What’s Happening
After two weeks of negotiations and programming, COP26 ended with the Glasgow Climate Pact. The pledge is the first to mention “phasing down” coal, but is widely thought to not be sufficient in preventing 1.5 degrees of warming. United Nations Chief António Guterres expressed his disappointment in the final agreement, but asserted that it is a step in the right direction.
Other measures in the pact include:
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An agreement to end “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies
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Increases financial aid to developing countries, and the doubling of the proportion going to climate adaptation
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Requests countries to update national plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 by next year’s COP27 in Egypt
Of course, many of the important developments at COP happen outside the official negotiations. These include:
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Several countries submitted new net-zero emissions targets. For example, India pledged net-zero emissions by 2070, a major move by a developing country that emits the third-most greenhouse gas emissions in the world, while Nigeria pledged net-zero by 2060.
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141 countries signed the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, which aims to end deforestation and promote forest conservation and restoration practices. $19.2 billion was pledged to this end.
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Over 40 countries pledged to phase out coal power completely, while 23 countries also signed the COP26 Coal to Clean Power Transition Agreement. Notably, China, the U.S., India, and Australia did not sign the agreement.
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More than 100 countries signed the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030, compared to 2020 levels. However, India, China, and Russia, the world’s 3 largest methane-emitters, did not sign the pledge.
Why It Matters
Ahead of the conference, some branded COP26 as the last hope for serious climate action, while others predicted it would be a failure. The two week conference proved to be neither. A notable disappointment was the fact that developed nations, which had previously pledged over $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020, announced that they would fail to meet this goal, even by 2023. Without this support, developing nations are more than hesitant to make more ambitious emissions goals. Nevertheless, this is also the first time ever that fossil fuels were directly mentioned in a post-COP UN climate declaration, showing an important shift in messaging.
My Take
It’s important to understand what the COP framework is and is not capable of doing. The fact of the matter is that gathering 190+ nations to agree on anything is a hugely complicated task, and always risks devolving into bureaucratic and diplomatic gridlock. More targeted bilateral or multilateral agreements on clean free trade, deforestation prevention, and adaptation capacity building tend to be more effective.
Especially with nefarious actors such as Russia and China’s Presidents skipping out on COP26 altogether, we must focus on concrete steps we know we can actually take, rather than touting pacts that may or may not yield the results we need.
Quote Me on It
“COP26 was neither a success nor a failure; it was just another hectic, confusing, international climate conference. While commitments and rhetoric on issues such as coal and deforestation are encouraging, the limitations of such international conferences were abundantly clear. The United States must continue to lead with an innovation-focused, pragmatic approach on the world stage.” – National Policy Director Christopher Barnard