The United Nations climate change conference concluded here Saturday after a one-day extension, with negotiators agreeing on a new global pact to tackle climate change.
Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI fter the flashflood of international media coverage of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, the climate emergency has now fallen off the headlines. The Nepali delegation has returned after setting ambitious targets for forestry, adaptation and net-zero. Now, the real work begins. It is time to walk the talk, so that the […]
Agriculture is one of the largest contributors to climate change but can also be one of the most significant solutions. All photos: ZACHARY BARTON s a farmer and educator living in Nepal, I was not part of the dialogue at the UN climate summit (COP26) that just concluded in Glasgow. None of us here were. And as […]
Agreement was finally reached on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which relates to carbon market mechanisms, paving the way for effective implementation of the Paris deal to cut emissions through market-based approaches.
Negotiators also agreed to phase down coal, the dominant source of carbon dioxide emissions in the process of electricity generation.
GLASGOW, Britain, Nov. 14: The United Nations climate change conference concluded here Saturday after a one-day extension, with negotiators agreeing on a new global pact to tackle climate change.
Nearly 200 participating countries adopted the Glasgow Climate Pact at the end of 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Some encouraging progress was made. Agreement was finally reached on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which relates to carbon market mechanisms, paving the way for effective implementation of the Paris deal to cut emissions through market-based approaches.
Negotiators also agreed to phase down coal, the dominant source of carbon dioxide emissions in the process of electricity generation. It is the first explicit mention of fossil fuels in a COP agreement.
During COP26, more than 100 countries have promised to end deforestation by 2030.
Photo taken on Oct. 31, 2021 shows a general view of the opening ceremony for COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, the United Kingdom. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
In the final days of the conference, China and the United States issued a joint declaration on enhancing actions on climate change in the 2020s, which are widely welcomed and believed to galvanize global collective actions.
The two countries agreed to establish a working group on enhancing climate action this decade to promote cooperation on climate change between the two countries as well as multilateral processes.
As COP26 wrapped up, however, some stubborn issues, notably climate funding, remain uncertain.
There were commitments to significantly increase financial support through the Adaptation Fund as developed countries were urged to double their support to developing countries by 2025.
However, it remains to be seen whether developed countries, whose development is responsible for most of today's climate change impacts, will heed the set timeframe.
In 2009, wealthy countries pledged 100 billion U.S. dollars a year to help lower-income nations by 2020. However, they still have not made good on the pledge and recent reports indicate that this goal could slip to 2023.
COP26, which kicked off on Oct. 31, is the first climate change conference after the five-year review cycle under the Paris Agreement inked in 2015. The Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh will host COP27 in 2022.
GLASGOW, November 12: The UN climate change conference COP26 in Glasgow has announced that Egypt was chosen to host the upcoming session of the conference in 2022 (COP27). At the summit on Thursday, Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Special Envoy for Climate Change congratulated Egypt, highlighting that the UAE will cooperate with partners everywhere to identify lessons learned in order to achieve effective results, Gulf News reported.
He added that the UAE will work to ensure that all segments of society are part of this great effort to allow humanity to change course to a better future, extending an open invitation to the world to advance real climate action through inclusion, transparency and responsibility. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will host the 2023 edition of the conference, Gulf News reported.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai announced that the UAE had won its bid to host the COP28 conference in 2023.
The UN Climate Change Conference is the largest global conference of heads of states and governments on climate and environmental issues. "We congratulate the UAE for winning bid to host COP28 conference in 2023. It is the most international climate conference. Our country deserves this win. We will put all our potential and capabilities to make this conference a success," Sheikh Mohammed tweeted. "The UAE will remain committed to global climate efforts and work to protect our Earth planet," he added.
eopolitical and economic rivalry between China and the United States, the world’s two largest carbon emitters, distracted delegates at the COP26 Climate Summit from finding ways to help poorer countries address the climate crisis. The needs of countries like Nepal, which are trying to adapt to melting mountains, erratic monsoons, droughts and floods, were therefore sidelined. With […]
The south face of Mt Gauri Shankar (7,134m) on the border between Nepal and China is bare rock, and shows how dramatically the snowline has receded, and the glaciers have shrunk. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT he COP26 climate jamboree ends in Glasgow on Friday, and already it looks like the best world governments are prepared to […]
GLASGOW, Britain, Oct. 31: As the United Nations (UN) climate conference, billed as a "turning point for humanity," begins in Glasgow on Sunday, several issues are considered by environment experts to be critical: global carbon market, climate finance, and actual implementation.
During the delayed 26th United Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP26), which is the first conference after the five-year review cycle under the Paris Agreement inked in 2015, global leaders are expected to review overall progress and plan future actions.
The conference, lasting two weeks, also comes at a time when the world has gone through a rapid-fire onslaught of climate-change-related weather disasters, from severe flooding to wild fires.
To make the climate gathering meaningful, progress has to be made on such fundamental issues as finalizing the rules for the Paris Agreement's market mechanism, wealthy countries' unmet finance pledge to the developing countries, and the ability of the world's governments to transform words into action.
"PARIS RULEBOOK"
In 2015, COP21 in Paris passed a climate deal uniting almost all countries across the world in agreeing to cap global warming at well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible.
While Paris climate agreement was hailed as "historic, durable and ambitious," negotiators have failed to agree on Article 6 of the deal, which is about some technical details of the implementation of the deal in building the market mechanisms, especially the global carbon market.
