The COP26 climate summit has received the independent, international standard for sustainability in the ISO20121 certificate.

The certificate is given to organisations that demonstrate they are minimising the potential environmental impacts of their event, as well as their affects on local communities and local economy.

The conference was independently verified by the British Standards Institution, to ensure it had not strained local resources such as water and energy or created significant waste.

President Alok Sharma commented on the certification: “Sustainability was at the core of COP26 and I am proud that the UK has added yet another impressive standard of environmental compliance to the event with the ISO2021 certification.

“To build on our work with ISO20121, COP26 will also be a carbon-neutral event and become the first COP to have achieved PAS2060 validation on carbon-neutrality. This will make good on our priority to reduce and avoid emissions at the highest level.”