COP26 - Follow Up

COP26 ended in Glasgow on 13th November, following 2 weeks of intense negotiations between world leaders and their aides. But do you know what we achieved? What we didn't achieve?

The Glasgow Climate Pact (a non-legally binding pact) is the result from COP26, which is a new climate agreement, however it has already being criticised as not going far enough to prevent temperatures from rising above 2 degrees (1.5 degrees as the aspirational goal). Some are saying though, that there are positives in this Pact, including an agreement to increase finance and requesting countries to set more ambitious climate pledgers next year, so it is keeping the topic of 1.5 degrees alive.

The main disappointment at the conference was that countries didn't agree to eliminate the use of coal (something that equates for 40% of annual CO2 emissions), they only agreed to reduce the usage of coal. This was mainly due to China and India's influence and their reluctances to commit to eliminating it all together. Boris Johnson was happy about this commitment though and said that we should all be proud of what Alok Sharma (president of COP) and his team have achieved. Boris did say though, that he was disappointed by some leader’s lack of commitment, but that he cannot force sovereign countries to do something they do not wish to do. One thing to note though, this is the first time there has been a commitment to coal reduction in any climate agreement and 42 countries have set coal phase out dates, so surely it is a starting point?

In addition, a formal agreement couldn't be made on reducing emissions, so it has been agreed world leaders will meet next year to make commitments on this. Countries did submit their ‘pledges’, however, based on these, the world temperature will increase by 2.4 degrees by 2100, which, although doesn't seem much, could have catastrophic impacts for our planet. So it is imperative that when they meet next year this is a real focus.

Unfortunately, the three top polluters of methane (Russia, India and China) didn't agree to join with more than 100 other countries to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030. It is hoped they may decide to join at a later date. Methane is a greenhouse gas and it is currently responsible for a third of human generated warming, for example the rearing of livestock and leaks from natural gas systems.

A positive outcome was First World Countries agreeing to provide $1 trillion per annum by 2025 to developing countries to support them in their infrastructure and preventative measures in order to help them against the impacts of climate change (although they are still falling short of the funds they were supposed to be providing). This is huge for the lives of millions of people in some of the world’s poorest countries, whose lives are directly impacted by climate change. These funds could support an estimated 500,000 Bangladeshis annually forced by rising sea levels and flooding to leave their homes in low-lying coastal areas to inland over-crowded cities.

That is a brief summary of some of the key takeaways from the conference, but what about some of the other issues with COP? What did you think of World Leaders flying in on their private jets and cruising around in their limousines when they are supposed to be there to discuss climate change? It was a priority for Word Leaders to meet face to face, this shouldn’t be disputed, but it was estimated nearly 120 World Leaders used private jets to arrive in Glasgow. One report suggests private jets are between 5 - 14 times more polluting than commercial planes, per passenger and 50 times more polluting than trains. It just seems slightly hypocritical of the likes of Jeff Bezos preaching about the environment, when he went to space not too long ago (the environmental impact of this is more than 100 times higher than a flight on a commercial plane) and then flew in on his ￡48 million Gulfstream private jet, having just enjoyed time on his friend’s (Bill Gates – another COP26 preacher) chartered yacht (costing ￡2 million per week) in the Med. It is a shame they could not lead by example, unlike Greta Thunberg, who did arrive by train and gave a speech to protesters citing this was just ‘watering down the blah, blah, blah’. Greta’s thoughts on the agreement was that it is good we have made small steps, but they aren’t enough, we are up against time because the climate crisis is real and is happening now.