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COP26 Day 12 | It’s finally crunch time

Euronews Green delivers a Special COP26 email to my mailbox every day during the two weeks it is running (01-12 November 2021). I’ll publish it in its entirety for those who are interested. This is the ninth in the series.

Today’s takeaway

COP26 was due to wrap at 7pm CET today but there is still no white smoke for a final agreement as this newsletter goes to publication. If the almost 200 countries involved in the talks are unable to strike a deal this evening, it is likely COP26 will go into overtime.

A new draft decision published early this morning appeared to water down the language from the previous text calling to end all use of coal and phase out fossil fuel subsidies completely. While the change has sparked criticism from climate activists, some conceded that the draft text at least had the merit of retaining a mention to fossil fuels for the first time in decades of UN climate talks.

The draft cover deal has also retained a core request for countries to set more ambitious climate targets next year. But this request appears to use weaker language than the previous draft, saying the upgraded pledges should take into account “different national circumstances.”

On the positive side, many observers find the new text stronger on climate finance. “We’ve moved from richer nations largely ignoring the pleas of developing countries for promised finance to tackle climate change, to the start of recognition that their calls should be met,” said Greenpeace chief Jennifer Morgan.

“A small number of key issues remain which require our urgent collective attention,” said COP26 chairman Alok Sharma this afternoon as he urged “a final injection of can-do spirit” to deliver on an ambitious climate deal.

Looking ahead, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates will host the next COPs in 2022 and 2023 respectively, following announcements in Glasgow yesterday. An Egyptian official said the North African country would hold the next climate talks “on behalf of Africa.”

In case you weren’t able to follow along on Thursday, here are five key takeaways from Day 11.

At a glance

Latest draft of COP26 deal ‘waters down’ language on ending coal use

The change in wording suggests a shift away from unconditional demands that some fossil fuel exporting nations have objected to.
Read more

What is ecocide and why is it so important that we enshrine it into law?

Ecocide can literally be translated as “home-kill,” making clear its violence and absurdity. It refers to the destruction humans knowingly do to the environment, from deforestation to ocean plastic pollution. So why is it legal?
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Meet the filmmaker who swapped a London flat for an off-grid boat

In the third episode of Euronews Green’s new video series Low Impact Living, we speak with adventurer and filmmaker James Levelle about being a ‘river nomad’.
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Social exclusive

COP26 Day 10 | The beginning of the end

Euronews Green delivers a Special COP26 email to my mailbox every day during the two weeks it is running (01-12 November 2021). I’ll publish it in its entirety for those who are interested. This is the seventh in the series.

Today’s takeaway

COP26 entered a new phase of negotiations on Wednesday after a first draft of the summit’s final decision was circulated early this morning.

​​The seven-page document urges countries to strengthen their climate plans by the end of next year and, for the first time, calls for the phasing out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies.

This draft text isn’t the end of the story yet in Glasgow but it marks the beginning of the end for the summit.

Diplomats from the nearly 200 countries represented at COP26 have now begun to negotiate the text hoping to strike a final deal before proceedings are meant to come to a close on Friday.

But the draft deal has had mixed reviews so far – especially from climate activists. A Greenpeace executive compared it to a “polite request that countries maybe, possibly, do more next year.” That’s “not good enough,” she said.

The COP26 Chairman expects a “near-final text to be published overnight,” as negotiations continue.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the trip to Glasgow to press negotiators to find a compromise. “We know what needs to be done but we just need the courage to get on and do it,” he said.

Today was also Transport Day at COP26 and there was a raft of announcements about zero-emissions vehicles.

A group of countries and companies signed a pledge to switch to emissions-free cars by 2040 and by no later than 2035 in leading auto markets.

Critics pointed out that large countries including the US, Germany, China and Japan stayed out of the deal, along with some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers.

The International Energy Agency says that 60 per cent of new car sales need to be battery-electric by 2030 and internal combustion engine cars need to be phased out by 2035 to keep below 1.5C. Many believe this pledge is not ambitious enough to achieve that.

If you weren’t able to follow along on Tuesday, here are five takeaways from COP26 Gender Day.

Some additional bad news

Australia among nations trying to soften COP26 declaration

Australia has joined a coalition of countries working to water down a key proposal from the Glasgow climate summit which would pressure the Morrison government to overturn its opposition to a more ambitious 2030 emissions reductions target. (From: The Canopy, Greenpeace Australia Pacific)

Some additional good news

‘Existential crisis’: United States and China stun COP26 with joint climate change pact

China and the United States have made a shock joint statement at the Glasgow climate talks, declaring climate change to be an existential crisis demanding co-operation between the superpowers.
(From: The Canopy, Greenpeace Australia Pacific)

At a glance

UPDATED: First draft of COP26 climate deal is released

The seven-page document is the first version of the agreement that will outline how countries plan to cut emissions and keep global warming below 1.5°C.
So what does it say?
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Meet the climate group who have published a guide on how to sue Shell – and win

Their victory was the first judgement where a multinational corporation was held responsible for its contribution to climate change.
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This cheeky 12-year-old activist is the perfect antidote to COP26 doom and gloom

Francisco Vera is not your ordinary kid. The Colombian primary school student is among the foremost climate activists at COP26, where he is calling for world leaders to include young people in the ongoing talks and negotiations.
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Social exclusive

COP 26 Day 3 | Who’s paying for it?

Euronews Green delivers a Special COP26 email to my mailbox every day during the two weeks it is running (01-12 November 2021). I’ll publish it in its entirety for those who are interested. This is the second in the series.

