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COP26: World Leaders Using Private Jets Dont Feel Guilty
COP26 Glasgow UK Conference: Last Chance to Save Our Planet?
COP26 Glasgow, the UN Climate Change Conference: Last Chance to Save Our Planet?
Daily Mirror 21 OCT 2021.
Sir David Attenborough is set to attend the COP26 conference in Glasgow (Image: Getty Images)
World leaders are expected to thrash out deals which will help countries tackle climate change at the summit ( Image:Getty Images)
Experts say that this year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), to be held in Glasgow on 31 October-12 November 2021, will decide whether the world can achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, as set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
COP26 comes at a critical juncture as nearly 200 countries are expected to resubmit their greenhouse gas reduction targets. The new figures will allow experts to predict if the world will be able to limit the worst effects of global warming based on standards set in the Paris Agreement.
What is hoped to be achieved in Glasgow?
It is broadly accepted there are three headline targets for COP26:
To keep 1.5C in reach by ensuring all major polluters deliver new plans.
To deliver a green recovery and finance package for developing countries, including the $100bn but also plans to fund adaptation and loss & damage.
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Sign off a range of deals on carbon markets, transparency, agreed timetables for national climate plans, coal, forests, development bank climate finance goals & ICE end dates that will accelerate and smooth the global transition through the 2020s
Why is 1.5C significant?
Half a degree might not sound like much but it is the difference between life and death for low-lying coastal countries like Bangladesh and Maldives being wiped out due to rising sea levels.
The projected harm to wildlife and ecosystems increases enormously between global heating of 1.5C and anything higher.
At 2C, experts say there will be almost no coral reefs left, the Arctic will be ice-free in summer once a decade and huge numbers of animals and plants will be extinct.
The chance of flooding will increase by 170%.
How warm is it now?
Temperatures around the world are already at about 1.1 – 1.2C above pre-industrial levels, and greenhouse gas emissions are still on an upward trend.
A report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier this year said weather events once rare or unprecedented are becoming more common.
It said that it will continue even if global heating is limited to 1.5C.
It also said that climate change is unequivocally being driven by human activity, which fuels these extreme weather patterns.
What happens if Cop26 fails?
“COP was always going to be extremely tough," UK PM Boris Johnson told Bloomberg this week.
The big players in the talks – the UN, the UK, the US – have already conceded that Cop26 will not achieve everything that was hoped for as the NDCs likely to emerge will not add up to all that is needed to ensure the world remains within 1.5C.
'The story of coal is the narrative of modern Britain but just a handful of miners remain'
That is disappointing for many observers, but is not a surprise given the complexity of the negotiations.
China, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are the G20 nations yet to submit anything pre COP26 - although to give Ankara credit, they have finally signed up to the Paris Agreement six years after it was agreed
What the UK hosts are now focused on is ensuring that there is enough progress on emissions cuts for 2030 to “keep 1.5C alive”, and to pursue as many other routes – phasing out coal, cutting methane and setting a path away from fossil fuels for transport etc.
November Rain
Tensions are rising as Cop26 approaches with rail workers and waste collectors going on strike, Airbnb are screwing over customers who have already booked accommodation in the city by asking for more money and Covid rates are rising.
Speaking for a planet, even the Queen piled in: “It is very irritating when they talk, but they don't do,” she said, in a nod to national climate plans (NDCs) yet to land.
Can I go to COP?
Yes and no. In order to attend, only accredited delegates, media and politicians will have access to what is known as the Blue Zone - the area of venue managed by the UN.
COPs also have a green zone, managed by the Presidency, with events for the wider public.
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