World leaders on climate change - COP26 update

The world is gearing up for climate change mitigation, but the pace just isn't good enough.

World leaders on climate change - COP26 update

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• The story: The COP26 aimed to get countries to commit to curbing carbon emissions to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. World leaders turned up the heat and resorted to end-of-the-world rhetoric, in an attempt to bring new urgency to sputtering international climate negotiations. UK's PM Boris Johnson is hosting the summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow.
• Drama all around: The metaphors used were dramatic and mixed, at the COP26. For British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, global warming was “a doomsday device” strapped to humanity. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told that people are “digging our own graves.” And Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, speaking for vulnerable island nations, added moral thunder, warning leaders not to “allow the path of greed and selfishness to sow the seeds of our common destruction”. But US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel avoided soaring rhetoric and delved into wonky policy.

1. Biden apologized for his predecessor’s temporarily pulling the US out of the historic 2015 Paris agreement, something he said put the country behind in its efforts. “Every day we delay, the cost of inaction increases.”
2. In addition to coaxing big carbon-polluting nations to promise more stringent emission cuts, French President Emmanuel Macron said European nations now have to shift from promises to action.
3. Boris Johnson said that the 'ticking clock' threat now was climate change, triggered by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, and he noted that it all started in Glasgow with James Watt’s steam engine powered by coal.

• Age and vision: PM Johnson pointed out that the more than 130 world leaders gathered for the leaders’ summit portion of the U.N. climate conference had an average age of over 60, while the generations most harmed by climate change aren’t yet born.
• Why COP26: The conference aims to get governments to commit to curbing carbon emissions fast enough to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit). Current projections based on planned emissions cuts over the next decade are for it to hit 2.7C (4.9F) by the year 2100.

1. Increased warming over coming decades would melt much of the planet’s ice, raise global sea levels and greatly increase the likelihood and intensity of extreme weather, scientists say. With every tenth of a degree of warming, the dangers soar faster, they say. The other goals for the meeting are for rich nations to give poor nations $100 billion a year in climate aid and to reach an agreement to spend half of the money to adapt to worsening climate impacts.
2. The heads of several major emerging economies, including China, Russia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa skipped the event. That leaves Indian PM Narendra Modi, the only leader present from the so-called BRICS nations, which account for more than 40% of global emissions.
3. But before the UN climate summit, the G-20 leaders had offered vague climate pledges instead of commitments of firm action, saying they would seek carbon neutrality “by or around mid-century.” The countries agreed to end public financing for coal-fired power generation abroad, but set no target for phasing out coal domestically.

• BASIC nations: The BASIC nations - Brazil, South Africa, India, and China - sought a fresh long-term climate finance goal at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

1. India said during the opening of COP26 that the grouping endorsed for the delivery of the promised $100 billion climate finance support for developing countries, and a carbon market mechanism that facilitates private sector engagement in the fight against climate change.
2. The Basic grouping added that its views were aligned with the position taken by the Western African country of Guinea on behalf of the G77 group of developing nations and China.
3. At the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries committed to mobilising $100 billion a year by 2020 to support developing countries in climate change mitigation efforts. These funds were meant to come from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral, and multilateral, and including alternative sources of finance.
4. On the long-term temperature goal, the latest available science makes it clear that all parties need to immediately contribute their fair share. Achieving it will require developed countries to rapidly reduce their emissions and dramatically scale up their financial support to developing countries. Unfortunately, we have not made much progress on these issues.
5. The Basic nations said they were expecting a clear road map from developed countries on their existing obligations to mobilise $100 billion per year from 2021 to 2025… and the willingness to urgently initiate the process within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of setting a new collective quantified goal on finance. The bloc also said it was expecting a market mechanism that facilitates private sector engagement in carbon markets in the larger fight against the climate crisis.

• By 2023: A finance delivery plan jointly led by Canada and Germany said that developed countries will likely be able to mobilise $100 billion funding only in 2023 - with a delay of three years. Such a delay not only risks delaying how countries roll-out climate crisis mitigation measures -- such as switching to clean energy -- but also threatens to open the rift between the developed and developing nations on the crisis. Developing countries like India have pointed to what they say is lack of equity in responsibility and climate justice since developed countries have typically enjoyed decades of unbridled climate restrictions when they grew.
• Summary: Clearly, there's a north-south divide on climate goals, despite some convergence on core issues.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the goals that BASIC nations want the world to set on climate action agenda. (2) What are the reasons that drastic climate action is being delayed steadily? What can be done to reverse it?

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