COP26: How the UN Climate Summit Works and What Leaders Want to Achieve

CNN
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The COP26 international climate conference, which begins in Glasgow on 31 October, has never been held at such a momentous time.

The United Nations’ latest scientific report, released in August, says the world is warming faster than scientists previously thought, and that greenhouse gas emissions could be cut by at least half over the next decade. , shows that it is essential to stem the devastating effects of global warming. climate crisis.

With deadly wildfires and flooding in many parts of the world over the past year, there is no doubt that climate change is here now and affecting every corner of the planet.

Here’s everything you need to know about the all-important UN climate conference and what world leaders hope to achieve.

COP is an abbreviation for the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Climate Change Convention, and is an annual event, but last year was postponed due to the pandemic. While world leaders will be present, much of the discussion will take place among ministers and other senior officials working on climate issues.26 indicates this is his 26th meeting of the group. increase.

The conference is a large event with many side meetings that attract people from the business sector, fossil fuel companies, climate change activists and other groups involved in the climate crisis. Some have been successful (for example, the Paris Agreement was launched at COP21), while others have been painfully unproductive.

After the 2015 COP21 meeting, more than 190 countries signed the Paris Agreement, aiming to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Up to 1.5 degrees.

0.5 degrees may not sound like a big difference, but scientists say a temperature rise of more than 1.5 degrees will cause more intense and frequent extremes. For example, limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, rather than 2 degrees, could reduce the number of people frequently exposed to extreme heat waves by about 420 million, according to the United Nations.

Scientists see 2 degrees as a dangerous threshold at which extreme weather can turn some of the world’s most densely populated regions into uninhabitable deserts or flood them with seawater.

The Paris Agreement was a landmark moment in addressing the climate crisis, but it did not include details on how the world would meet its goals. We have aimed to make the plan more ambitious and detail the course of action.

“On paper, the Paris Agreement was always designed as a cyclical process. See you in five years with better plans and new initiatives.” and is being pushed back by Covid.”

UK MP and COP26 President Alok Sharma says he hopes to reach agreement on a number of key goals at this year’s conference, including:

Many countries have pledged to reach “net zero” by the middle of the 20th century. Net zero is when the amount of greenhouse gases emitted does not exceed the amount removed from the atmosphere.

To achieve net zero, countries and companies must either rely on natural methods, such as forests, to remove as much carbon as they emit, or capture and capture carbon before removing it at the source. A technique known as storage should be used. can enter the atmosphere. The carbon is then stored or buried underground.

The good news is that global warming could be limited to about 1.5 degrees Celsius if the world were to go to net zero by the middle of the 20th century, according to an August UN report.

But some scientists and activists say the net-zero goal is dangerous.

“The problem with net-zero targets, both by companies and various governments, is that many of them are very vague and risk becoming a sort of cover for business as usual,” said Aditi Sen of Climate Policy. says. Lead at Oxfam America. “What he actually got up to 1.5 degrees is now aggressively reducing emissions over the next nine years.”

Many of the largest sources of emissions have renewable and environmentally friendly alternatives. Internal combustion engines can be replaced by electric vehicles. Coal-fired power plants may be closed and priority will be given to renewable energy generation, such as from wind and solar.

However, some emissions are difficult or even impossible to eliminate. For example, the world still doesn’t have a clean way to produce steel on a large scale, but small companies do. These emissions need to be offset by removing carbon from the atmosphere. I guess.

Many climate summits have been derailed by US-China relations.

For years, the United States would not support the Kyoto Protocol, which preceded the Paris Protocol, unless China signed it. The agreement did not initially require China, India, Brazil, and other developing countries to cut their emissions.

But developments at the UN General Assembly gave reason for hope. US President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that the US will double its financial commitment to help developing countries tackle the climate crisis to $11.4 billion annually. He must obtain congressional approval to appropriate these funds.

This is a U-turn from the years under the previous US administration when then-President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also made a big announcement at the United Nations General Assembly in September, saying China would not build new coal-fired power projects abroad. While China itself remains the world’s largest coal consumer, the announcement effectively ends China’s long history of financing coal-fired power plants in places such as Africa, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Xi also said China would start sending money to developing countries as well, boosting China’s position in future negotiations.

The announcement brings China and the United States one step closer to combating climate change and could portend future progress between the two countries. US Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry has urged China to set more ambitious emissions targets to peak emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2060. .

Under the Paris Agreement, countries have submitted emission reduction commitments. This is also known as a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). All signatories were supposed to update his NDC by July 31 this year, but about 70 signatories have yet to do so.

There are positive signs from some of the world’s biggest polluters, but many countries appear to be attending the conference with the goal of opposing higher and more ambitious targets. , plans to continue mining coal “well beyond 2030”.

Russia, a major fossil fuel producer, is another country of concern to observers. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his country is committed to the cause, but experts say the plans put forward by Russia will not lead to meaningful change.

India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are among the countries that missed the July 31 deadline. China has announced new targets but has not formally submitted them to the United Nations.

Australia, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia and many others have failed to raise their targets by submitting 2030 targets that are the same or more ambitious than those submitted in 2015. did.

“We are really looking forward to the new and strengthened commitments from each country,” Vallejo said.

“While some countries have not submitted pledges, or have submitted pledges, a significant proportion of them are still inadequate, and most do not exactly match 1.5.”