One of the signs of our climate crisis is the simple fact that over the last ten years global temperatures have been the hottest on record. This has its effect on every aspect of our lives and one of the signs of this is early the arrival of Spring.

The start of Spring is usually taken to mean the Spring Equinox, this year on the 20th March. A simpler measure, used by meteorologists, is to use the 1st March. Whichever measure you use, as the winter passes the days grow longer and warmer and the temperature rises. The rising global temperatures have forced wildlife into early Spring action.

Snowdrops and crocuses flower much earlier, even daffodils, a favourite of March, are often in flower in February. We can also see that many of our garden birds are nesting much earlier and we even see bees and butterflies earlier as well!

After the year we have just been through it is lovely to see early signs of spring and regrowth but we also need to be conscious of why this is happening.

Taking action to slow and then reverse this climate change is hard work and needs to take place at a global level. This year the UK is the host for the one of the most important environmental conferences of the new decade:  COP26.  This stands for Conference of Parties and will be held in Glasgow in November – click here to learn more.

The Conference of Parties are all those nations which signed up to the 1994 treaty called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – click here to learn more. (LINK – )

This year’s Conference is special in a number of ways. It actually incorporates three different meetings;

  • The 26th Conference of Parties – those nations that signed the UNFCCC Treaty
  • The 16th meeting of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change agreed in Japan in 1997 (although it only came into force in 2005)
  • The 3rd meeting of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

It will also be the first meeting in a long time when the USA will be present in support of the agreements!

In fact, the COP26 was supposed to happen in 2020 but as we know that became impossible. The Government with the support of Sir David Attenborough pledged it would be a “defining year of climate action.” It is not too late for this and we all need to play our part.