Loy Rego is a Tech Advisor, MARS Practitioners Network (DPRR n SDGs) & VERVE Volunteers, Deputy Executive Director, ADPC, Bangkok (1996-2011) & Joint Director, NSC, India (1986-96).
The Paris Agreement was signed on December 12, 2015, in the Conference of Parties (COP21) in France. It charted a new course in the evolution of the UN under the Climate Change Convention. The Paris Agreement accelerates and intensifies actions and investment needed for a sustainable low carbon future by strengthening the global response to climate change, keeping global temperature rise this century well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5°C, and aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with climate change impacts.
To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate financial flows, including by, before 2025, setting a new goal on the provision of finance from the USD 100 billion, and an enhanced capacity-building framework. A specific initiative was planned to be put in place through supporting action by developing countries and the most vulnerable countries, aligned to their national objectives. The Agreement emphasised enhanced transparency of action and support through a more robust transparency framework.
COPs 22-25 and the SG’s Summit Since
Five other COPs were held in the six years since, with Morocco (22), Fiji (23), Poland (24), Chile (25) and the UK (26) as Chairs, all slowly advancing and initiating special elements of the Paris Agreement, as summarised in Table 1. The Talanoa Dialogues at Fiji and Poland were innovative in their approach and objectives and brought forward valid bold perspectives and plans for action (BOX
The 2019 UN Climate Summit was convened by the UN Secretary-General in New York in September 2019. His call for action is reflected in his statement at COP25 (BOX 2).
Key Outcomes of COP26
COP 26 began in November 2021 with a World Leaders Summit of 120 leaders to kick start the decade of accelerated climate action. Leaders were joined by civil society, international organisations, businesses and youth meeting a year later than scheduled, due to the pandemic. Urgency in overcoming this collective challenge was the centre of discussions, emphasised by the prominence of the world’s poorest and most climate-vulnerable countries. They came together in solidarity, keen that COP26 take ambitious action to tackle climate change and seize the opportunities for a clean and resilient transition through the critical decade ahead. Every country’s unique circumstances and responsibilities were recognised but all regions were called to urgently address gaps in ambition – on mitigation, adaptation and finance, and their determination to do so at COP26 and beyond. The High Ambition Coalition and Climate Vulnerable Forum made strong calls for more ambitious targets.
Many called for a path to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C within reach; closing the gap between the current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to 2030 and requirements of science; updating targets as necessary, setting new quantifiable goals beyond 2025, calling to scale up climate finance from all sources, urgently delivering the $100bn per year goal and working across the financial system to align financial flows with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement.
Key COP26 outcomes were the Glasgow Climate Pact (BOX 3), bold collective commitments to curb methane emissions, halt and reverse forest loss, align the finance sector with net-zero by 2050, ditch the internal combustion engine, accelerate the phase-out of coal, and end international financing for fossil fuels, to name a few; and a platform to launch innovative sectoral partnerships with new funding, to reshaping many economic sectors at scale needed to deliver a net-zero future.
Leaders called to implement the Global Goal on Adaptation as a matter of survival. Many called on COP26 to achieve a step-change in finance for adaptation, some for at least doubling current funding, towards the collective agreement in Paris and stressed the reality of loss and damage from climate change, operationalising the Santiago Network, and ensuring international finance and technical assistance is scaled up.
One hundred and fifty-one parties submitted updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), with eight more to do so. The UNFCCC Summit report claimed that almost 90% of global emissions and over 90% of global GDP is now covered by mid-century net-zero or carbon neutrality commitments, rising from just 30% of global GDP at the end of 2019. Forty-two countries set coal phase-out dates and international public finance for coal is coming to an end.
Over 40 countries joined the Breakthrough Agenda, a 10-year plan to create green jobs and growth globally, making clean technologies and solutions affordable, accessible and attractive by 2030 – beginning with power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture.
One hundred and twenty countries covering over 90% of the world’s forests endorsed the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests & Land Use committing to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030, committing public funds for forest conservation and a global roadmap to make 75% of forest commodity supply chains sustainable.