COP25 in Madrid failed again to reach an agreement on Article 6. Without working out final details of what has been referred to "The Paris Rulebook," the world's governments lack the necessary market-based approaches to attain the grand goals laid out in the Paris Agreement.
"Getting these rules right is critical for fighting climate change: depending on how they are structured, Article 6 could help the world avoid dangerous levels of global warming or let countries off the hook from making meaningful emissions cuts," said the World Resources Institute, a global research non-profit organization.
"I see a COP that is being pushed by developing nations. They want solutions, they want the rule book to be complete to start implementing the Paris Agreement," Gibson Mwangi, an expert on climate change from Kenya, told Xinhua.
Discussions around Article 6 have long been dominated by issues like how to avoid double counting of emission reductions. All eyes are on COP26 to see if it will solve them and produce the much-needed Paris Rulebook.
CLIMATE FINANCE
Developed countries built their wealth by burning fossil fuels and have contributed most to the climate crisis, from which lower-income countries now disproportionately suffer even though they have done little to cause climate change.
To pay their climate debt, wealthy countries in 2009 pledged 100 billion U.S. dollars a year to help lower-income nations by 2020. However, they still have not made good on the pledge and recent reports indicate that this goal could slip to 2023.
The Tursday-published Foreign Affairs magazine said in an article that the wealthy countries' commitment reflected in part a recognition of "the deep injustice at the heart of the climate crisis."
A UN-appointed independent expert group on climate finance said in a report published in December that this commitment is "the bedrock of the entire international climate finance system."
"We hope the western countries would meet their financial pledges, and we all hope that this conference will succeed because it will bring good to the whole world," Magdy Tawfik Khalil, professor of environment at Ain Shams University in Cairo, told Xinhua.
He explained that people in North Africa are concerned about future ice melt due to global warming that would raise the level of the Mediterranean Sea or any sea, which in turn would submerge coastal areas and many cities.
ACTUAL IMPLEMENTATION
As COP26 gets underway, experts have underscored the importance of translating high ambitions into concrete actions.
"The climate summit in Glasgow is the last attempt to avoid a catastrophe and reach an agreement on climate change," Ivana Antunovic Jovic, editor at Croatian Television, told Xinhua.
"There have already been many similar gatherings, but there are no results, and the consequences of climate change are becoming more visible," she said.
"In recent years, we have witnessed the United States ignoring the (climate) problem during the former administration. I hope that the new administration will understand the problem and try to solve it," Croatian climatologist Tomislav Peric told Xinhua.
In his phone conversation on Friday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China is unwaveringly committed to accelerating green and low-carbon development, and has always walked its talk.
China submitted two documents on its nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and long-term emission control strategies to the UN this week. It aims to strive to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Last month at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, China also pledged that the country will not build new coal-fired power stations overseas.
It is never easy for a developing country with a population of more than 1.4 billion that has not completed industrialization or urbanization to make such promises. China will complete the world's most dramatic reduction in carbon emission intensity, and realize carbon neutrality from carbon peaking in the shortest time in global history.
But the actual results have showed that China is serious about pursuing green development, and is honoring its pledges with an aim to contribute to humanity's better shared future.
For example, the country's carbon intensity in 2020 was 48.4 percent less than that in 2005, exceeding its commitment of achieving a reduction of 40-45 percent in carbon intensity during the same period.
"The pandemic has really raised the urgency. We recognize now more than ever that human well-being and planetary well-being are intrinsically linked with each other," Akanksha Khatri, head of Nature and Biodiversity at World Economic Forum, told Xinhua.
"The real negotiations, of course, take place behind closed doors. I hope everyone at the table can get over their tensions, in the interest of the whole Earth," said Leo Meyer, former project leader at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and current director of Dutch-based ClimateContact Consultancy.
Australia is becoming increasingly isolated from the rest of the world with its obstinate approach to the climate crisis. Leaders like US climate envoy John Kerry and COP26 President Alok Sharma have been focused recently on the climate challenge of China -- but it's Australia that's emerging as the real pariah of the COP26 talks.
LONDON, August 8: An upcoming UN report on climate change gives the international community its clearest ever warning about the dangers of accelerating climate change, Britain's COP26 President Alok Sharma said on Sunday.
The chief for the November summit due to be held in the Scottish city of Glasgow told the Observer newspaper a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) due on Monday would show the world was on the brink of potential disaster.
"This is going to be the starkest warning yet that human behaviour is alarmingly accelerating global warming and this is why COP26 has to be the moment we get this right," Sharma said.
"We can't afford to wait two years, five years, 10 years -- this is the moment," he added, explaining that unless nations "act now, we will unfortunately be out of time".
Sharma was forced to defend British fossil-fuel projects that include plans to license new oil and gas fields in the North Sea, which have proven embarrassing for Britain as it seeks to galvanise international action on climate change.
The Paris-based watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IAE), has warned all fossil fuel development and exploration must cease this year if the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius is to be met.
"Future (fossil fuel) licences are going to have to adhere to the fact we have committed to go to net zero by 2050 in legislation," the COP26 president said.
"There will be a climate check on any licences," he added.
A series of catastrophic emergencies in recent weeks including floods in Europe and China, record temperatures in North America and forest fires around the world have focused minds on global warming, Sharma said.
"We're seeing the impacts across the world," Sharma said. "Every day you will see a new high being recorded in one way or another across the world," he added.
Sharma said he was "throwing the kitchen sink" at efforts to reach a deal on the contentious target to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, holding a large number of virtual and in-person meetings as he looks to bring 197 countries together in consensus on the aim.