Today’s takeaway

With world leaders gone and their big speeches delivered, COP26 negotiators turned their focus to money on Tuesday.

Cash pledges from both governments and the private sector poured in as COP26 Finance Day wrapped up.

The UK presidency said that wealthy countries would deliver on their promise to provide $100 billion a year (€86 billion) to finance climate-related projects in the developing world, after failing to meet the initial 2020 target.

And in one of today’s most discussed announcements, the world’s largest financial players pledged a massive $130 trillion (​​€112 trillion) of private capital to decarbonise the economy, while the UK vowed to become “the world’s first net-zero aligned financial centre.”

But climate activists were calling for scrutiny of investors’ motives, warning that the same financial players who profited from fossil fuels were now posing as green champions.

If you weren’t able to follow along on Tuesday, here are the six key takeaways from day 2 of COP26.

At a glance

Don’t blame the climate crisis on India and China, campaigners urge

The Indian Prime Minister’s announcement that the country will reach net zero emissions by 2070 has been met with mixed reactions from COP-watchers. But environmental campaigners say it is “deeply unfair” to blame middle-income countries for the climate crisis.
Read more

What is the ‘carbon budget’, the latest term coming out of COP26 talks?

“Carbon budgets” is one of the most-often mentioned terms at the COP26 talks in Glasgow, but many are wondering who set them and what role they play in fighting climate change.
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These countries are forcing banks to reveal their climate impact

New Zealand has introduced a new law that forces its financial institutions to disclose their climate impact. These other countries have already taken similar steps
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Social exclusive

It’s been over a year since I posted under this heading and I always edited the text I based the article upon to prevent Politics Plus from getting into copyright trouble. This time, however, I thought the full text was too important to cut down and to be honest I didn’t have the time to do all the editing either.

So I’ve copied the full editorial of Euronews’ The Briefing. As yet there’s no link for this article to Euronews, probably because it is still in the very early hours of the morning in Europe.

COP26 is not about saving the planet. It’s about saving civilisation 

By Euronews Brussels bureau

All eyes are on Glasgow.

World leaders are days away from descending upon the Scottish city to attend the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). As global temperatures quickly approach the 1.5°C threshold above pre-industrial levels, the window for opportunity to fight climate change is desperately closing.

For the next two weeks, negotiators will discuss how to transform our industries, energy systems, financial institutions, food chains, means of transport, urban areas and even societal structures. Do we still have time left to save the planet?

“The planet has been around for four and a half billion years. She was perfectly happy before we ever got here, and she will be perfectly happy if we’re idiots enough to pull the ejector seat and leave.”

These are the blunt words of Christiana Figueres, one of the main architects behind the 2015 Paris Agreement. The deal is today considered a monumental achievement but its rulebook still requires further fleshing out – one of the main objectives of COP26.

“This is truly not about saving the planet – it’s about saving something that is incredibly unique in the evolution of the planet,” Figureres told our colleagues from Euronews Green.

“A very, very short time period – 12,000 years – has allowed for the human species to flourish, and build the ‘civilisation’ that we have now,” she said. “If there’s anything that we want to rescue from that, then we have to be able to get back to a stable environment.”

After 15 years representing Costa Rica, Figueres was made the UN climate secretary in July 2010. Her appointment came in the wake of the failed Copenhagen Summit (COP15), where talks had fallen apart without any meaningful commitments. Figueres spent the next few years reviving negotiations, eventually paving the way for COP21 in 2015, when the legally-binding Paris Accord was adopted by 196 parties.

“[It] was not an agreement by consensus,” explains Figueres, “[it] was an agreement by unanimous decision, which has never happened before in the UN. It was the one agreement that was unanimous, and they all decided that they would go to net-zero by 2050.”

Activists have frequently criticised the Paris text for its alleged lack of ambition: its core goal is to keep global warming below 2°C, ideally 1.5°C, in line with pre-industrial levels. Science today indicates the effects of 2°C will be already catastrophic.

“I think the Paris Agreement is still out there on the horizon as being incredibly ambitious because it [does] three things: It establishes the finish line, which is net-zero by 2050. It establishes the fact that there are very different starting points for each country, and each country will travel differently at a different speed. And then to establish the 2°C, with an aspirational 1.5°C. It’s actually quite futuristic!”

The upcoming COP26 is the next major diplomatic milestone in meeting the Paris goals and – as August’s IPCC report clearly laid out – we’re a long way off target. Having worked in diplomacy for many years, Figueres is closely familiar with the challenges that negotiators will face in Glasgow but still advises patience and positivity.

“It’s precisely because of reports like [the IPCC one]. Precisely because of the melting of the ice in Greenland. Precisely because of all the destruction that we have seen this summer that we have to stay stubborn and optimistic,” she says, expressing “anger” at her own generation’s idleness.

“Our inability and our stubbornness of not engaging in climate action in a timely fashion is what has brought us here today. No longer facing climate change, but facing a climate emergency – climate chaos!”

The situation has turned so critical, so frantic and urgent, that many of us are losing hope. Reading the news, one tends to believe our leaders will never have the courage to rise to the occasion and take the decisive action that is needed to curb emissions.

In an emotional moment of the interview, Figueres explained how much she can relate to that feeling of cynicism and hopelessness. In her view, there’s a bus coming towards our children, and we have no choice but to throw ourselves in front of it.

“We basically have two options. Either we can sit back and say ‘okay, well… you know we’re too late.’ Or we can say ‘oh my gosh, we’re totally running out of time and we have to stand up!’” she says.

“And in my book, we don’t have any other option.”