COP26 climate talks continue as wealthy nations are urged to put ‘cash on the table’
Two weeks of COP26 climate talks in Glasgow continued past the deadline on Friday after the conference chairman called on countries to make a final effort to secure commitments that would curb rising temperatures that threaten. to the planet.
“The world is watching us,” COP26 President Alok Sharma told delegates tasked with keeping the temperature targets of the Paris agreement alive, even as climate-induced disasters hit countries around the world.
Sharma said he expected negotiations on an agreement to continue until Saturday afternoon, as the November 12 deadline passed without a final agreement.
The summit started with a bang when world leaders arrived in Glasgow armed with a series of headline announcements, from a pledge to cut methane emissions to a plan to save rainforests.
But late on Friday, tough talks continued on topics like phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, carbon markets and financial help for poor countries to tackle climate change.
A draft of the final deal, released earlier in the day, requires countries to make stricter climate commitments next year, in an attempt to bridge the gap between their current goals and the much deeper cuts that scientists say are needed. in this decade to avoid catastrophic climate change. .
“We have come a long way in the last two weeks and now we need that final injection of that ‘can do’ spirit, which is present at this COP, for this shared effort to be overcome,” said Sharma.
The overall goal of the meeting is to keep within reach the aspirational goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, the limit that scientists say it would avoid its worst effects.
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Under current national promises to cut emissions this decade, researchers say the world’s temperature would skyrocket well beyond that limit, unleashing catastrophic sea level rises, droughts, storms and wildfires.
The new draft is a balancing act: it tries to accept the demands of the nations most vulnerable to the climate, such as the low-lying islands, the world’s biggest polluters, and countries whose fossil fuel exports are vital to their economies.
“China believes that the current draft still needs to go further to strengthen and enrich the parts on adaptation, finance, technology and capacity development,” said Zhao Yingmin, a climate negotiator for the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter.
The draft retained its most significant demand for nations to make stricter climate commitments next year, but expressed that request in weaker language than before, without offering the ongoing annual review of climate commitments that some developing countries have sought.
Currently, nations must review their pledges every five years.
‘Fingerprints of fossil fuel interests are still in the text’
The latest proposal included slightly weaker language than an earlier one by asking states to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) that are the leading cause of man-made global warming.
That dismayed some activists, while others were relieved that the first explicit reference to fossil fuels at any UN climate summit was in the text, and they hoped it would survive the fierce negotiations to come.
“It could be better, it should be better, and we have one day left to do much, much better,” Greenpeace said.
“Right now, the fingerprints of fossil fuel interests are still in the text and this is not the great deal that people were hoping for in Glasgow,” the advocacy group added.
COP26 draft agreement advances the fine line to drive climate action
Some think tanks were more optimistic, pointing to advances in financing to help developing countries cope with the ravages of an increasingly hot climate.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s second-largest oil producer and considered among the nations most resistant to strong fossil fuel drafting, said the latest draft was “workable.”
A final agreement will require the unanimous consent of the nearly 200 countries that signed the Paris agreement.
To increase pressure for a strong agreement, protesters demonstrated in front of the COP26 headquarters, where activists had posted tapes with messages imploring delegates to protect the Earth.
The latest draft acknowledged that scientists say the world must reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, and net zero by “around mid-century” to meet the target of 1.5 ° C.
This would effectively set the benchmark for measuring future climate commitments.
Currently, countries’ pledges would see global emissions rise by nearly 14 percent by 2030 from 2010 levels, according to the UN.
‘Cash on the table’
Fossil fuel subsidies remain a bone of contention. US climate envoy John Kerry told reporters that trying to curb global warming while governments spend hundreds of billions of euros to support the fuels that cause it was “a definition of insanity.”
Financial support is also hotly debated, with developing countries pushing for stricter rules to ensure that wealthy nations, whose historic emissions are largely responsible for global warming, offer more cash to help them adapt to its consequences.
On Friday, host nation prime minister Boris Johnson called on wealthy nations to put more “cash on the table” to secure a climate breakthrough.
Rich countries have not met the 12-year goal of providing $ 100 billion a year in so-called “climate finance” by 2020, undermining confidence and making some developing countries more reluctant to curb their emissions.
The sum, which is well below what the UN says countries would actually need, aims to address “mitigation,” helping poor countries with their ecological transition and “adaptation,” to help them manage climate events. extremes.
UN chief says climate promises are ’empty’ unless fossil fuels end
The new draft said that, by 2025, rich countries should double the funding they set aside for adaptation from current levels, a step up from the previous version that did not set a date or a baseline.
“This is a more robust and balanced text than we had two days ago,” Helen Mountford of the World Resources Institute said of the current draft.
“We need to see what holds up, what holds up and what it looks like in the end, but right now it is looking in a positive direction.”
Of the roughly $ 80 billion that rich countries spent on climate finance for poor countries in 2019, only a quarter went to adaptation.
A more contentious aspect, known as “loss and damage”, would compensate poor countries for the ravages they have already suffered from global warming, although this is out of the $ 100 billion mark and some rich countries do not recognize the claim.
A group of vulnerable nations, including the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, said the final agreement needed to do more to address the issue. “The loss and damage is too great for us to settle for workshops,” said Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands.
( Jowharwith REUTERS, AFP)
