A special concert event featuring world-famous musicians will help kick off COP26 ahead of talks in Glasgow. 

The United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place at Glasgow’s SEC over two weeks, starting October 31. 

Artists the likes of Patti Smith will perform at the event, named Pathways to Paris as its first edition took place on occasion of the COP21 summit in the French capital. 

Bringing together leading musicians, thinkers, and policymakers, the event will serve as a call to action, urging nations to reach and exceed the climate targets.

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Other big names set to take part include Bill McKibben, Soundwalk Collective, Rebecca Foon, Tenzin Choegyal and Patti Smith’s own daughter, Jesse Paris Smith, who co-founded the initiative.

In 2017 at the United Nations Secretariat, Pathway to Paris announced their 1000 Cities initiative for Carbon Freedom. 

Glasgow Times: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN - DECEMBER 10: Patti Smith performs during the Nobel Prize Awards Ceremony at Concert Hall on December 10, 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

All proceeds from the evening will be donated to the initiative, which invites cities across the world to abandon fossil fuels as soon as possible and transition to 100 per cent renewable energy.

Jesse Paris Smith said: “In the world of music, the best way to improve is through collaboration. This is the same with the critical issue of climate change. We must join together to make this the most ambitious collaboration of our century.”

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Glasgow Times: The Pathway to Paris poster. Artwork by Cesar St. Martin.The Pathway to Paris poster. Artwork by Cesar St. Martin.

Rebecca Foon, also co-founder of Pathway to Paris, said: “These meetings mark a critical moment in history, as we collectively need to come together to massively ramp up our targets and actions. Cities play a critical role in transforming our world out of the era of fossil fuels and into a renewable world. 

“This is our time to make this shift and transform our nations and cities to become sustainable and resilient for us all and future generations. This is our chance as our window of time is drastically narrowing.” 

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The concert will feature a special performance composed of underwater recordings deriving from the TBA21–Academy sound archive that documents the voice of ocean life in contrast with the destructive impact of manmade acoustic pollution over all species of marine life. 

The sound piece, called Crisis of the Lost, includes additional recordings carried out by sound artist Jana Winderen during field trips in Belize, Panama, Dominican Republic, Norway and Iceland; as well as recorded detonations of the seismic airgun blasting acquired by oceanographer Simone Baumann Pickering’s lab, and cello written and performed by Lucy Railton.

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Crisis of the Lost is part of a collaborative body of work and series of album projects between Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective, entitled Correspondences, being released in Spring 2022.

Pathway to Paris Founders Jesse Paris Smith and Rebecca Foon will also be performing throughout the evening. 

Speakers include 350.org’s Bill McKibben and other special guests to be announced soon.

The concert will take place on October 31 at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow. Tickets are now available at www.atgtickets.com