Last November, Glasgow was home for COP26, an event many believed to be the world’s last chance to get climate change under control.
COP, which stands for Conference of the Parties, is a global climate summit that brings together almost every country on earth. In 1994, 196 countries and the European Union signed a treaty to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions and to protect the earth from climate change. The 2021 summit was the 26th summit, that’s the reason why it is called COP26.
During twelve days, worldwide leaders were together to work through reaching an agreement on how to tackle climate change in practice. The main goal of this summit was to keep alive the COP21 (2015) Paris Agreement’s target to prevent global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 Celsius degrees above pre-industrial levels. Scientists say warming beyond this point could unleash irreversible and uncontrollable climate impacts, triggering the worst effects of climate change.
In this article, you will find out the main conclusions set in the final COP26 Glasgow statement agreement and what we can expect for our planet in the future.
Reaffirming the Paris agreement, but more and faster actions still needed
COP26 ends with a global agreement to accelerate action on climate this decade, nearly 200 countries agreed with the Glasgow Climate Pact. Increased ambition and action from countries, means that the 1.5 Celsius degrees target remains in sight, but it will only be possible with immediate global efforts. So, generally speaking, COP26 kept the Paris targets alive, giving us a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but depending on world nation actions.
Current national plans on cutting emissions by 2030, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), as they were presented at the summit, are inadequate to limit temperature rises to 1.5 Celsius degrees, so parties collectively agreed to work to review their emissions reductions and to align their national climate action pledges with the Paris Agreement.
All countries agreed to revisit and strengthen their efforts, by presenting new NDC’s in 2022 instead of 2025, the date for the new expected revision. Nations were only required to return every five years to set new NDCs, so a roadmap for revisions happening next year is a really positive outcome. The next months will be crucial to determine if countries will take the measures to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030.
Support to developing countries
A concern of developing countries was the failure of wealthy nations to secure 100 billion dollars in annual finance by 2020 to help them pivot to renewable energy and prepare for the effects of climate change, as was promised in 2010. By 2019, the latest year for which data is available, only 80 billion dollars flowed, for example.
The COP final decision noted the failure and urged developed countries to fully deliver on the 100 billion dollar goal urgently. There were also commitments to increase support through the Adaptation Fund, doubling the financial support to developing countries by 2025. However, the final text of the agreement does not specifically state how, it only mentions a need for discussion on the arrangements for the funding of activities to address poor countries’ needs.
The end of fossil fuels?
For the first time, the COP agreed on action to phasing down fossil fuels, the key driver of global warming. However, the summit failed to commit to the total elimination of coal, after a last-minute change request made by India from a “phase out” to the much weaker expression “phase down”.
Side agreements: methane and forests
In a second side deal, more than 100 countries, have agreed to cut global methane emissions by 30% by 2030, including the US, Japan, and Canada. The move is considered important because, though there is less methane in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, individual methane molecules have a more powerful warming effect in the atmosphere, so reducing it quickly has very positive impacts.
Alongside this, we saw a marked commitment to protecting natural habitats. More than 130 nations, including forestry giants such as Brazil, Russia, China, the USA, and Indonesia, signed a pledge to end deforestation by 2030. This agreement covers more than 85% of the planet's forests and includes aid valued at 19 billion dollars.
Taking into consideration all the statements in the final agreement and also side deals, Climate Action Tracker (as independent research) shows that the full implementation of the commitments on COP26 could hold temperature rise to 1.8 Celsius degrees. It is still to confirm how much and how quickly each nation will cut its emissions by 2030. As well, it leaves a not-so-clear plan to support many developing countries short of the funds to build cleaner energy and cope with extreme weather disasters. It is important to note that even with action committed, communities around the world will continue to feel the impact of our changing planet in the years to come.
