“Global emissions must decrease, immediately, quickly, with total urgency.”
After the agreement reached ‘in extremis’ by almost 200 countries on Saturday in Glasgow, now the world must act as quickly as possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and move away from “catastrophic” global warming, warn scientists and politicians.
After two weeks of negotiations in whole days until the last second, Almost all nations on the planet agreed to a commitment to accelerate the fight against rising temperatures.
But, although each additional tenth of a degree Celsius has important consequences, the decisions of this “Glasgow Pact” will not lead to a warming limited to 1.5 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era, the most ambitious goal of the Paris agreement, which in 2015 laid the foundations for climate action.
“The climate catastrophe continues to knock on our doors,” warned the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres. “We have kept + 1.5 ° C within our reach (…) but the pulse is weak,” declared the president of COP26, the British Alok Sharma.
“Global emissions must decrease, immediately, quickly, with total urgency”, since they continue to increase, implored Joeri Rogelj, from Imperial College London, considering that “science has never before been so present in decisions of a COP ”.
Close coal-fired plants
Glasgow, cradle of the coal-fired industrial revolution, will nevertheless forever be the city where for the first time at the highest level, after 26 conferences, the words “fossil fuels” and “coal”, which designate the main causes of warming global have been condemned on paper.
“This will come very late, but it really is welcome.”said Chris Littlecott, an energy transition specialist with the E3G think tank. “In 2021 we saw the closure of the tap for coal financing, COP26 inaugurated a new chapter, that of accelerating the closure of existing coal-fired power plants.”
Naming coal and oil was finally something painful, India and China managed at the last minute, in the same room where the final hammer blow would resonate, to further attenuate the formulation and that it is about “reduction” and not “exit” of coal, causing Alok Sharma, with tears in his eyes, to apologize to the whole world.
This turnaround in China took place after it announced on Wednesday a surprise agreement with the United States, the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the Asian giant. Joe Biden, who at the beginning of the COP criticized his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, for his absence in Glasgow, will hold a video conference with him on Monday.
“Indescribable suffering”
“Beijing must, in the near future, fulfill the promises of the Glasgow climate agreement by setting a date to end the use of coal in its territory,” according to Byford Tsang of E3G.
“How countries will establish new cooperation to achieve faster action in the next twelve months will be the real Glasgow approval test.”, synthesizes the E3G, also recalling the other promises of COP26 regarding the reduction of methane emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas, deforestation, or the financing of fossil fuels.
“If all countries, particularly those that are large emitters, limit themselves to their policies of small steps and ‘business as usual’, they will condemn current and future generations to live in a world of indescribable suffering and damage,” warns the UCS (Union of Concerned Scientists).
These sufferings already experienced by the poorest countries, which are the least responsible for global warming but are in the front line regarding its impact, and who struggled in Glasgow to obtain specific financing to try to repair their “damages and losses”.
Finally, they reluctantly gave in, agreeing to continue the dialogue so that the progress made in the fight against global warming is not lost.
“We always knew that Glasgow was not the finish line”US envoy John Kerry said Saturday night.
Twelve months “separate” Scotland from Egypt, where the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Climate Convention (COP27) will be held. (I)
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