10 COP26

Martin Fullard ponders the global event ’ s impact and long-lasting legacy over the industry

n mid-October , The Guardian newspaper ran on its front page that companies sponsoring COP26 , which takes place at the SEC , Glasgow , 31 October-12 November , raised formal complaints , blaming “ very inexperienced ” civil servants for delayed decisions , poor communication , and a breakdown in relations between the organisers and firms .

Alongside Sky , which wrote the letter of complaint , the conference has 10 other major sponsors confirmed , which includes Hitachi , National Grid , Scottish Power and SSE , US tech titan Microsoft , and FTSE companies GSK , NatWest , Reckitt , Sainsbury ’ s and Unilever . IKEA and Jaguar Land Rover are also on the sponsor ’ s list as so-called ‘ smaller partners ’. That , then , is quite a powerful list of businesses to upset ; but who are they upset with ?

Well , it turns out they are – or were – upset with the civil servants , who The Guardian mistook as ‘ organisers ’.

Former business secretary Alok Sharma is COP26 president , and the event is run , the paper says , from the Cabinet Office . The letter , reports The Guardian , says that the main complaint is that everything feels “ very last minute ”.

According to the paper , the organisers of COP26 promised sponsors an “ outstanding opportunity ” and “ unique benefits ” with the chance to promote their brands in the event ’ s exhibition space and , crucially , the participation of government ministers at their events .

Of course , many of these promises have apparently been broken and , as you would expect , ministers have not been available for their events as agreed .

“ It ’ s clear that many of them have very little experience managing relationships in the private sector , or even experience attending a COP event ,” The Guardian ’ s source said .

While it is nice of a national newspaper to observe the events industry for once , all this confirms is that civil servants aren ’ t event organisers , and that what you really need is someone who knows what they are doing , as you will read on p14 .

The Government has called itself an organiser , and they have perhaps underestimated the scale of the challenge .

However , all this is immaterial . So , what if Sky can ’ t sell a subscription to a delegation from Greenland ? The legacy of this event will change everything .

What is COP26 ?

Governments from around the world have been meeting for nearly 30 years . COP stands for

Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ), and this year ’ s event is the 26th instalment . Every country in the world is obligated to follow the rules laid out in the resulting treaties , although that doesn ’ t mean they all do . The most famous legacy treaty to come out of a COP event was 2015 ’ s event in Paris – the Paris Agreement is something you www . conference-news . co . uk