Five key moments from COP26 first week
Before the beginning of the COP26, the world was headed to a global warming of 2.1°C by the end of the century, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
But the different announcements made during the first week helped lower it down to 1.8°C and being closer to what was reached in the Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2015. That is if those pledges are actually fulfilled by each country.
Since there has been lots of announcements and conferences in these past few days in Glasgow, I compiled a quick recap of five key moments/deals from the first week of COP26.
1. Narendra Modi announced that India will be Net Zero in 2070
On Monday, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, unveiled India’s plan to reach net zero by 2070. This is the first time the country set a date to do so. Here’s the five points presented during Modi’s speech:
There’s some confusion as to the wording of some of these pledges, as Simon Evans (Deputy Editor at Carbon Brief) wrote in a Twitter thread.
Here’s a good explanation from Philippa Nuttall from the New Statesman, as to why this is still good news. Despite the 2070 target.
2. Ending deforestation by 2030
On Tuesday, more than a 100 world leaders pledged they will end deforestation by the end of the decade, making it the first deal of the COP26 summit.
Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Russia, China or the Democratic Republic of the Congo are among the countries who have signed the pledge. The signatories represent almost 85% of the world’s forests.
During the press conference of the Global Forest Pledge, Colombia’s President Ivan Duque Márquez, announced that 30% of their land would be protected by 2022 (moving it up from 2030).
Where’s the catch? A similar pledge was signed in 2014 and instead of halving deforestation by 2020, it increased.
Then, countries like Brazil (who’s deforestation of the Amazon increased since Bolsonaro took power) and Russia weren’t among the countries who signed the deal.
To know more about it, you can read this article by Georgina Rannard & Francesca Gillett, from the BBC, detailing this new deal as well as the one from 2014.
3. Methane reduction of 30% by 2030 signed by 80 countries
That same day, The Global Methane Pledge, an U.S. and EU joint initiative to cut methane emissions by 30% by the end of the decade, was signed by 103 world leaders.
There are some notable countries absent from the list, such as China, Russia, Australia, India, Turkey or South Africa.
Why is that deal important? Because methane has more than 80 times warming power than CO2 in a 20 year period.
Reducing methane by 2030 could prevent a warming of 0.2°C.
To read more about the pledge, with comments from US and EU leaders, you can read Axios’ article about it. As well as their explainer of why they think it’s an important deal.
4. Over 40 countries pledged to phase out of coal power
More than 40 countries have pledged to phase out of coal power, with three of the top coal power countries: Indonesia, South Korea and Vietnam.
Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told Reuters that the country could phase out by 2040 with financial help. Coal makes two thirds of the countries energy power.
In Europe, notable signatories are Poland and Ukraine. Even though there has been some confusion with what the EU member pledged (2049 instead of 2030s for developed countries) to, and has been seen as not enough.
Poland share of electricity coming from coal power is more than 70%, the highest from all EU countries.
In this case, the absent from the deal are more notable than the ones who signed. Australia, China, India or the United States have not committed to stop any new coal projects.
Coal being the biggest source of CO2 (carbon dioxide), the deal is still an important step to reduce global warming.
5. Major economies such as Canada, US or Italy to stop financing fossil fuel abroad
At the last minute Italy joined a list of 20 countries who signed to stop financing coal, oil and gas projects internationally by the end of 2022.
They will instead help clean energy projects.
Canada’s participation in the pledge shows a shift from one of the biggest financiers, in the past few years, of fossil fuel projects from the G20 group.
Earlier this year, many major economies, including China, signed to stop the financing of coal powered projects abroad.
For more information on what that deal means, you can read the Twitter thread from Maria Pastukhova (a Senior Policy Advisor at E3G, a climate change think tank).