By PTI
GLASGOW: India on Sunday called the COP26 summit a “success”, saying it put across the concerns and ideas of the developing world quite “succinctly and unequivocally” in front of the world community.
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries have accepted a new climate agreement after the COP26 summit in Glasgow concluded its extra time plenary on Saturday with a deal, which recognises India’s intervention for the world to “phase down” rather than “phase out” fossil fuels.
Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, head of the Indian delegation at the Glasgow conference, said that the world needs to awaken to the reality that the current climate crisis has been precipitated by unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption patterns in the developed countries.
“The summit proved to be a success from India’s standpoint because we articulated and put across the concerns and ideas of the developing world quite succinctly and unequivocally.
India presented the way for a constructive debate and equitable and just solutions at the forum.
“Consensus, however, remained elusive at COP26. India has maintained that the current climate crisis has been precipitated by unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption patterns mainly in the developed countries. The world needs to awaken to this reality,” Yadav wrote on his blog on Sunday.
The minister, who has been maintaining a blog ‘COP 26 Diary’, wrote that India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has proactively taken the lead in creating the International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and the One Sun, One World, One Sun Grid initiatives as examples of international collaboration to combat climate change.
“Having done its part, India at the summit, asked the developed world concrete actions in this decisive decade and translation of commitments to actions,” he said.
India has been criticised by several countries for the change promoted by it to phase down, rather than phase out coal power, the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Yadav said that fossil fuels and their use have enabled parts of the world to attain high levels of growth.
“Even now, developed countries have not completely phased out coal. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) refers to mitigation of GHG emissions from all sources. UNFCCC is not directed at any particular source. Developing countries have a right to their fair share of the global carbon budget and are entitled to the responsible use of fossil fuels within this scope,” he said.
The minister said that climate friendly lifestyles and climate justice as enshrined in the Paris Agreement are the key to solving the climate crisis.
“We can proudly say today that India is the only G20 nation well on track to achieve the goals mentioned under the Paris Agreement. While there has been a lot of talk about and around Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), the lack of commitment on climate finance is troublesome.”
“There is a wide mismatch between climate finance and mitigation efforts. The record on means of implementation support to developing countries has been dismal so far. India looks forward to a change in finance and technology support to developing countries going forward,” he said.
In the end, the minister hoped that the world will rise to the urgency of the climate crisis “As I conclude my engagements at COP26 and return home, India is hopeful that the world will rise to the urgency of the climate crisis facing us and that alone will ensure we have real actions to save our planet for the future generations,” he said.
“India, I am happy to note, achieved some remarkable results in terms of climate finance issues including a work program on new collective quantified goal, support for enhanced transparency framework for developing countries, Article 6 rule book, adaptation, common timeframe, at the COP26 negotiations,” he added.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hailed the deal struck at the end of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow as a “big step forward” and the first-ever international agreement to “phase down” the use of coal.
Praising the hard work of COP26 President Alok Sharma, the British Indian Cabinet minister in charge of navigating the negotiations, Johnson expressed the hope that the two-week-long summit which went into extra time over the weekend will mark the “beginning of the end of climate change”.
His statement followed an agreement between nearly 200 countries on a final communique late on Saturday, which recognises India’s intervention for the world to “phase down” rather than “phase out” fossil fuels.
“There is still a huge amount more to do in the coming years. But today’s agreement is a big step forward and, critically, we have the first ever international agreement to phase down coal and a roadmap to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees [Celsius],” said Johnson.
“I hope that we will look back on COP26 in Glasgow as the beginning of the end of climate change, and I will continue to work tirelessly towards that goal,” he said.
According to the impact analysis of the agreement, the central summit goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C has been kept in reach, provided countries continue to take ambitious action over the next decade.
Over the last two weeks, tens of thousands of people from 197 countries came together in Scotland for the talks which culminated in the ‘Glasgow Climate Pact’.
It commits countries to phase down unabated use of coal, supports a just transition for developing countries and action to tackle loss and damage, and agrees a common timeframe and methodology for national commitments on emissions reductions.
India, represented by Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, made a crucial intervention to insist on fairness and balance in the final communique.
“Developing countries have a right to their fair share of the global carbon budget and are entitled to the responsible use of fossil fuels within this scope. In such a situation, how can anyone expect that developing countries can make promises about phasing out coal and fossil fuel subsidies (when) developing countries have still to deal with their development agendas and poverty eradication,” questioned Yadav.
China also had similar views on the subject of fossil fuels, impacting the final wording of the pact to reflect efforts to “phase down” the use of unabated coal and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, while providing targeted support to the poorest and the most vulnerable in line with national circumstances.
“On the issue of coal, for the very first time in any of these conferences, the word coal is actually reflected in the text; that is a first. Yes, of course, I would have liked to ensure that we maintained the ‘phase out’ rather than changing the wording to phase down, but on the way to phasing out you have got to phase down,” Alok Sharma told ‘Sky News’ on Sunday.
