SSE Energy Solutions & COP26
The global United Nations climate change summit COP26 took place in Glasgow in November 2021.
Countries from across the world met to discuss climate change and how to tackle it.
SSE is a principal partner to the UK Government for the prestigious event that will help shape climate policy for decades to come.
What is COP26?
For 25 years world leaders have met annually to attempt to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing mankind – climate change.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) states every country is “duty bound to avoid dangerous climate change and find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.
Officially known as the Conference of the Parties, COP is the most significant global climate change event to take place each year. Unique in that the opinions and concerns of the poorest country carries equal weight to that of the biggest superpowers. Every country on earth, bar some failed states, is a signatory to the UNFCCC treaty – a remarkable achievement.
COP26 was held in Glasgow in November 2021 after being delayed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What happened at COP26?
After two weeks of negotiations, COP26 ended with nearly 200 countries agreeing to a new global climate change plan for the decade ahead. Known as the Glasgow Climate Pact, the new agreement calls on signatories to revisit their 2030 targets by the end of 2022 to ensure they align with the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals. The other main points of the Glasgow Climate Pact, include:
- Reducing CO2 emissions further
- Phasing out the use of coal
- Increasing money to help developing countries cope with climate change
Find out more about what was agreed at COP26, by reading the UN’s report on their website
We didn’t take a backseat approach to our COP26 partnership. We knew it was the perfect opportunity to help us achieve net zero by 2050, which is at the heart of everything we do.
As well as supplying the power for the event with 100% renewable energy from our Griffin Wind Farm in Perthshire, we contributed to debates, demonstrated new technology, hosted delegates, and held conferences.
Road to Renewables: Electric bus tour
To celebrate our COP26 sponsorship, we drove an electric bus from London to the conference in Glasgow – stopping off at lots of UK towns and cities along the way.
During our ‘Road to Renewables’ bus tour, we spoke to small businesses, large organisations and local authorities who all had an interesting sustainability stories to tell. We shared updates of the tour on our website and to our thousands of social media followers. If you missed the updates, you can find out more about our Road to Renewables tour here.
SSE Recharge Lounge
Our SSE Recharge Lounge was a huge hit, playing host to almost 5,000 COP26 delegates in the Blue Zone over the course of the summit. The lounge was intended to keep delegates’ devices topped up with 100% green charging facilities and to provide a space to relax between meetings; but we could not have anticipated its popularity.
We saw delegates return to the SSE Recharge Lounge time and time again, taking downtime between sessions and depending on the lounge to host important meetings and media interviews.
Augmented reality (AR) Smart City Platform
Our Augmented Reality (AR) Smart City Platform at the COP26 Green Zone in the Glasgow Science Centre gave visitors a 3D view of how we can decarbonise buildings, cities and places.
The President of the United Nations General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, even paid a visit to our exhibit and was really impressed with the technology and the way it engaged audiances on such a complex suit of solutions.
You can experience this AR platform for yourself online here. (You’ll need a smart device as it won’t work on a laptop or PC.)
SSE Decarbonisation Summit
In partnership with Green.TV Media, we launched the inaugural SSE Decarbonisation Summit which provided a platform for a variety of voices in the sustainability space to collaborate and share their net zero ideas and visions.
The event took place over two days during COP26 and covered a range of topics and discussions through in-person events and online seminars.
You can watch all of the sessions from the SSE Decarbonisation Summit on Green.TV’s YouTube channel.
Let’s Power Change Together – an evening with Professor Brian Cox CBE FRS
Professor Brian Cox CBE FRS gave an inspiring and thought-provoking speech at SSE’s Let’s Power Change Together customer event.
As well as a fascinating lesson on the vastness of space and the potential energy capabilities of blackholes, Professor Cox really brought home the need to protect our planet, which was followed by a panel discussion on the commitments made at COP26.
The panel featured SSE’s Martin Pibworth and Neil Kirkby who were joined by Vijay Chouhan from Virgin Media O2 and Dr Tracy Morse of the University of Strathclyde. Our SSE Climate Ambassador Victory Luke closed the event with a moving call to action for collaboration across generations to power real change.
‘Sign the wind turbine’ initiative
We asked COP26 attendees to give us their signature so we could emblazon it on our wind turbine at Dogger Bank.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and UN President Alok Sharma were among the first to sign up, with every signature representing a commitment to more ambitious climate action.
You can join world leaders and be a part of history by signing the turbine yourself on SSE's website. But be quick, we’re only accepting signatures for a limited time.
SSE Energy Solutions Ambassadors
Our Climate Ambassadors are responsible for spreading the message of climate change and aligning those messages with SSE’s net zero vision.
Victory Luke
Victory Luke is a college student and SSE Climate Ambassador. She joined us on our net zero journey after being inspired by an SSE Generation Green Challenge at her school in 2019.
Despite only becoming a Climate Ambassador in 2021, Victory has already represented SSE at several international climate change events, including the National Geographic Planet or Plastic exhibition and the International Energy Agency’s annual Global Conference. Victory also gave a powerful closing speech at the SSE Energy Solutions ‘Let’s Power Change Together’ COP26 event with Professor Brian Cox CBE FRS.
As an SSE Climate Ambassador, you can expect to see a lot more of the young activist as we continue to work together to achieve a net zero future.
“Together with SSE, I’m on a greener journey – exploring how we can all power change together. Now is the time to focus our efforts on achieving real and meaningful change. For us and for future generations.” Victory Luke
We’re currently looking to recruit more Climate Ambassadors. If you or someone you know might be interested, please email info@sseenergysolutions.co.uk
For more information about Victory and her work with SSE Energy Solutions, read our blog here.
Watch our COP26 legacy video to see what SSE Energy Solutions did during the summit.
Playing our part
Helping to achieve net zero by 2050 is at the core of SSE’s low carbon strategy that’s why our partnership with COP26 is so well aligned.
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