“The COP26 is over. Here’s a brief summary: Blah, blah, blah. But the real work continues outside these halls. And we will never give up, ever.”
“Unless we achieve immediate, drastic, unprecedented, annual emission cuts at the source then that means we’re failing when it comes to this climate crisis,” she posted. “‘Small steps in the right direction’, ‘making some progress’ or ‘winning slowly’ equals losing.”
India was insistent right to the very end on the need to retain fossil fuels.
“This climate crisis has been caused by unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption,” said Indian Environment and Climate Minister Bhupender Yadav. “The world needs to awaken to this reality. Fossil fuels and their use have enabled parts of the world to attain high levels of wealth and wellbeing.”
Yadav said “targeting any particular industry is uncalled-for” and stressed developing countries were entitled to use fossil fuels given developed countries had used them for decades and were responsible for historic emissions.
Bhupender Yadav, India’s Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Credit:Getty Images Europe
The agreement, already being called the Glasgow Climate Pact, calls upon nations to phase out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” and recognises the need for “a just transition” from fossil fuels.
The pact speeds up the so-called “ratchet mechanism” of the Paris Agreement by calling on countries like Australia that have not increased their 2030 targets to do so as soon as possible before next November’s summit in Egypt.
It calls on all nations to revisit and improve the emission reductions targets and strategies annually and report their progress via ministerial meetings. Furthermore, it “expresses alarm and utmost concern that human activities have caused around 1.1 degrees of warming to date… and that carbon budgets consistent with achieving the Paris Agreement temperature goal are now small and being rapidly depleted.”
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The pact also emphasises the need for rapid reductions this decade if 2050 targets are to work, and completes key elements of the so-called Paris rule book, governing how a global carbon market can operate.
Even before the Indian intervention delegations had expressed serious misgivings about the pact, most said they believed it was a realistic compromise that drove forward efforts to curb climate change.
“Obviously, we know the old adage that in negotiations you can’t let perfect be the enemy of the good,” said United States climate envoy John Kerry. “And this is good. It’s a powerful statement.”
Developing nations failed in their effort to have the pact include a mechanism for wealthy countries to pay for the loss and damage already occurring in climate vulnerable states.
The move to pay for damages was opposed by powerful countries that are progressive on other climate related matters, such as the United Kingdom and the US.
″The needs of the world’s vulnerable people have been sacrificed on the altar of the rich world’s selfishness,” said Mohammed Adow, director of the energy and climate Power Shift Africa.
“The outcome here reflects a COP held in the rich world and the outcome contains the priorities of the rich world. They claim to want urgency on emissions reductions, yet they continue to expand fossil fuel production within their own borders.”
Simon Bradshaw, head of research for the Climate Council, said the direct references to fossil fuels and the mechanism to increase the tempo of emissions reductions were significant.
“The new commitments that countries brought to Glasgow are not enough to gets on the path to limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, but the real measure of success will be whether it has succeeded in kickstarting a decade of truly transformative action… on that front there are reasons for hope.”
He said Australia had eventually backed the pact, despite opposing some of the language regarding coal in earlier negotiations, but it had isolated itself at the talks.
“The federal government showed up empty-handed to a pivotal moment in the fight for our future. They’ve let down our Pacific neighbours, as well as Australians who do not deserve to endure more frequent and severe bushfires, floods, droughts and heatwaves,” Dr Bradshaw said.
“As our allies and trading partners rise to the climate challenge, we’re stuck in a polluting past with a handful of countries including Russia and Saudi Arabia. The Government’s own Net Zero modelling released two days ago predicts Australia will still be a major coal and gas exporter in 2050.”
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COP26 Glasgow’s pledge to end coal power weakened in final compromise
Source: Philippines Alive