“Ultimately, we need to ensure that we continue to work on this deal and commitments. And, on the issue of coal, China and India are going to have to justify to some of the most climate vulnerable countries what happened. You heard the disappointment on the floor,” he said, insisting it overall marked a “historic agreement” worth being proud of.
Countries are now asked to return next year with a more ambitious 2030 emissions reductions target, or so-called Nationally Determined Contributions, in line with the 1.5C target.
This will be combined with a yearly political roundtable to consider a global progress report and a Leaders’ summit in 2023.
The UK government said it will continue to push for greater action on reducing emissions and supporting developing countries with finance and access to new green technology over the next year of its Conference of Parties (COP) Presidency, before Egypt takes on the mantle in November 2022.
The Paris Rulebook, or the guidelines for how the Paris Agreement is delivered, was also completed on Saturday after six years of discussions since the Paris COP in 2015.
This includes Article 6, which establishes a framework for countries to exchange carbon credits through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
“We can now say with credibility that we have kept 1.5 degrees alive. But, its pulse is weak and it will only survive if we keep our promises and translate commitments into rapid action,” said Sharma, soon after he struck his gavel to announce the Glasgow Climate Pact.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that the outcome of the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow has welcome steps, but they are not enough, as he described the approved texts as “a compromise”.
Guterres, in a statement issued after the conclusion of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow on Saturday, said that “our fragile planet is hanging by a thread”.
“The approved texts are a compromise. They reflect the interests, the conditions, the contradictions and the state of political will in the world today,” the UN chief said.
They take important steps, but unfortunately the collective political will was not enough to overcome some deep contradictions, he said.
“As I said at the opening, we must accelerate action to keep the 1.5 degree goal alive. We are still knocking on the door of climate catastrophe. It is time to go into emergency mode, or our chance of reaching net zero will itself be zero.”
“I reaffirm my conviction that we must end fossil fuels subsidies,” Guterres said.
“Phase out coal. Put a price on carbon. Build resilience of vulnerable communities against the here and now impacts of climate change,” he said, adding that make good on the USD 100 billion climate finance commitment to support developing countries.
The UN Secretary General said: “We did not achieve these goals at this conference. But we have some building blocks for progress. Commitments to end deforestation. To drastically reduce methane emissions. To mobilise private finance around net zero”.
“And the texts today reaffirm resolve towards the 1.5 degree goal. Boost climate finance for adaptation. Recognise the need to strengthen support for vulnerable countries suffering from irreparable climate damage. And for the first time they encourage international financial institutions to consider climate vulnerabilities in concessional financial and other forms of support, including Special Drawing Rights,” Guterres said.
And finally close the Paris rule book with agreement on carbon markets and transparency, he noted.
“These are welcome steps, but they are not enough. Science tells us that the absolute priority must be rapid, deep and sustained emissions reductions in this decade. Specifically, a 45 per cent cut by 2030 compared to 2010 levels.”
“But the present set of Nationally Determined Contributions — even if fully implemented — will still increase emissions this decade on a pathway that will clearly lead us to well above 2 degrees by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial levels,” Guterres said.
He welcomed the agreement between the US and China in Glasgow that pledges to accelerate action to reduce emissions in the 2020s.
“To help lower emissions in many other emerging economies, we need to build coalitions of support including developed countries, financial institutions, those with the technical know-how,” the UN chief said, adding that this is crucial to help each of those emerging countries speed the transition from coal and accelerate the greening of their economies.
“I want to make a particular appeal for our future work in relation to adaptation and the issue of loss and damage. Adaptation isn’t a technocratic issue, it is life or death. I was once Prime Minister of my country (Portugal). And I imagine myself today in the shoes of a leader from a vulnerable country,” he asserted.
Commenting on the availability of the vaccine against the coronavirus, he said that the COVID-19 vaccines are scarce.
“My economy is sinking. Debt is mounting. International resources for recovery are completely insufficient. Meanwhile, although we contributed least to the climate crisis, we suffer most. And when yet another hurricane devastates my country, the treasury is empty. Protecting countries from climate disaster is not charity. It is solidarity and enlightened self-interest.”
“We have another climate crisis today. A climate of mistrust is enveloping our globe. Climate action can help rebuild trust and restore credibility,” Guterres said.
That means finally delivering on the USD 100 billion climate finance commitment to developing countries, he said.
“No more IOUs (I owe you). It means measuring progress, updating climate plans every year and raising ambition,” the UN chief said.
“I will convene a global stock-taking summit at the heads of state level in 2023. And it means, beyond the mechanisms already set out in the Paris Agreement, establishing clear standards to measure and analyse net zero commitments from non-state actors. I will create a High-Level Expert Group with that objective.”
“Finally, I want to close with a message of hope and resolve to young people, indigenous communities, women leaders, all those leading the climate action army. I know many of you are disappointed,” Guterres said.
Success or failure is not an act of nature, he said, adding that “it’s in our hands”.
The path of progress is not always a straight line. Sometimes there are detours. Sometimes there are ditches, he said.
