The international community will be in front of the mirror during the XXVI Conference of the Parties on Climate Change of the UN (COP26) that will be held from this Sunday, October 31 to November 12 in the Scottish city of Glasgow (United Kingdom), since The nearly 200 countries that signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 will have to close the gap between the promises made and the reality reflected in their announcements to avoid the worst effects of global warming.
In the Paris Climate Agreement, the international community undertakes to limit the increase in the global temperature of the planet by 1.5 degrees centigrade (ºC) between now and the end of the century and many of the countries have been presenting in the last lustrum commitments in that direction.
But this same week, the United Nations Environment Program presented its 2021 emissions gap report, which represents a jug of cold water for the enthusiasm of climate action: the sum of the commitments announced by all countries, if fulfilled. , will mean an increase in the planet’s temperature of 2.7ºC, that is, 1.2ºC more than the proposed objective.
Although it is an advance compared to the calculation of an increase of 4ºC that would be reached at the end of the century without climate commitments, it is not enough, as scientists, NGOs, numerous governments and, with them, the voice of the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, who criticizes that the necessary leadership in this matter is “non-existent” while planet Earth continues to “move towards a climate catastrophe.” In his opinion, the promises presented are “vague”, “inconsistent” and “ambiguous”.
So far, fifty countries, in addition to the European Union, have announced their willingness to reach a zero emissions goal by mid-century, and that represents more than half of national greenhouse gas emissions, more than half of the world’s GDP and a third of the world’s population. However, UNEP criticizes that many of the nationally determined contributions postpone their action to 2030, therefore it warns that this postponement could lead to a point of no return that will prevent the goal from being successfully achieved.
“The world has to wake up to the imminent danger we face as a species. Nations must put policies in place to meet their new commitments and begin to implement them in a matter of months, “warns UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen, who calls for the implementation of policies that” support this great ambition. ” as your urgent application.
One more year of margin
COP26 will begin a year later than expected, as a result of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. It should be remembered that the COP25 that was held in Madrid ended on December 14, about 15 days before China notified a “cluster of pneumonia cases” in the city of Wuhan that subsequently led to the spread of SARS-COV-2 , which led to the coronavirus pandemic.
Precisely in 2020 the entry into force of the Paris Climate Agreement was scheduled and on that date it was expected that countries would increase their commitment to tackle polluting emissions.
The prolonged negotiations in Madrid did not manage to close two of the most important articles of the agreement, article 4 (on increasing ambition and the transparency of its communication) and article 6, related to carbon markets and their governance, among Other issues, such as the mechanism of loss and damage, were what led Guterres to describe COP25 at its closing as “a missed opportunity.”
In 2020, developed countries were also expected to commit € 100 billion annually to finance decarbonization, both adaptation and mitigation in less developed countries.
That is another point at which countries will not see in the mirror the image they would like to reflect, since the distance between promise and reality exceeds $ 20 billion. A few days ago the UN published a study that estimates that countries allocate some 420,000 million dollars to subsidize fossil fuels. In other words, countries spend four times more to subsidize the energies that cause climate change than to facilitate climate action in the countries that present the greatest difficulties and which, at the same time, without being the main contributors, are the ones that will suffer the most. the consequences of global warming.
Civil society has already christened COP26 as the Summit of «ambition», because that is what they consider to be necessary: more commitment and faster. For Friends of the Earth, the governments of the global north exercise “enormous irresponsibility” in the face of the climate emergency, which is why they demand to maintain the 1.5ºC target, increase funding and guarantee climate justice.
For Ecologists in Action, “COP26 must respond to the principles of climate justice against the interests of fossil companies” and calls for ending the “era” of fossil fuels and that countries increase their ambition.
Along the same lines, Greenpeace believes that Glasgow will be “the greatest political moment” to address the climate crisis since COP21 in Paris, since “the world must agree on how to achieve it.” For the executive director of the NGO worldwide, Jennifer Morgan, the meeting in Glasgow requires a “real commitment, real ambition and real action” that have been lacking so far. “It is not too late for leaders to agree on a transformative and detailed plan of action,” he confides.
For Tatiana Nuño, the head of the Climate Change campaign and Greenpeace Spain, “the power of energy companies and how they are doing green washing through their advertising and sponsorships to position gas is worrying, along with other false solutions, such as fuel for the energy transition ”.
On the other hand, in addition to ambition, SEO / BirdLife asks the countries of the COP26 to give a greater value to nature for its ability to curb climate change. Its head of climate and energy, David Howell calls for new models of urban development and water management in the face of the impacts of climate change.
Along the same lines, the head of climate change at WWF, Mar Asunción, sees it urgent to accelerate decarbonization, leave fossil fuels behind and act with nature-based solutions to protect and restore the balance of ecosystems, keys to curbing the emergency climatic.
