COP26 - The United States and China Joint Declaration on Climate Change

As the final hours of negotiation for the COP26 final statement tick down, one of the surprising announcemenst of the past week was the Joint Declaration of the two major emitters and powers, the United States and China on the need for action. Through a 16 paragraph statement, both countries have committed to not only work jointly with each other but to commit to concrete action. The timelines for action oultined including much earlier reduction targets in the 2020s decade, well before 2035 or near the end point of 2050 for near total elimination of carbon emissions.

Amongst the key statements contained in the Declaration is a clear unambiguous recognition of the situation and the need for urgent action -

"The United States and China, alarmed by reports including the Working Group 1 Contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report released on August 9th, 2021, further recognise the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis. They are committed to tackling it through their respective accelerated actions in the critical decade of the 2020s, as well as through cooperation in multilateral processes, including the UNFCCC process, to avoid catastrophic impacts"

"The United States and China recall their firm commitment to work together and with other Parties to strengthen implementation of the Paris Agreement. The two sides also recall the Agreement's aim in accordance with Article 2 to hold global average temperature increase to well below 2 degrees C and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees C. In that regard, they are committed to pursuing such efforts, including by taking enhanced climate actions that raise ambition in the 2020s in the context of the Paris Agreement, with the aim of keeping the above temperature limit within reach and cooperating to identify and address related challenges and opportunities'"

The Joint Declaration can be accessed at this link:

US State Department: Joint Glasgow Declaration on enhancing climate action in the 2020s

COP26 Glasgow - draft conference decision released - strong on empathy, light on agreed action

The major political leaders have left COP26 and the nitty-gritty negotiations between officials has been progressing. But will there be enough action taken to prevent catastrophic temperature change with all that it entails ? 

The draft CMA statement ('CMA' being the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement) has been released. The current draft over 84 clauses covers topics such as the science for effective climate action, adaptation finance, mitigation, technology transfer and capacity-building for adaptation, loss and damage caused by climate change, implementation, and finally collaboration.

Much of the draft statement has the language of diplomacy, with terms such as 'recognises', 'welcomes', 'reaffirms', 'úrges'  Of note, the draft agreement -

• recognizes that limiting global warming to 1.5 °C by 2100 requires rapid, deep and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions, including reducing global carbon dioxide emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 relative to the 2010 level and to net zero around mid-century;

• decides to establish a work programme to urgently scale-up mitigation ambition and implementation during the critical decade of the 2020s;
• resolves to move swiftly with the full implementation and delivery of the Paris Agreement.

There are many placeholders in the draft decision demonstrating there are still multiple points to negotiate.

The draft decision can be found at this link: Overarching decision 1-CMA                    

COP26 Glasgow - reigning in climate change - can it be done ?

COP26 commences on 31 October 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland and concludes on Friday 12 November. But will it achieve the necessary agreement from all the members of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to reduce carbon emissions? This is the 26th meeting and while some progress has been achieved over the years, the target date of zero emissions by 2050 will be too little, too late. Significant reduction is needed much earlier than 29 years into the future and more likely by as early as 2030.

Link to:  COP 26 Glasgow website 

COP26 Glasgow - ongoing optimism but what's the reality ?

The 26th Meeting of the UN Climate Change Council of the Parties (COP) Conference will be held in Glasgow, Scotland between the 31st October to the 12 November 2021. Co-hosted with Italy, this COP was delayed due to COVID-19. The Conference brings together world leaders and negotiators to monitor progress against the existing Paris Agreement and seek a common way forward with reducing the threat caused by climate change. But how effective will COP26 be, compared to the previous conferences ?

COP26 has 4 stated primary objectives -

1. Secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach
2. Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats
3. Mobilise finance
4. Work together to deliver

Participating countries have been asked to bring forward ambitious 2030 emission targets that align with reaching net zero by around 2050. To reach this outcome, countries are being asked to accelerate the phase out of coal, curtail deforestation, speed up the switch to electric vehicles and encourage investment in renewables. While these are all essential steps to take, several countries will still need time to manage the transition particularly ending reliance on coal and  switching to electric vehicles.

Australia regretably lags well behind on almost all of these actions with the exception of investment in renewable energy generation that has increased over the past few years. Electric vehicle promotion has been largely managed by private organisations rather than government and remains woefully inadequate.

The Conference is also seeking to take steps to enable the protection and restoration of ecosystems affected by climate change; build defences, warning systems; and resilient infrastructure and agriculture. These are tall orders for mitigating the effects of the very drastic weather events now taking place across many parts of the planet. Agriculture, for example, may need to adapt with new food crops such as ancient grains in order to be sustainable.

Developed countries are expected to make good on their promise to mobilise at least $100bn in climate finance per year by 2020. It will be interesting to see if this has occured with the impact of COVID-19 still affecting many parts of the world including the developed countries. COP26 is also seeking to finalise the Paris Rulebook that provides the detailed requirements to make the Paris Agreement operational.

Lofty ideals and good intentions. COP26 has the right messages but with the evidence building that a 1.5C increase in temperature is now inevitable, the actions will need to be faster than the rhetoric.

Link to the website: COP26 Glasgow