The most important climate meeting – COP26 – awaits us. The conference will be a test of whether world leaders can agree to save the climate. What do you expect from this year’s conference? What topics will dominate the UN climate summit?
COP26 is a meeting of the States Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). This year’s most important climate gathering will be held from October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow.
The Governments of Great Britain and Italy are responsible for the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties. will be the head of COP26 Alok SharmaA member of the British Conservative Party. It will be attended by 196 state leaders from all over the world and about 25,000. Speakers, listeners, activists and journalists.
The summit has been held annually since 1995 (with the exception of 2020, which was affected by the epidemic). The first conference was held in Berlin. It was also held three times in Poland – in 2008 in Pozna, in 2013 in Warsaw and in 2018 in Katowice.
The COP26 projections are based on three pillars: maintaining the global scale of temperature increase to a maximum of 1.5°C (which results from the Paris climate agreement), an aid package for developing countries, and an expanded list of agreements both within and outside of formal UN negotiations.
On the first point, COP 26 is to achieve stricter targets for the largest economies by 2030 and 2050. The support package for developing countries assumes, among other things, that rich countries will present a plan to allocate $100 billion by 2050 for this purpose. Goal. It is also about solving the problem of unfair debt, which was pledged at the meetings of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and within the framework of the Group of Twenty.
a program Events include, among others focusing on issues such as transportation, finance, energy, youth, social empowerment, gender, science and innovation.
NDC, or National Climate Plans
Important elements of global climate policy are National Climate Plans (NDCs) – documents in which individual countries define what and how they will do to address climate change. The 2015 Paris Agreement states that these plans will be updated every 5 years.
The G20 countries are responsible for 75%. Global greenhouse gas emissions. So far, Argentina, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States have all strengthened their targets to reduce emissions by 2030. Analytics Climate Action Tracker, UK only, is considered close to keeping the global measure of temperature rise to a maximum of 1.5°C.
On October 19, the UK published its “Net Zero” strategy, a plan under which the London government commits to fulfilling its stated commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Thus, the UK became the first country in the world to set a goal to end the sale of greenhouse gas systems Fossil-fueled heating by 2035. The Treasury Department will initiate energy tax reforms to help achieve this goal.
According to the British government, the presented strategy will unlock up to £90 billion of investments in green technologies by 2030, which is expected to translate to 440 thousand. New Jobs. In addition, from 2030 the sale of new cars with petrol and diesel engines is prohibited, which will be possible, among other things, with the allocation of £620 million to support the purchase of electric cars and charging stations. By 2024, the UK will decide to build a new nuclear power plant and a £120 million “Fund for the Future of Nuclear Energy” will be launched.
In turn, China, India and Turkey are responsible for 33 percent. Global greenhouse gas emissions, updated NDCs have not yet been submitted. Indonesia has submitted a document containing targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions similar to those it proposed in 2015 (according to the Assess Climate Analytics I WRI).
However, it is known that China, according to the official plan published by state media, aims to reduce the use of fossil fuels to less than 20 percent. by 2060. In addition, by 2030, the level of carbon dioxide emissions should be reduced by more than 65%. Compared to 2005 indicators
Last week, Saudi Arabia announced its Green Transition Plan. It includes, among other things, to completely eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, but the huge gains from oil production will remain. Saudi Arabia will present details of the initiative at the COP26 summit.
On October 26, the Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison On behalf of his country, he announced that it will achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In addition, the Prime Minister announced that Australia will reduce emissions by 35 per cent by 2030. Below the level of 2005. However, it has been emphasized that achieving climate neutrality does not mean Stop exploitation of Australian fossil fuel deposits.
Japan made a provisional updated Nationally Determined Contribution pledge to cut emissions by 46%. by 2030 compared to 2013 levels. South Korea committed to submit its updated Nationally Determined Contributions at the summit by declaring an interim target of a 40% emissions reduction by 2030. Compared to 2018 levels, in turn, the President of Russia Vladimir put it in She announced that the country aims to become carbon neutral by 2060.
Key issues in COP26
One of the main points of the conference is the Coal Agreement. The United States is very likely to commit to ending fossil fuel financing. On the other hand, China has begun to scale back its coal projects, and in India, four countries have adopted the “no new coal” principle.
The coal issue appears to be a priority for the British government, which wants COP26 to be the beginning of the end of the coal era. In May, the Group of Seven nations agreed to end direct government subsidies for coal-fired energy this year, but did not set a timetable for phasing out the raw material.
Prime Minister of Great Britain Boris Johnson He described COP26’s targets as “coal, cars, money, and wood”. in September Speech Speaking at the Youth4Climate conference, he said: “We want to move away from coal as a means of generating electricity, and switch to renewable energy sources. We want all countries in the world to move away from coal.”
“We want everyone to stop using cars with combustion engines,” he added. He also highlighted the need to raise funds to combat climate change and plant hundreds of millions of trees around the world. “If we do all this (…) we can make COP26 the beginning of the end of climate change,” he stressed.
The position of the European Union
On October 6, the Council of the European Union approved the outcome outlining the position of the European Union (including Poland) on COP26. He stressed the urgent need to strengthen the global response to the climate crisis and the need for a just and equitable transition around the world.
“The world is currently not on track to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. More concerted efforts are needed to keep our planet’s temperature within safe limits. At COP 26, the European Union will ask all parties to the Paris Agreement to propose national targets ambitious to reduce emissions, and developed countries will be asked to increase international funding for climate action.” Andrei VizjakSlovenian Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning. Slovenia has been leading the work of the European Union for the past six months.
“Thanks to the conclusions adopted today, the European Union not only has the will, but also a strong mandate to lead the discussions in the right direction, which is to protect the planet for the benefit of all and stand by the countries most vulnerable to climate change.”
The conclusions call on all parties to make ambitious and nationally determined contributions. They also state that the European Union and its states are the world’s largest financiers of climate finance, and that other developed countries are called upon to increase their contributions to the joint goal of developed countries to mobilize $100 billion annually by 2025.
In addition, the conclusions defined the position of the European Union on voluntary cooperation within the framework of Art. 6 of the Paris Agreement, which sets rules for international markets for carbon dioxide emissions allowances and allows countries to trade in emissions reductions.
