Who and why does not overwhelm the results of Cop26
Cop26 ended with renewed promises, a watered-down deal and major disappointments. Here are the most critical positions and the most positive (Italian and European) ones
Cop26, the United Nations climate change conference, ended on November 12 with an emissions deal between 197 countries and major disappointments. Not only the young activists of the Fridays for Future were dissatisfied, but also Boris Johnson, the prime minister of the country that hosted the COP26.
THE TEARS OF SHARMA
Alok Sharma, the British MP who chaired the conference, had to hold back tears and apologize for the watering down of the final agreement. Blame India and China, he explained, who wanted to delete from the text the reference to the phase out (ie the gradual elimination) of coal plants not equipped with CO2 capture technologies. Of all fossil fuels, coal is the most polluting.
THE WEIGHT OF COAL FOR INDIA AND CHINA
China and India are respectively the first and third countries in the world for the amount of CO2 emitted. Although they have committed to increasing their renewable capacity installations and achieving carbon neutrality (i.e. net zeroing of emissions) by 2060 and 2070 , today coal occupies very significant shares in their energy mix: about 70 percent both.
Instead of phase out , the text of the agreement refers to phase down .
THE COMMENT OF SAUDI ARABIA
The final agreement of COP26, although less ambitious than hoped for, was also accepted by Saudi Arabia, a country that bases its economy and stability on oil, although it intends to reconvert and focus on low-energy energy. carbon emissions such as hydrogen.
Ayman Shasly, head of the Saudi delegation in Glasgow and former executive of the state oil company Saudi Aramco in China, told the Financial Times that the agreement reached is "the best that could be achieved".
THE WORDS OF CINGOLANI (MiTE)
"Be careful not to have too many expectations", said the Minister of Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, on Radio24 . “We are faced with problems of historical significance. The solutions are not simple, they are very complicated things ".
Italy was a partner of the United Kingdom in the organization of COP26.
“I understand that young activists have to keep their attention very high and contest,” continued Cingolani, who defined the diplomatic effort of COP26 as an example of “democracy; he is not a bla-bla-bla ”, criticizing the statements of climate activist Greta Thunberg. "I don't think walking around the streets screaming and playing is effective."
THE WORDS OF VON DER LEYEN
According to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the result of COP26 represents "a step in the right direction". The containment of global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius, as foreseen by the 2015 Paris agreement, remains, he says, “at hand, but the work is far from over. The least we can do now is implement the Glasgow promises as quickly as possible and then aim higher. "
COP26 did not lead to a renewal of the commitments on cutting emissions, effectively maintaining what is already present in the Paris agreement: striving to limit the increase in global temperature to within 1.5 ° C.
The European Union wants to reduce its emissions by 55% (compared to 1990 levels) by 2030, and bring them to net zero by 2050.
Von der Leyen stated that COP26 has guaranteed "progress on climate finance" by allocating, by 2023, $ 100 billion a year to foster the energy transition and adaptation to climate change in the poorest countries. In reality, it is a promise dating back to 2009, formulated at that year's COP in Copenhagen, which should have been fulfilled in 2020. The promised figure has not been kept.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/cop26-risultati/ on Mon, 15 Nov 2021 15:10:29 +0000.