COP26: 7 Climate Points from Day 4 of the Glasgow Conference

“The results are very encouraging,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told the audience at the COP26 event. “If all the pledges on carbon neutrality and methane pledges are fully implemented, the warming trajectory will be 1.8 degrees Celsius, which is great.”

“Historical Breakthrough”

The strength of the pact will depend on how many countries end up signing it and whether we can get the world’s largest fossil fuel financier to join.

“This is a historic breakthrough that was not possible just a few years ago,” Iskandar Erzini Vernois, a climate finance expert at think tank E3G, told CNN. “This country’s leadership group shows how rapidly the energy norms are changing.”

Jake Schmidt, senior strategy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the deal “helps accelerate the transition to renewable energy,” but President Joe Biden said the U.S. would fully participate. He said there is still work to be done to ensure that

Key players missing in coal deal

The UK government announced on Thursday that 23 new countries had pledged to phase out coal-fired power, although some of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters have so far phased out their use of coal. refusal to promise to abolish

COP26 President Alok Sharma said an agreement on coal phase-out was one of the Summit’s most important goals.

This target falls short of what experts, including the IEA, say is needed to reach net zero by 2050. Net zero emissions can be achieved if countries reduce their current greenhouse gas emissions and remove some of what is already in the atmosphere. The net increase is zero.

Developing countries need more funding to adapt

The United Nations Environment Program reported Thursday that the gap between the impacts of the climate crisis and the world’s efforts to adapt to it is widening.

In the 2015 Paris Agreement, rich country governments not only committed to curbing global warming, but also gave poor countries $100 billion a year to move away from fossil fuels and adapt to climate change-induced disasters. I reaffirmed my commitment to donate

Developing countries, especially those in the global South, are most likely to withstand the worst effects of the climate crisis despite their low global greenhouse gas emissions.

UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen told CNN, “The Paris Agreement says there needs to be some balance between funding adaptation and mitigation. “People in poorer countries suffer the most. As a result, it is important to ensure some level of equity and global solidarity for adaptation finance.”

Activists ask police to withdraw

In a letter to the Prime Minister, three groups – the COP26 Coalition, Stop Climate Chaos Scotland and the Climate Coalition – wrote that “the excessive police presence, coupled with intrusive police surveillance,” created an “ambience of fear and terror.” are creating,” he said. Threats to the right to protest and an unacceptable chill effect. ”

CNN reached out to Sturgeon’s office but did not receive an immediate response.

The call comes ahead of Saturday’s Global Day of Action for Climate Justice, which draws thousands of protesters in Glasgow and around the world.

Activists have assured Sturgeon that Scottish police will protect their right to protest, criticizing the use of excessive force and targeting organizations for “arrest,” particularly those of color and people with disabilities. We are asking them to guarantee that they will not be involved in the act of “doing”.

“With a climate catastrophe ever closer and negotiators deciding the fate of billions around the world, civil society movements in Scotland, the UK and around the world are taking their place in the streets of Glasgow. It is absolutely essential that our voices be heard,” Mary Church said in a statement on behalf of the COP26 Coalition. “But the police use intimidating tactics and abuse their power to suppress the basic right to peaceful protest.”

EU Opposes Compensation for Climate Change

The European Union is not enthusiastic about the idea of ​​climate compensation, a big topic at the COP26 summit. Many of the world’s least developed small island nations are seeking ‘loss and damage’ financing to make up for the hardships climate change has already wrought on their populations.

Countries say this should be on top of the $100 billion a year in climate adaptation and mitigation finance that wealthy countries have promised to start providing in 2020 and have so far failed. said.

Asked by CNN about the EU’s position on the issue, Jacob Werksmon, the EU Commission’s chief climate negotiator, said the Paris Agreement was “not a system of liability and compensation,” noting that the EU is the most important A controversial issue at this year’s United Nations climate conference in Glasgow when asked whether he was for or against one of the agreements.

“It is intended as a means for countries to negotiate what they should do under the theory of liability and what they should pay others based on what they experience with regard to impacts. not,” he said, noting that the EU[d]“The disproportionate impact of climate change on the least developed countries is a very legitimate concern.”

Let’s socialize!

Many delegations exhibited and hosted events in the National Pavilion Zone on Thursday. Some turned to things that always worked, like drinks and snacks, to attract more visitors to the hub.

Brazil’s Minister of Energy and Mines, Bento Albuquerque, hosted drinks at the Brazilian pavilion, while the UK was scheduled to host an evening reception at its hub later Thursday.

And while Australia’s climate policy is unpopular with many of the COP26 attendees, the coffee served at the Aussie Pavilion (sponsored by fossil fuel company Santos) is.