Commitments made at COP26 are viewed with caution, their success will lie in prompt execution

The COP26 climate summit enters its final stretch this week and it is expected that they will begin to try to agree on a plan to guarantee financing to developing countries so that they can adapt to climate change; However, in the days prior to the meeting, a series of commitments have already been announced by the countries that have been received by society in an atmosphere of optimism, but at the same time caution that, once again, the offers remain only in words.

Veronica Arias Cabanilla, an expert in international environmental law and part of the 100 most influential Latinos in climate action worldwide, considers that there are still few commitments and offers that the different leaders have made at the meeting that began on October 31, which says it has been described as exclusive by activists such as Greta Thunberg.

“There is an atmosphere of frustration in general due to the few commitments and announcements that have been made at COP26., social movements are the ones who have complained the most and have branded it a greenwashing (green image washing) of commitments that have not been settled for more than 25 years and that continue to be offered in that speech, but without actions ”, he refers.

Announcements against coal, methane or deforestation have led the agenda and most observers agree that the commitments “are a step forward”, although “everything depends on whether they are applied soon and well”.

According to United Nations data, if the announced measures are fulfilled so far they would entail a reduction of 9 gigatons of CO2, compared to the total of 22 that must be eliminated before 2030 in order to limit global warming this century to 1.5 degrees, as stated in the Paris Agreement.

To keep this goal viable, the States must agree at the end of COP26, on November 12, a mechanism to spur the reduction of emissions, with aid for those poorer territories that, without promoting them, suffer its consequences.

Arias also comments that The issue of financing to be able to achieve all the promises that have been made in previous meetings is a serious problem for which there is no solution.

“From the 2015 of the Paris Agreement it is assumed that by 2020, the great nations, the powers, those that have polluted the most, should have begun to flow $ 100 billion to developing countries, which are precisely the most vulnerable nations. to climate change ”.

That measure has not materialized and due to the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that is hitting the world, it is expected to take place until 2022, according to the president of the summit, former British Minister Alok Sharma, who has also indicated that the development of the regulations for the full application of the Paris Agreement is pending.

Arias says that, in effect, the pandemic has brought multiple complications for the world, but emphasizes that this should not be a reason not to generate great actions to stop climate change.

“We hope that by the end of the summit clearer financing mechanisms will be visualized (…), it is like trapped what is going to happen with the voluntary carbon markets in relation to what is regulated by the States, also what is going to happen with fossil fuels ”, he stresses.

For the expert, one of the announcements that she considers important is the one that Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica did, when signing the agreement for the conservation and management of the ecosystems included in the marine corridor of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Migravías Cocos-Galapagos-Malpelo-Coiba.

The Ecuadorian President, Guillermo Lasso, also offered at COP26 the creation of a new marine reserve of 60,000 square kilometers in the Galapagos Islands for the “largest debt-for-conservation swap ever made in the world”. The new reserve would add to the “more than 130,000 square kilometers of its waters that are a protected marine reserve.”

On this issue, Xavier Salgado, A specialist in agroecology and sustainable development, he considers it complex that it can be executed, since “it is unfortunate that the country does not have the technological equipment to be able to operate and counteract everything that the Chinese fishing vessels present in the area do.”

“We do not have the economic resources to be able to sustain this sustainable apparatus,” he says.

Other improvements announced at the meeting and that have been well received is that of India, one of the most polluting countries, on when it expects to reach net zero emissions, something it will do in 2070 (compared to the general objective of 2050), and that will triple its renewable energy sources by 2030, collects EFE.

Another agreement is the one signed by a score of countries, such as the United States, Costa Rica or the United Kingdom, to end the financing of fossil fuels abroad in 2022.

The commitment of 23 countries was also added for the first time not to build new coal-fired power plants, bringing that block to a total of 42 states. Although the USA, India and China are not there, there are Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, Spain or Poland, responsible for 96% of the coal mined in the European Union in 2020.

Twenty-eight governments joined the group of States committed to the gradual elimination of coal from their “energy mix”, bringing their total to 165 and another advance has been an alliance of more than one hundred countries to reduce emissions by 30% this decade. of methane, although without China, India and Russia.

Another point considered a first triumph was the announcement of the agreement between 110 countries, including Brazil or Colombia, to stop deforestation in 2030 and on Saturday, the pact of 45 states that pledged to move towards a more natural and sustainable agriculture, which that will have an impact in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

About these ads, Salgado says that it is very necessary that they become actions and he comments that Latin America has always stood out for wanting to protect its jungle, its protective forests, the Amazon.

“It is key that these agreements reach the international community, to countries like China, Germany, which are the big polluters for their industries. These countries must work with the smallest ones that have given great results like Costa Rica ”, he points out.

The specialist emphasizes that climate change is something emerging and that the contamination of masks, plastic and other things has been added more product of the pandemic and that environmental education, decarbonization, creating cities where everything is close or betting on the sustainable mobility are measures that must be put into practice as soon as possible. (I)