrated assessment modelling framework of the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM). Vaibhav’s recent work includes studies on pathways and policies for achieving India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Mid-Century Strategies within the context of sustainable development and national priorities, the climate policy–energy–water nexus, transportation energy and emission scenarios, HFC emission scenarios and mitigation policy, and nuclear energy scenarios for India. In this episode he speaks about topics such as India's agenda at the COP 26 conference, alternative energy transitions, changes in the mobility sector, agriculture and climate change's effect on it, and more.
