COP26 week 1 roundup

6 min read

This week we are doing a round-up from the most important Climate Summit, COP26, hosted in Glasgow, UK.

🗣 1st November 2021 - Day 1 - World leaders summit

“In my lifetime, I have witnessed a terrible decline. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery” Sir David Attenborough

Many countries set out their national commitments to address the climate crisis. Vietnam announced it will go Net-Zero by 2045. Thailand announced it will reach Carbon Neutrality by 2050 and Net Zero by 2065. Nepal announced it will reach Net Zero by 2045.
The most positive news came towards the end of the day when India announced that it’ll target reaching net zero emissions by 2070. They also committed to getting half of their energy from renewable resources by 2030, which is huge given that currently, 70% of all power in India is generated by coal. India is the world’s fourth-biggest carbon emitter and has not previously announced a plan to reach net zero.
Canada pledged to put a hard cap on emissions from its oil and gas sector.
The UK launches the ‘Clean Green Initiative’ to help developing countries transition to net zero. The initiative includes £3 billion over five years and support to shift to green technologies and solutions.
However, leaders from top polluting nations (or so-called BRICs nations - Brazil, Russia, India, and China) were noticeably absent, particularly Brazil, China, and Russia. India is the only country that was present in Glasgow, with prime minister Narendra Modi attending in person. These nations together account for more than 40% of global emissions.

🌳 2nd November 2021 - Day 2 - World leaders summit

"Innovation can bear a lot of the burden of trying to reduce the affordability gap to do these things,” Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates

More than 100 countries have agreed to end and reverse deforestation by 2030 by signing the Glasgow Declaration on Forest and Land Use. This agreement is backed by $19.2 billion (£14 billion) of funding from the US, UK, EU and includes Brazil, China and the US.
The US, UK, France, Germany and European Union have announced they will help fund South Africa to phase out coal with a new Just Energy Transition Partnership worth $8.5 billion.
Ecuador has committed to expand the protected ocean reserve around the Galapagos Islands by adding an additional 60,000 sq km to the 130,000 sq km that already exists.
More than 40 countries, including the UK, US, India, China and the EU have backed the first international commitment to achieve net zero emission for steel production by 2030.
Around 100 nations and parties have signed on to the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% of 2020 levels by 2030, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in Glasgow.
India and UK jointly announce the Green Grids Initiative – One Sun One World One Grid (GGI-OSOWOG), which is backed by 80 countries.
The EU Catalyst programme, a €1bn public and private investment scheme, was launched in partnership with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and the European Investment Bank. It will finance and commercialise breakthrough clean technologies, such as green hydrogen.

💰 3rd November 2021 - Day 3 - Finance

“The architecture of the global financial system has been transformed to deliver net zero. We now have the essential plumbing in place to move climate change from the fringes to the forefront of finance so that every financial decision takes climate change into account. Only this mainstream focus can finance the estimated $100 trillion of investment needed over the next three decades for a clean energy future.” said Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance

Hundreds of the world’s biggest banks and pension funds, with assets worth $130 trillion, have committed to a finance pledge called the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). The major difference with this commitment is the fact that its private capital coming from over 450 firms across 45 countries, rather than purely government funding.
Following on from the G20 meeting in Italy, more than 20 countries and financial institutions have vowed to halt fossil fuel development overseas. However, it’s important to note that China and Japan are not part of this agreement and even more importantly, these 20 countries and institutions have not agreed to halt domestic fossil fuel developments.

🔌 4th November 2021 - Day 4 - Energy

“A year ago I could not have imagined the US committing to ending billions of dollars in support for international fossil fuel projects,” said Kate DeAngelis, international finance program manager at Friends of the Earth US.

The UK-led Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement brings over 190+ parties together to phase out coal by 2040, both domestically and internationally.
The Powering Past Coal Alliance expands with another 27 new members joining, bringing the total to 164 countries, cities, and regions.
14 countries that are part of the SEAD Initiative have committed to the largest ever increase in product efficiency. This is a nod to the global goal of doubling the efficiency of lighting, cooling, motors, and refrigeration by 2030, which also has the support of over 129 companies belonging to EP100. These four activities account for more than 40% of global electricity demand every year.
Indonesia (home to the world’s third-biggest rainforest) says the zero-deforestation pledge it signed is “inappropriate and unfair”.

🚸 5th November 2021 - Day 5 - Youth and Public Empowerment

“This is now no longer a climate conference, this is now a Global North greenwash festival...the most affected people in the most affected areas still remain unheard.” Climate activist, Greta Thunberg

Led by climate activist Greta Thunberg, approximately 100,000 people took to the streets of Glasgow as part of the Fridays for the Future movement to march for climate justice. Thunberg referred to the COP26 summit as a “global north greenwash festival”
23 countries pledged to put climate at the heart of national curriculums. This included the UK announcing its draft Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy to upskill and empower young people to drive the future of climate action.

🌲 6th November 2021 - Day 6 - Nature

"Nature is a blind spot in economics that we ignore at our peril...investment in mother nature invariably involves leaving her alone." Professor Dasgupta

More than 95 UK businesses (such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Co-op, Burberry, and many more) made a joint commitment to deliver ‘nature positive’ operations by the end of this decade. These businesses will develop targets and have them verified through the Science-Based Targets for Nature initiative - which is expected next year, following a draft framework to be announced this year.
Asset managers covering $8.7trn vow to end deforestation linked to commodities. 33 major financial institutions have committed to stop financing deforestation driven by agricultural commodities by 2025.
45 nations agree on agricultural policy reform principles.
A further 34 nations have signed up to Monday's forest declaration. The declaration now covers 91% of forests globally.

What does COP26 actually need to deliver?

If two key goals are achieved, then COP26 can be considered a success:

Every country in the world agrees to phase out coal, both domestically and internationally by the end of 2021 or even 2022.
$100billion worth of climate finance that was promised by developed countries, is actually delivered to developing countries.

To keep the temperature goal of 1.5C. According to the Energy Transition Commission (ETC), annual global carbon emissions must be reduced by 50% by 2030, this is about 22 billion tonnes of carbon emissions.

The good news is, if all the commitments and initiatives seen during this first week of COP26 are actually acted upon, then it would be the equivalent of the 40% emissions reduction required by 2030. This puts us on track for about 1.8C of warming by 2050 according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

However, what’s absolutely imperative is that all commitments made are transparently tracked, and countries and businesses actually deliver.