Home » Accelerate emission reduction commitments, sound the death knell for coal power, clarify emissions trading, Glasgow determines the path forward for climate issues

Accelerate emission reduction commitments, sound the death knell for coal power, clarify emissions trading, Glasgow determines the path forward for climate issues

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(Original title: Speeding up emission reduction commitments, sounding the death knell for coal power, clarifying emissions trading, Glasgow determines the path forward for climate issues)

In life, no one will get everything they want. This is naturally the same in international negotiations, especially an agreement that requires 197 parties to sign together. In order to keep things going, you must accept compromises-this is the strongest atmosphere that permeated the final hours of the Glasgow Climate Summit. In the end, 197 parties agreed to the Glasgow Climate Convention.

This new round of emission reduction commitments by countries is obviously not enough to achieve the totem-like climate goal of controlling the temperature rise to 1.5°C. The modelling carried out by data scientists in the Glasgow Summit Hall clearly shows that according to the current commitments, the temperature rises by 1.9 The probability of °C-3.0°C is 68%. Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the University of California, Berkeley,’s calculations are frustrating. He said: “From Glasgow, we may be able to reduce the temperature increase by 0.1°C. The best estimate is 2.3°C.”

Tina Stege, the climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, said after the summit: “This is real progress… We must not ignore the key victory covered in this package.”

The spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also commented on the 15th that the Glasgow Climate Agreement is a relatively balanced political outcome document, and emphasized that China and the United States jointly issued the “Joint Declaration on Enhanced Climate Action”, which provides an important solution for bridging the differences between all parties.

Glasgow’s greatest achievement is to provide three specific paths that may accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement: change the timetable for national emission reduction commitments, for the first time to include the gradual reduction of coal and fossil fuel subsidies into the United Nations climate agreement, and adjust the climate financing arrangements and reach them for the first time Global carbon market framework. As for how effective these measures are, it remains to be seen.

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The result is still a gimmick?

Agreeing to revise national carbon emission reduction targets next year instead of another five years does not sound like a decent achievement, but since the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, the United Nations Climate Conference has almost always been for whom countries are doing It is even more important to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and how to reduce quarrels, while the number of global carbon emissions continues to rise.

The Paris Agreement six years ago was the first time that developed and developing countries agreed to take the necessary actions to limit the temperature rise to the pre-industrial level of 2°C and finally strive to limit the binding goal of 1.5°C, but to achieve this. The means of the goal are not binding.

National emission reduction plans, referred to as NDCs (National Decision Contributions), are drafted and submitted by countries themselves, so the commitment is so weak that under the Paris NDCs, the global temperature will soar by more than 3°C. COP26 this time changed the revised national emission reduction plan of all signatories after five years to the reissue of their climate action plan before the end of next year, which will obviously bring new opportunities to accelerate the formulation of more ambitious emission reduction targets.

At the request of India and China, the terms of “phasing out” coal power generation and fossil fuel subsidies were changed to “gradual reduction” at the last moment. Although this disappointed the representatives of countries such as Switzerland who advocated more radical action, the biggest breakthrough was: British Prime Minister Johnson said that the agreement sounded the “death knell for coal power generation.”

Regarding the carbon market carbon offset rules, the previous two climate summits have tried to no avail. This time, the rules for creating a global carbon market framework have been approved. They have reached an agreement on how countries and companies can establish, evaluate and exchange carbon emission rights in a global trading system to reduce their own net emissions, paving the way for cross-border trading of carbon emission rights. Smoothing the road has also filled the most serious loopholes in related rules. Although far from perfect, it can be regarded as a solution to this old and difficult problem that has plagued negotiators in various countries since 2015.

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Some other eye-catching results of this climate summit are also mixed. For example, the pledge to stop deforestation by 2030 was criticized as repeating previous failed attempts; the 450 financial institutions that signed the declaration and signed net-zero pledges are still in reality. Allowed to continue to invest in fossil fuels; the highly respected solemn pledge to phase out coal misses the world’s top five coal-consuming countries; the joint auto industry pledge to fully switch to electric vehicles also misses the participation of some key automakers.

Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Johan Rockström), warned: The 1.5°C target is not a bargaining or compromise political negotiation. It is “the boundary of a planet,” with a fraction of one degree Celsius added. It’s all dangerous.

Money, money

Discussing how to pay for the losses and damages caused by climate change to developing countries is another major pain point in the climate summit negotiations. As early as 2009, rich countries pledged to raise US$100 billion in climate finance for poor countries every year by 2020. This goal has never been achieved.

Poor countries say that without money, they have no means to achieve decarbonization. They also hope to compensate for the impact of climate change and the future. Compared with six years ago, the demand for capital has also changed significantly. India said that if it wants to reduce carbon emissions more than it is now, it will need US$1 trillion in the next ten years; African countries estimate that the continent needs US$700 billion a year; the V20, established by 20 climate-vulnerable countries, now has 48 members. The rich countries have achieved the annual goal of 100 billion U.S. dollars and filled the funding gap left by the previous few years; the “Group of 77 and China” group of developing countries lobbied to set up a fund to compensate for the loss and damage of climate impacts.

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The Glasgow summit finally promised that rich countries will make up for the $100 billion unrealized funding gap; however, the proposal to establish a loss and damage fund was blocked by the rich countries in the United States and Europe. As the world’s largest cumulative greenhouse gas emitter, the United States is worried that this may be Huge debt collection opens the door. By 2025, the rich countries pledged to provide developing countries with funding to adapt to climate change will also at least double. Of the $80 billion raised in 2019, only a quarter was spent on climate adaptation.

The Glasgow Summit also explored a new financing model for decarbonizing poor countries. The United States, Britain, the European Union, France and Germany agreed to raise US$8.5 billion for South Africa in the next three to five years to help South Africa’s coal-dependent power sector end coal use and protect the livelihoods of 100,000 employees in the industry. Supporters hope that this model will prove successful and can also be used to help other countries decarbonize in the future.

Although there are still many unsatisfactory points, as the US Climate Envoy John Kerry commented at the press conference after the summit: COP26 brings us closer than ever to the goal of avoiding climate chaos. “Paris built the arena, Glasgow started the game, and now, the starting gun is fired.” He said.

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