The Just Energy Transition Partnership was announced supporting South Africa’s decarbonisation efforts, and the Global Methane Pledge by over 100 countries committed to reducing methane emissions by 30% globally by 2030.
Finance for low-carbon and resilient development continues to increase but remains short of levels needed to even meet the $100 billion goals set for 2020, now expected to meet by 2023.
Many countries supported resilient and sustainable recovery from COVID-19 with increased investment and partnerships for clean, green infrastructure through Build Back Better World.
A Champions Group on Adaptation Finance committed to 50% adaptation finance, with support through African Adaptation Acceleration Programme and Infrastructure for Resilient Island States fund. 32 countries made Adaptation Communications or National Adaptation Plans, representing over 2 billion people, sharing good practice and mobilising action.
Participants from civil society, youth, indigenous peoples, businesses and international organisations contributed actively, demonstrating the role they play in raising ambition and building a net-zero, resilient future.
Despite significant headway on several fronts, national and international climate and financing commitments still fell far short of what is needed to come to grips with the climate challenge.
Strengths and Limitations of COPs and their Processes
It is important and useful to compare the UNFCCC and its intensely negotiated outcomes and processes of regular agenda elaboration with the outcomes of broader agendas like the SDGs and specific processes like Quito’s New Urban Agenda and the Sendai Framework on DRR. These are finalised in intensely negotiated periodic processes but are non-binding and voluntary commitments, and while periodic progress is reviewed, it has no specific outcome.
Thus, while the negotiations are intense and periodic, the annual COPs advance the formal agenda much more, though progress is slow.
New Focus on Building Resilience and Adaptation
COP26 introduced a new link and emphasis on DRR and introduced the “Race to Resilience” – a bold new initiative to link work on DPRR with the active push for building resilience. This is an effective and worthy effort to link the two agendas on adaptation and resilience and its progress will be actively anticipated and acted on. Led by global non-state actors from business, investors, civil society, academia, cities and regions, the Resilience Hub provided an immersion into urgent action while mobilising ambition to deliver a resilient world for all, never before experienced at any COP: “We won’t stop until the job gets done”.
The UN Global Compact’s Business Ambition for 1.5°C is a coalition of 965 companies worth $13 trillion that pledged to cut emissions and adapt their businesses to align with the Paris Climate Agreement. This is part of the “Race to Zero”, a worldwide effort to bring net greenhouse emissions down to zero by 2050 hinges on two pillars: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and investing in nature-based solutions and other measures to remove carbon from the atmosphere.
The Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) elevated the political visibility of climate adaptation and catalysed major actions and commitments. GCA’s flagship report: Adapt Now: A Global Call for Leadership on Climate Resilience put forward a bold vision to transform key systems to be more resilient and productive.
India at COPs
Some important national initiatives reported by India in COPs 25 and 26 were Non-Fossil Fuel Electricity, Installation of Renewable Energy (solar, wind, bio and small hydro power and Biomass/Cogen; Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA), Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) using LED lights, Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana of solar lamps by rural women Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), to reduce pressure on forests, Clean Coal Cess imposing a green tax on Coal, Seamless metro rail and other travel, National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 for faster adoptions and national manufacturing to achieve 30% electric vehicles by 2030 and 6-7 million sales of hybrid and electric vehicles by 2020; a National Biofuels Policy 2018: with a target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol and 5% blending of biodiesel in diesel by 2030, India’s Forest Green cover increased; a Green Good Deeds Campaign movement to promote sustainable lifestyles, deployment of solar street lights, pumps and power packs to meet electricity and lighting needs of rural local communities/institutions/individuals, Urja Daata Rural renewable energy sources to transform farmers from anna daata (food provider) to urjadaata (energy giver) by installing solar panels, turbines, etc., to generate power on unproductive fields, six new Rules on Scientific Waste Management framed, Restoration of Degraded Land with targets for 2030.
At COP26, the Prime Minister of India announced his country’s pledge of reaching net-zero emissions by 2070: “Today to save the world, we will just have to take big steps.”
Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, head of India’s delegation to Glasgow, who maintained a blog ‘COP26 Diary’, said: “the current climate crisis has been precipitated by unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption patterns in developed countries. India has proactively led in creating the International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and the One Sun, One World, One Sun Grid initiatives as international collaborations to combat climate change. Having done its part, India asked the developed world for concrete actions in this decisive decade and translation of commitments to actions.” India has been criticised by several countries for the change it promoted to phase down, rather than phase out coal power, the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Strongly Worded Views and Report Card by the Center for Science and Environment (CSE)
Sunita Narain, DG, CSE said, “COP26 acknowledged climate change is real, needs urgent actions for climate justice but did not raise the commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions, highlighting deep distrust between the already rich and emerging world. COP26 did little to advance combating CC with cooperation at a scale never seen before”. We cannot erase the fact that certain countries — the United States, European Union-27, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan and Russia, joined now by China — have consumed roughly 70 per cent of the carbon budget, the space in the atmosphere that is available to keep the world below the 1.5°C temperature rise. The world has run out of a carbon budget, but 70% of the world’s people still need the right to development. The Glasgow Climate Pact’s only achievement is that it reiterates the need for financial support for adaptation, but it does nothing more than this. The assessment of the 8 Agenda for Action should be considered by the countries and sectors.”
Agenda 1: Climate Justice: FAILED: COP26 should have acknowledged historical emissions and not diluted them. About 70% of the world’s population needs access to carbon space for development and cannot be told not to develop. CoP26 is needed to secure low-carbon pathways for the world.
Agenda 2: Dealing with China: STATUS QUO: China is the world’s largest emitter with 33% of the remaining carbon budget for this decade, and no carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction targets. China will not be carbon-neutral unless it curbs its coal power production, and is silent about such plants at home. India needs to be de-hyphenated from China; China needs to be de-hyphenated from G-77 – the coalition of developing countries.
Agenda 3: Net Zero Targets: SOME PROGRESS: Emission cuts by 2030, and not Net Zero, needs to be the focus, with a front-loading emission reduction of 7+1 (US, UK, EU-27, Russia, Japan, Australia, Canada and China) as key, and space for the rest to grow.
Agenda 4: Climate Finance: SOME PROGRESS: The Paris Agreement calls on rich nations to transfer $100 billion annually through 2025, to developing and poor countries, but the flow of real money is still illusionary; with only Germany, Norway and Sweden are paying their share.
Agenda 5: Market Mechanisms and Nature-Based Solutions: STATUS QUO: This must be transformational action, not for cheap credits.
Agenda 6: Loss and Damage: STATUS QUO: The Paris Agreement is flawed as LnD cannot be taken as compensation or liability, and needs reworking. COP26 should have made LnD a permanent agenda to compensate the victim nations.
Agenda 7: The Adaptation Goal: STATUS QUO: The ever-increasing cost of adaptation has outpaced fund flow to developing countries. The Global Goal on Adaptation needs more than networking and information; it needs finance.
Agenda 8: The Question of Coal: FAILED: Coal has fuelled developed nations’ prosperity. Developing nations still need it for their economic growth.
Towards COP27 in Egypt in 2022
Egypt will host the COP27 UNFCCC in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Egypt’s proposal was “Road to COP27 – A United Africa for a Resilient Future.” Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yassmine Fouad, announced on January 1, 2022, its four-axis plan for hosting the upcoming COP27 in November during a meeting with the Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy, at the Ministry of Local Development, and discussed projects for converting waste into energy, besides draft contract between the investors and the governorates through the Waste Management Regulatory Agency.
These axis include:
1) raising the efficiency of hotels, diving centres, and hotel rooms in Sharm El-Sheikh, in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism.
2) providing eco – friendly transportation.
3) raising the electrical capacity of the conference hall.
4) raising the efficiency of the city’s waste system in terms of collection, transportation, treatment and recycling.
Egypt is working closely with UNFCCC in setting the agenda and identifying global actions to be taken under the themes.
