A new date has been agreed for a international climate change summit in Glasgow.

The COP26 UN summit will now take place between 1 and 12 November next year.

It was originally supposed to take place in November 2020. However, it had to be postponed due to the pandemic.

Dozens of world leaders will attend the gathering, the most important round of talks since the global Paris Agreement to tackle climate change was secured in 2015.

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This year's event was due to take place at the Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow, which has been turned into a temporary hospital in response to coronavirus.

COP26 President Alok Sharma said: "While we rightly focus on fighting the immediate crisis of the coronavirus, we must not lose sight of the huge challenges of climate change."

Mr Sharma, who is also the UK government's business secretary, added: "With the new dates for COP26 now agreed we are working with our international partners on an ambitious roadmap for global climate action between now and November 2021.

"The steps we take to rebuild our economies will have a profound impact on our societies' future sustainability, resilience and wellbeing and COP26 can be a moment where the world unites behind a clean resilient recovery.

The UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, said: "If done right, the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis can steer us to a more inclusive and sustainable climate path."

Friends of the Earth Scotland & Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland statement reacting to the announcement of new dates for the UN Climate Summit.

Friends of the Earth Scotland Head of Campaigns Mary Church commented:

"Given the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, it's right to delay COP26 until it is safe to hold the UN climate talks in a way that ensures full global south participation.

"However, rich country's governments must not use the now considerable delay to avoid taking urgent action to reduce emissions at home and provide badly needed finance for climate action in developing countries.

"New, ambitious national pledges, as required under the Paris Agreement should be submitted as soon as possible this year, and must reflect countries' fair share of climate action.

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"The coronavirus crisis has painfully exposed the common injustices at the heart of the climate crisis, and domestic and global inequalities, and shown more clearly than ever the need for deep, transformative change that puts people and nature over corporate interests.

"Climate justice must therefore be at the very heart of the Scottish and UK Governments plans for economic recovery from the impacts of the coronavirus, and their input to COP26.”

Aaron Kiely, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said:

“The postponement of the climate talks cannot come at the cost of international climate action - it doesn’t give governments a get-out clause from their international responsibilities.

"The UK Government must commit to doing its fair share of climate action, and should urgently make public how it will do this.

“People and communities around the world are already building solutions to the climate crisis. Now, during a pandemic, it’s people and communities again showing the scale of change that is possible.

"People will continue to co-operate to solve problems, governments should follow their lead because there is a way out of both crises if we collaborate, listen to the science, and stop losing time.”