The COP26 climate change conference will provide the international community an opportunity to review its progress since the Paris Agreement, as well as to seek new commitments.
The COP26 climate change conference, which will be held from this past Sunday until 12 November in Glasgow, will be the stage where the international community review progress since the 2015 Paris Agreement. In addition, new commitments will be sought to prevent temperatures at the end of the century from rising more than 1,5 °C relative to pre-industrial values.
These are the commitments and positions of the great blocks of the planet in the face of that great climate conference:
Europe
The European Union has assumed the role of global leader in the climate fight, with its sights set on an energy race for sustainability and towards renewable energy in which it hopes to gain international competitiveness.
The EU has set the goal of reducing its emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990, and achieving climate neutrality. Europe, which is currently designing legislation to meet those goals, urges the rest of the international community to show more climate ambition and financial solidarity.
Although it is no longer part of the EU, the United Kingdom, host country of COP26, is on the same path as the EU bloc and aims to achieve “zero emissions” by 2050, with a reduction path of 68% by 2030 and 76% by 2035, as well as decarbonize the electrical system by 2035.
USA and Canada
Following Donald Trump’s departure from the White House, President Joe Biden has returned the United States to the Paris Agreement and has made the flag of the climate fight.
Biden wants to cut pollutant emissions by up to 53% in 2030, compared to 2005, reach “zero emissions” by mid-century and has announced large investments to develop sustainable industrial sectors such as solar energy or electric vehicles.
China and the other “BRICS”
Much of the summit’s attention will be on China, world’s first CO2 emitter since 2006. Its president, Xi Jinping, will not travel to Glasgow, although he is scheduled to speak by videoconference.
Beijing has raised its targets since the Paris Agreement and hopes to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, even though it expects to mark its emissions peak before 2030.
Recently, China has announced that it will stop investing in coal plants abroad, a gesture that has been interpreted as a signal by international markets.
As for the rest of the large developing economies, the so-called BRICS, Brazil will arrive in Glasgow without its president, Jair Bolsonaro, and with the commitment to end deforestation by 2030 and get rid of CO2 by 2050.
Russia, four emitter of the world and a large producer of fossil fuels whose president, Vladimir Putin, will not go to Glasgow either, aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 79% by 2050, compared to 1990, and reach zero emissions by 2060.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi third emitter of carbon dioxide, has confirmed climate neutrality by 2070, but at the same time has called for more funding from developed countries to meet this challenge.
South Africa, for its part, has revised up its targets to limit its greenhouse gas emissions to 510 million metric tons in 2025 and less than 420 million in 2030, up from 471.6 million tons in 2019.
Pacific Powers
Pre-summit agreements have also proliferated in other large developed economies.
Japan, fifth world emitter of CO2, has drastically revised its targets and aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 46% by 2030, South Korea aims for climate neutrality by 2050 and New Zealand will reduce its emissions by 50% by 2030.
The Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, did not plan to attend the climate event but, in the face of increasing pressure, he has confirmed his attendance and has set 2050 as the horizon to decarbonize the economy of that country that produces gas and coal.
Poor countries
The Least Developed Countries, a bloc that brings together 46 States in Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean with more than 1 billion people, want COP26 to contribute a “fair and ambitious” answer.
“Developed countries are not meeting their current commitment to deliver 100 billion dollars per year by 2020,” recalls this group of States, which underlines that their inhabitants are the ones who “suffer disproportionately from the increasing impacts of climate change. even though they are the least contributors to global warming. “
They ask G20 members to improve their emission reduction plans “in accordance with their responsibilities and capabilities” to decarbonize the economy by 2050.
LA ON
On the eve of COP26, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has celebrated the upward revision of commitments, but has warned that they are insufficient.
UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said that “to have a chance to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, we have eight years to cut greenhouse gas emissions by almost half.”
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
