COP26, human geography and earth futures: introduction to a theme section

Abstract

ABSTRACT The rationale for this theme section on ‘COP26, human geography and earth futures’ is explained. A previous special issue of this journal – entitled ‘Climate change, COP26 and the crucible of crisis’, published during 2020 in anticipation of COP26 – is deployed to frame the specifically human-geographical concerns of the present theme section. Contributions to the theme section were initially prepared and presented in late-2021 and early-2022, around the time of COP26 itself, before then being substantially revised for publication here. The ‘placedness’ of COP26 in the city of Glasgow is important for four of the articles in this section, taking seriously certain human geographies of COP26 itself as windows on the wider problematics of climate change, its injustices and how to respond. Further aspects of understanding, imagining and representing climate change then shape the other three articles, exploring different ways in which diverse actors – with different knowledges, expertise and orientations – potentially make a difference to thinking climate change past, present and future.