What are the most important issues at COP26?

The climate summit of United Nations of this year, the COP26, renews an urgent question for the international community: can the world unite to confront the common enemy of global warming before it is too late?

The talks that begin on Sunday in Scotland have always been surrounded by a halo of tension, but the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent economic crisis, and the recent energy crisis have put even more pressure on the two-week meeting.

Here are the top five things to address in Glasgow:

Rich countries are in debt to the poor

Rich countries’ promise to mobilize $ 100 billion annually for the poor to tackle climate change will likely be broken in 2020. Estimates for 2019 show that just $ 80 billion was reached.

Failure to honor the compromise reached in 2009 has sparked deep anger and mistrust among poor nations, with some threatening to block any deal until funds are provided.

There is no established formula to determine how much money each country should contribute to the total figure, or how. But the Washington-based World Resources Institute calculated that only a handful of wealthy nations, including France, Japan, Norway, Germany and Sweden, had made a fair contribution. The United States, Australia, and Canada fell short.

One solution proposed this week is to pay the $ 100 billion per year between 2021 and 2025, and have the previous deficit offset with higher payments later.

Developing countries will use COP26 to push for half the money to go to projects for adaptation to climate change. Currently, most of the financing goes to reducing emissions.

Poor nations also insist that it is time to discuss who will pay for data on habitats and ways of life caused by rising sea levels, increasing desertification and extreme weather.

“Our people are suffering in various ways as a result of a crisis that they had little part in creating,” said Sonam P. Wangdi of Bhutan, who chair the Least Developed Countries group for the summit.

CO2 trading

Among the issues that remained unresolved at the 2015 Paris summit are the rules for international trade in carbon dioxide emission rights, which is seen as a key instrument for harnessing market forces in the fight against global warming.

Neither could the negotiators close this aspect of the Paris regulation in Madrid two years ago. Glasgow will provide a new opportunity. On one side will be the countries that want stricter rules to prevent useless CO2 emission bonds from flooding the market. On the other, the developing countries that insist that the certificates accumulated in previous agreements must be respected.

These standards are crucial because for many nations and companies to achieve “net zero” emissions by mid-century, pollution will have to be offset by capturing an equal amount of carbon dioxide elsewhere, such as in forests or by technological means.

Establishing a truly international market for these bonds also presents an opportunity to raise money through transaction fees, but who will manage them or how remains to be resolved.

Ensure transparency, commit to new goals

Transparency is a key element of the talks, because the voluntary nature of the Paris Climate Agreement means that countries closely watch each other’s progress before raising their targets.

Another debate revolves around the time frame for reporting new pollution reduction targets. Current agreements require developed countries to set new targets every five years, but some participants want to change them to annual commitments, at least until the world is on track to meet the Paris targets.

Methane

Methane, the main component of natural gas and a by-product of some agricultural activities, has been ignored in previous negotiations.

As a greenhouse gas, it is about 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, but it stays in the air for only a decade. Reducing your emissions by fixing pipeline leaks and limiting drilling flaring could be a small but noticeable improvement.

The world cannot solve the climate problem without reducing methane emissions, said Kelly Levin, head of science, data and systems change at the Bezos Earth Fund.

The 45% commitment

A compromise proposal to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030, compared to 2010 levels, is not so much a negotiating point as a goal set by the UN for the summit to be considered a success. Now, emissions are going up, not down.

Cutting emissions in half in the next decade is considered a key step on the road to neutrality by 2050, which scientists say is the only way to reach the Paris agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 ° Celsius. (2.7 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.