“As the great Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson said: Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.”
“We have many more seeds to plant along the path. We won’t reach our destination in one day or one conference. But I know we can get there. We are in the fight of our lives.”
“Never give up. Never retreat. Keep pushing forward. I will be with you all the way. COP 27 starts now,” the UN Secretary General added.
Pope Francis on Sunday urged political and economic leaders to show courage and long-range vision,.
Francis in remarks to the public in St. Peter’s Square said the “cry of the poor, united to the cry of the Earth, resounded in the last days at the United Nations COP26 summit on climate change.”
“I encourage all those who have political and economic responsibilities to act immediately with courage and farsightedness,” he said.
“At the same time, I invite all persons of good will to carry out active citizenry to care for the common house,” Francis said, referring to planet Earth.
The pontiff didn’t comment on the outcome of the two weeks of U.N. talks.
Francis has made attention to the Earth’s environment a major plank of his papacy, dedicating an encyclical, or major document, to the moral imperative of responsibly protecting the planet.
While world leaders and negotiators are hailing the Glasgow climate pact as a good compromise that keeps a key temperature limit alive, many scientists are wondering what planet these leaders are looking at.
Crunching the numbers they see a quite different and warmer Earth.
“In the bigger picture I think, yes, we have a good plan to keep the 1.5-degree goal within our possibilities,” United Nations climate chief Patricia Espinosa told The Associated Press, referring to the overarching global goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.
But many scientists are far more skeptical.
Forget 1.5 degrees, they say.
Earth is still on a path to exceed 2 degrees (3.6 Fahrenheit).
“The 1.5C goal was already on life support before Glasgow and now it’s about time to declare it dead,” Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheim told The Associated Press in an email Sunday.
A few of the 13 scientists the AP interviewed about the Glasgow pact said they see just enough progress to keep alive the 1.5-degree Celsius limit, and with it, some hope.
But barely.
The optimists point to many agreements that came out of Glasgow, including a United States-China deal to work harder together to cut emissions this decade, as well as separate multi-nation agreements that target methane emissions and coal-fired power.
After six years of failure, a market-based mechanism would kick-start trading credits that reduce carbon in the air.
The 1.5-degree mark is the more stringent of two targets from the historic 2015 Paris climate accord.
United Nations officials and scientists consider it key because a 2018 scientific report that found dramatically worse effects on the world after 1.5 degrees.
The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial time, so this is really about a few tenths of a degree more.
The United Nations calculated that to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, countries need to cut their emissions in half by 2030.
Emissions are now going up, not down, by about 14% since 2010, Espinosa said.
German researcher Hans-Otto Portner said the Glasgow conference “got work done, but did not make enough progress.”
“Warming will by far exceed 2 degrees Celsius. This development threatens nature, human life, livelihoods, habitats and also prosperity,” said Portner, who co-chairs one of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientific reports the United Nations relies on.
Instead of big changes in bending the temperature curve as the United Nations had hoped for from Glasgow, they got only tiny tweaks, according to scientists who run computer simulations.
“Heading out of Glasgow we have shaved maybe 0.1C off of warming, for a best-estimate of 2.3C warming,” Breakthrough Institute climate scientist and director Zeke Hausfather said in an email.
Hausfather has done climate modeling with colleagues for Carbon Brief.
MIT professor Jon Sterman said his Climate Interactive team crunched some preliminary numbers after the Glasgow deal came out and it didn’t match leaders’ optimism.
“There is no plausible way to limit warming to 1.5 or even 2 (degrees) if coal is not phased out, and as rapidly as possible, along with oil and gas,” he said.
Several of the scientists said that regardless of what the deal says, coal needs to end, not just decrease, to lessen future warming.
“‘Lessening’ will do less to slow the harmful effects of climate change than eliminating,'” former NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati, who runs environmental research at the University of Colorado, said in an email.
Before the pact was finished, Climate Action Tracker, which also analyzes pledges to see how much warming they would lead to, said emission cut pledges would lead to 2.4 degrees of warming.
The 1.5 figure “is balanced on a knife edge,” said tracker scientist Bill Hare of Australia.
One paragraph in the pact, which calls on countries whose emission-cutting goals aren’t in line with 1.5- or 2- degree limits to come back with new stronger goals by the end of next year, gives hope, Hare said.
But U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Saturday night that paragraph probably doesn’t apply to the United States, the second-largest coal emitter and the largest historically, because the U.S. goal is so strong.
Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist who is dean of the University of Michigan’s environment school said the pact provided “watered down hope, we got an incomplete plan for slower action.”
“I went into the (conference) thinking 1.5C was still alive, and it appears the world’s leaders just didn’t have the backbone for that,” Overpeck said in an email.
Some progress was made, said University of Illinois climate scientist Donald Wuebbles, one of the key authors of the U.S. national climate assessment.
“But the probability of getting to 1.5 degrees is much reduced, even to the point of almost being impossible. Even being able to get to 2 degrees is less likely.”
But some scientists held out hope.
