ONLINE: What Happened at COP 26 and Why It Matters

media release: In early November, world leaders and diplomats gathered in Glasgow for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) to update their plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. COP26 is widely regarded as a crucial opportunity to achieve pivotal, transformational change in global climate policy. Countries are being asked to set bold targets to phase out carbon-emitting energy sources, end deforestation, invest in resilient infrastructure, and provide financing to support sustainable development. What happened at COP26, what comes next, and what does it mean for you?

On November 23, 2021 at 9:30-10:30 a.m. CST, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria and the Energy Analysis and Policy program (EAP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will host a webinar to discuss the outcomes of COP26 and implications for climate action around the world.

Participants on this IIASA/UW-Madison Energy & Climate Webinar include:

• Dr. Joeri Rogelj, Senior Research Scholar, Integrated Assessment and Climate Change Research Group – Energy, Climate, and Environment Program, IIASA and COP26 participant. Over the past decade, Dr. Rogelj has contributed to major scientific climate change assessments informing international climate policy. He is a long-serving lead author on the annual Emissions Gap Reports by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He contributed to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), served as a Coordinating Lead Author on mitigation pathways for the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C of Global Warming, and as a Lead Author for the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment. He continues to follow the negotiations under the UNFCCC and was in 2019 the youngest member serving on the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Science Advisory Group.
• Dr. Shonali Pachauri, Research Group Leader, Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group, Energy, Climate, and Environment Program, IIASA and COP26 participant. Dr. Pachauri’s research focuses on the role of technological, institutional, and social innovations for inclusive human development, particularly for those people without access to basic infrastructures and services. She coordinates and leads research on analyzing heterogeneities in energy and infrastructural access and use in the developing world, policy pathways for achieving universal access to modern energy services and technologies and assessing the wider impacts of this for sustainable development. She has published extensively on these topics, both in the form of scientific peer-reviewed articles and policy reports.
• Prof. Greg Nemet, Professor, La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Nemet’s research analyzes the process of technological change in energy and its interactions with public policy. These projects fall in two areas: (1) empirical analysis identifying the influences on past technological change and (2) modeling of the effects of policy instruments on future technological outcomes. The first includes assessment of public policy, research and development, learning by doing, and knowledge spillovers. An example of the second is work informing allocation between research and development and demand-side policy instruments to address climate change. He chaired the EAP program from 2013-18, and he is currently a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 6th Assessment Report.

About the hosting organizations:

• The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an independent, international research institute with National Member Organizations in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. In its fifty years of research programs and initiatives, the institute has conducted policy-oriented research into issues that are too large or complex to be solved by a single country or academic discipline. This includes pressing concerns that affect the future of all of humanity, such as climate change, energy security, population aging, and sustainable development.  The results of IIASA research and the expertise of its researchers are made available to policymakers in countries around the world to help them produce effective, science-based policies that will enable them to face these challenges.
• Energy Analysis and Policy (EAP) is a graduate certificate and doctoral minor program, open to students in almost any program at UW-Madison, that educates the next generation of energy leaders with an interdisciplinary approach to energy systems and the policies that shape them. EAP’s broad interdisciplinary curriculum gives students the knowledge and skills needed to become leaders in industry, government, consulting, non-profits, and other roles in the energy field. It considers scientific, technical, economic, political, and social factors that shape energy policy formulation and decision-making. The EAP community of students, faculty, alumni, and friends work together to advance the world’s transition to a sustainable energy future.

The two hosting organizations formed this year a new collaborative program, The IIASA/UW-Madison Partnership. The program establishes a long-term relationship between these two premier research institutions in the areas of energy, climate, and environment, with the goal to enhance education, research, and the role of science in diplomacy and international understanding.