What was really decided at COP26?
The United States and China pledge to step up efforts to combat climate change at COP26. The deepening of the Wall Street Journal
The United States and China jointly pledged at the United Nations Climate Summit to step up action to combat climate change over the next decade, enriching the talks with a surprise show of cooperation between the two rivals and the two largest greenhouse gas emitters. of the world. Writes The Wall Street Journal .
But the two did not approve a proposal from the UK, put forward earlier in the day, to have them update their emission reduction plans by the end of next year. This proposal from the host of the summit was seen as a way to bridge the gap between how much governments have pledged to cut and how much scientists think is necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
In an unusual joint statement, Washington and Beijing pledged to work together on a number of fronts, including reducing methane emissions. China has not signed a US-sponsored deal that pledged last week to cut methane emissions.
"Every step matters right now, and we have a long journey ahead of us," said US climate envoy John Kerry. The launch of a joint statement "demonstrates that cooperation is the only choice between China and the United States," said Xie Zhenhua, China's special envoy on climate.
The bilateral maneuver comes in the final period of the two-week climate summit in Glasgow. The US and China are under pressure from poorer countries to bring their emission reduction plans in line with what scientists say is needed to meet the Paris Agreement. The agreement, signed in 2015, asks governments to strive to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably 1.5 degrees, compared to pre-industrial temperatures by the end of the century. The UN says the plans presented so far under the deal put the world on track for 2.7 degrees of warming.
"The statement is not enough to close the deal," said Bernice Lee, research director at Chatham House, a London think tank. "The real test of Washington and Beijing is how hard they will push for a 1.5 Celsius aligned agreement here in Glasgow."
The UK proposal urges governments around the world to commit to larger cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by the end of next year, in what would be a major acceleration of their emissions reduction programs. The proposal, however, hasn't gone far enough for some nations most vulnerable to climate change because they are poor and have large populations living close to the coast.
"Soliciting, encouraging and inviting is not a decisive language," said Aubrey Webson, a diplomat from Antigua and Barbuda who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States.
Closing the emissions gap isn't the only hurdle negotiators face in the final days of summit talks. Developing countries are seeking strong commitments from wealthy nations to provide more funds to adopt renewable energy and protect themselves from the effects of climate change, such as drought and rising sea levels.
"We remain extremely concerned about the lack of progress on financial issues," said Diego Pacheco, a Bolivian negotiator and spokesperson for the Like-Minded Developing Countries group, which includes China and India. "There is no appetite in our partners, the developed countries, to engage in a fruitful discussion about long-term finance."
Separate drafts of agreements released by the UK on Tuesday and Wednesday also outlined a possible treaty on the rules of the 2015 Paris Agreement, one of the summit's key objectives. The texts, however, have suggested wide differences between governments on these issues which are crucial to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Text of a draft released by the UK on Wednesday calls on governments to speed up the phasing out of subsidies for fossil fuels and coal. Such language has in the past raised strong objections from large fossil fuel exporters such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, and has not been included in previous climate agreements.
A text released on Wednesday is a draft "cover" of the summit, or headline deal, expected to be signed by more than 190 nations. It puts on paper what was essentially a Plan B to meet the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, after all the major emitters presented their climate plans and, according to the United Nations, have failed.
The UK has proposed requiring the UN to assess governments' emission plans more regularly in the hope of getting fresher emissions reduction commitments soon. The draft urges countries to update their emissions plans by the end of next year to bring them in line with the 1.5 degree ambition; the Paris Agreement would normally require updates around 2025.
The UN argues that warming could be limited to 2.2 degrees if we take into account the long-term commitments of governments – still vague – to achieve net zero emissions. The International Energy Agency predicts that if we take into account the plans not yet officially presented to the UN – especially India – the warming would be around 1.8 degrees.
The Biden administration and European Union nations have taken lengthy processes to turn their climate plans into law, and are wary of revising their emissions targets so soon, according to officials familiar with their thinking. China, the world's largest emitter, and India have previously rejected pressure from the West to cut emissions earlier, saying the per capita emissions of the United States and most European nations are still well below. above those of the developing world.
The UK's proposed drafts include a regulation on how to report both greenhouse gases and climate finance to the United Nations, another controversial issue that negotiators say is still unresolved in the talks. Developed countries want developing nations to accept the same requirements for reporting these greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible; UN treaties have so far exempted developing nations from such rules. Developing countries, in turn, want developed countries to accept the reporting rules for climate finance they grant to developing countries.
(Extract from the foreign press review by Epr Comunicazione)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/che-cosa-e-stato-deciso-davvero-alla-cop26/ on Thu, 11 Nov 2021 16:11:31 +0000.